Church men and statesmen. Senior and students. Communists and capitalists. Hundreds of Ithacans and local students of all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds gathered on the Commons yesterday to protest proposed bills which would crack down on illegal immigrants in part of a national “Day Without an Immigrant” boycott.
In Los Angeles and Chicago, Houston and New Orleans, the movement attracted widespread participation despite divisions among activists over whether a boycott would send the right message to Washington lawmakers considering sweeping immigration changes.
Nathan Shinagawa ’05 (D-District 4), one of the local speakers, told the crowd of over 350 that “being an immigrant is the ultimate sacrifice.” He said immigrants gave up their old lives for a chance at new ones. He urged those engaged in the debate to “focus on our American story,” on America as a land of immigrants.
Dan Lamb, a legislative aid to U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY, 22nd District), also spoke out against movements to restrict immigration and legalizing current illegal immigrants.
“We are simply asking America to honor its roots,” he said. “Last time I checked, we are a nation of immigrants.”
He said that even the more modest proposals put forward by President George W. Bush were too harsh on those hoping to become full citizens.
“Creating a police state is no substitute for immigration reform,” he said.
Many of the speakers referred to the case of Bruce McDonald, an immigrant from Jamaica who is currently facing deportation over 1991 firearms charges and vacated drug possession charges. He is a father of four with another child on the way, and many Ithacans have rallied behind his cause.
Boycott Shuts Down State Assembly
Dozens of lawmakers joined immigrants and their supporters in the boycott, shutting down the New York State Assembly.
Lawmakers marched out of the Assembly shortly after the Democrat-led chamber went into session around 3:15 p.m. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had agreed to adjourn the session before the walkout, spokeswoman Sisa Moyo said.
“This is not an act of defiance,” said Assemblyman Peter Rivera, a Bronx Democrat and native of Puerto Rico who moved to New York City as a child. “This is a way of bringing the issue to the fore. We as a community are entitled to certain respects, we are entitled to certain rights.”
Meanwhile, thousands took part in rallies across upstate. An estimated 6,000 marched in Newburgh, and another 1,000 or so marched in Poughkeepsie. Many Latino-owned businesses in both cities were closed for the day.
“This town was pretty much shut down,” said Richard Rivera, president of Latinos Unidos in Newburgh. “One theme of the march was, ‘What are we gonna do tomorrow?'”
National Movement Causes Widespread Disruption
Nationally, over a million Hispanics and their supporters joined in the protest, succeeding in slowing or shutting many farms, factories, markets and restaurants.
“We are the backbone of what America is, legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter,” said Melanie Lugo, who with her husband and their third-grade daughter joined a rally of some 75,000 in Denver. “We butter each other’s bread. They need us as much as we need them.”
Two major rallies in Los Angeles attracted an estimated 400,000, according to the mayor’s office. Police in Chicago estimated 400,000 people marched through the downtown business district.
Tens of thousands more marched in New York, along with about 15,000 in Houston, 50,000 in San Jose and 30,000 more across Florida. Smaller rallies in cities from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to Arizona and South Dakota attracted hundreds not thousands.
In all, police departments in more than two dozen U.S. cities contacted by The Associated Press gave crowd estimates that totaled about 1.1 million marchers.
The mood was jubilant. Marchers standing shoulder-to-shoulder filmed themselves on home video and families sang and chanted and danced in the streets wearing American flags as capes and bandanas. In most cities, those who rallied wore white to signify peace and solidarity.
In Los Angeles, the city streets were a carpet of undulating white that stretched for several miles, with palm trees and grass-covered medians poking through a sea of humanity. Marchers holding U.S. flags aloft sang the national anthem in English as traditional Mexican dancers wove through the crowd.
In Chicago, illegal immigrants from Ireland and Poland marched alongside Hispanics as office workers on lunch breaks clapped. In Phoenix, protesters formed a human chain in front of Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores. Protesters in Tijuana, Mexico, blocked vehicle traffic heading to San Diego at the world’s busiest border crossing.
Many carried signs in Spanish that translated to “We are America” and “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.” Others waved Mexican flags or wore hats and scarves from their native countries. Some chanted “USA” while others shouted slogans, such as “Si se puede!” Spanish for “Yes, it can be done!” Others were more irreverent, wearing T-shirts that read “I’m illegal. So what?”
The White House reacted coolly.
“The president is not a fan of boycotts,” said press secretary Scott McClellan. “People have the right to peacefully express their views, but the president wants to see comprehensive reform pass the Congress so that he can sign it into law.”
The boycott was organized by immigrant activists angered by federal legislation that would criminalize illegal immigrants and fortify the U.S-Mexico border. Its goal was to raise awareness about immigrants’ economic power.
Industries that rely on immigrant workers were clearly affected, though the impact was not uniform.
Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, shuttered about a dozen of its more than 100 plants and saw “higher-than-usual absenteeism” at others. Most of the closures were in states such as Iowa and Nebraska. Eight of 14 Perdue Farms chicken plants also closed for the day.
Goya Foods, which bills itself as the nation’s largest Hispanic-owned food chain, suspended delivery everywhere except Florida, saying it wanted to express solidarity with immigrants who are its primary customers.
None of the 175 seasonal laborers who normally work Mike Collins’ 500 acres of Vidalia onion fields in southeastern Georgia showed up.
“We need to be going wide open this time of year to get these onions out of the field,” he said. “We’ve got orders to fill. Losing a day in this part of the season causes a tremendous amount of problems.”
It was the same story in Indiana, where the owner of a landscaping business said he was at a loss. About 25 Hispanic workers – 90 percent of the field work force – never reported yesterday to Salsbery Brothers Landscaping.
“We’re basically shut down in our busiest month of the year,” said owner Jeff Salsbery. “It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars.”
In the Los Angeles area, restaurants and markets were dark and truckers avoided the nation’s largest shipping port. About one in three small businesses was closed downtown, including the cluttered produce market and fashion district.
The construction and nursery industries were among the hardest hit by the work stoppage in Florida.
Bill Spann, executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Florida said more than half the workers at construction sites in Miami-Dade County did not show up yesterday.
“If I lose my job, it’s worth it,” said Jose Cruz, an immigrant from El Salvador who protested with several thousand others in the rural Florida city of Homestead rather than work his construction job. “It’s worth losing several jobs to get my papers.”
But the effect was minimal in some places. On Manhattan’s busy 14th Street, only a few shops were closed, including a Spanish-language bookstore and a tiny Latin American restaurant.
The impact on some school systems was significant. In the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District, which is 73 percent Hispanic, about 72,000 middle and high school students were absent – roughly one in every four.
In San Francisco, Benita Olmedo pulled her 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son from school.
“I want my children to know their mother is not a criminal,” said Olmedo, a nanny who came here illegally in 1986 from Mexico. “I want them to be as strong I am. This shows our strength.”
Truck traffic at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach _ the nation’s largest port complex _ was off 90 percent, said spokeswoman Theresa Adams Lopez.
Some of the rallies drew small numbers of counter-protesters, including one in Pensacola, Fla.
“You should send all of the 13 million aliens home, then you take all of the welfare recipients who are taking a free check and make them do those jobs,” said Jack Culberson, a retired Army colonel who attended the Pensacola rally. “It’s as simple as that.”
Jesse Hernandez, who owns a Birmingham, Ala., company that supplies Hispanic laborers to companies around the Southeast, shut down his four-person office in solidarity with the demonstrations.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “human nature is that you don’t really know what you have until you don’t have it.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
Archived article by Michael Morisy
Sun Managing Editor