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IMMIGRATION-WASHINGTON Apr-11-2006 (1,040 words) With photos. xxxn
Hundreds of thousands flock to Washington to speak up for immigrants
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As many as 500,000 people left work early or took advantage of spring break from school and thronged to the National Mall April 10 to voice their support for immigrants, chanting the words "Si, se puede" and "We are Americans, too."
Bracketed on one end by the Capitol and on the other by the Washington Monument, people with accents from Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru waved American flags and signs reading "We are America," as speakers on a stage blocks away called on elected officials to fix problems with the legal immigration system and provide a way for the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country to legalize their status.
The chant that first became popular during the 1960s' farmworker protests led by Cesar Chavez, "Si, se puede," which translates as "Yes, you can" or "Yes, it's possible," echoed again and again as immigrants formed the base of one of the largest rallies in Washington in recent years.
"I look across this historic gathering and I see the future of America," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., co-sponsor with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., of an immigration bill promoted on signs carried by many in the crowd. "Today we stand together as brothers and sisters to shape America's destiny -- old Americans, new Americans, future Americans -- all joined together for the common good."
Kennedy said the debate over immigration legislation "goes to the heart of who we are as Americans. It will determine who can earn the privilege of citizenship. It will determine our strength in separating those who would harm from those who contribute to our values. It will determine the course of our national progress and economic growth."
Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington recalled that about 50 years ago an earlier archbishop, Cardinal Patrick O'Boyle, addressed a crowd on the Mall calling for justice and equality for African-Americans.
"That struggle is not over and we must still fight against racial discrimination in our land," Cardinal McCarrick said.
A half-century later, "we gather in prayerful protest against another discrimination, that of the immigrant who comes to our country seeking a better life for himself and his family," he continued. "In unity with the memory of Cardinal O'Boyle, the Catholic Church in Washington raises its voice once again in a call for comprehensive immigration reform legislation."
Cardinal McCarrick prayed "for those who remain in the shadows of our society, for those who are unable to defend their rights or give their full talents to their communities without fear." He also prayed for those "who feel compelled to risk their lives in crossing the vast desert" and that elected officials may have "the wisdom that they may understand the need for change and the courage that they might accomplish it."
Washington government agencies no longer provide official crowd estimates for events, but organizers said there were as many as 500,000 participants. The city's transit system reported that the number of people using the subway system was the second largest in history, with more than 820,000 people riding the trains, 137,000 more than on an average Monday at this time of year.
Midway through the scheduled two-hour length of the rally, hundreds of people continued to pour onto the Mall from the nearest Metro station. At about that point, several thousand more people joined the rally, after marching from a park two miles north of the White House.
Others came by carpool and busload, some via transportation arranged by churches, unions and immigrants' rights organizations. By 6 p.m., the crowd stretched from the stage at Seventh Street beyond the Smithsonian Metro station at 12th Street, and more people were still arriving.
A group of Salvadoran-American teens from Woodbridge, Va., said they came primarily to support fellow Latinos.
"We are the ones who make people's houses, who do the jobs other people don't do," said Veronica Artiga, a student at Freedom High School in Woodbridge. Artiga, her sister, Graciela, and their friends, Jonathan, Sonia and Jocelyn Benitez, said they had been involved in protests organized at their schools, but that they came to the rally with their parents.
Standing near them, Romel Palomino said he arrived in the United States from El Salvador 26 years ago. Since then he has held jobs as a dishwasher and a housecleaner and has done yard maintenance. Now a legal resident whose children are U.S. citizens, he currently drives a cement mixer for a concrete company.
Palomino said he asked for the day off to join the rally because he wants politicians and the American public to understand that "we're people who just want to work. ... We're not criminals."
Four members of the Strader family from Syracuse, N.Y., also carried blue "We are Americans" signs, but their fair skin and light hair made them conspicuous in the mostly Latino crowd.
Paul and Shelley Strader said they brought their sons, Connor and Ryan, when they heard about the rally during their family vacation to Washington's historical and political monuments.
"I told them, 'This is what it's all about,'" Paul Strader said. "They had to see what an event like this is like."
Gina Morgana, a native of Bolivia who now lives in Silver Spring, Md., said she came because she's tired of the way immigrants are depicted, especially recent criticism of people who carry their national flags at events like the one she joined.
"We're proud of this country, my son was born here," she said. "But we're proud also of our own countries. They'll always be part of our hearts."
Another family carried two signs, one reading "First-generation Mexican-American and my vote will count in 2008," and the other, carried by a younger girl, reading "Second-generation Mexican-American and my vote will count in 2016."
Trina Sanchez, a Washington native who is married to an immigrant from Puebla, Mexico, said that if it were not for the more relaxed immigration laws of the 1960s "I wouldn't be here," because her African-American father would never have met her Mexican-immigrant mother.
Sanchez' 10-year-old daughter, Cheley, carried the "2016" sign. Her aunt, Claudia Vasquez, an immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, carried the other.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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