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Posted: Monday, 01 May 2006 5:06PM
Marchers Rally For Immigrant Rights
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CHICAGO (AP) -- Under gray skies, at least 400,000 immigrants and their supporters flooded downtown and a lakefront park Monday with colorful signs, banners and flags in an effort to show - as one popular message read - ``We are America.''
The Chicago march and rally are part of a national day of action in support of immigrant rights. Through prayers, demonstrations and boycotts across the country, participants aimed to show their support for a chance at U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants and opposition to stricter immigration laws being debated in Congress.
While the crowd was overwhelming Hispanic, it also included Irish citizens staying in the country on extended tourist's visas, young people honoring their grandparents who emigrated from Eastern Europe, and a group of Muslims who conducted their afternoon prayers on the grass in Grant Park.
``I want people to know that I'm not a murderer. I don't steal. I pay my taxes, and I'd just like to be like any other American,'' said Andrzej Srebro, 25, an undocumented Polish worker who took the day off from his job at an auto body shop to attend the rally.
Not everyone who observed the rally supported it. Some bystanders said they were disturbed by the number of foreign flags, while the White House reacted coolly to the national boycott aspect that was designed to demonstrate the economic muscle of immigrants.
In Chicago, organizers never called on anyone to skip school or refuse to go to work on Monday.
While Chicago police estimated the crowd at about 400,000, event organizers said the turnout was more like 700,000. There were no arrests or incidents, said Deputy Superintendent Charles Williams.
``It was a very peaceful march,'' he said.
After gathering at a park west of downtown, then marching through the business district of the Loop, the event ended with a massive rally in Grant Park, about 3 miles from its start point.
Along the route, they marched past a sculpture memorializing a bloody 1886 labor rally in Haymarket Square, considered by union supporters a crucible in the labor movement's history.
In the downtown area, the crowd stretched from building to building, sidewalk to sidewalk. The demonstrators' chants - including ``USA'' and ``Si se puede!,'' Spanish for ``Yes, it can be done!'' - were deafening as they bounced off skyscrapers in the cavernous Loop.
When the crowd reached the park, a group of about 100 Muslims conducted their afternoon prayers on the outfield of a baseball diamond. Other participants held hands and signs to form a ring of privacy around the two lines of men and two lines of women who faced east toward Mecca.
Jheaneth Floyd brought her children Nicole, 11, and David, 10, to the rally, and all three wore bright red hats reading ``Panama.'' Floyd emigrated from the central American nation to Chicago 15 years ago and spent about a decade as an undocumented employee, working as a waitress, hairdresser and nurse.
``Those years were so difficult and now that I'm legal, I want to help all these people get the opportunity I did,'' Floyd said.
But a local offshoot of a national group that uses volunteer civilians to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border for illegal immigrants had harsh words for the rally.
Rosanna Pulido, director of the Illinois Minutemen Project, said group members conducted several media interviews Monday, but otherwise, ``Our plans are to work and pay taxes so the illegals will have free health care and education.''
Smaller protests were held elsewhere in Illinois, including Bloomington, Carbondale, Champaign, Joliet and Rockford. In Peoria, about 200 people marched peacefully through downtown, even stopping for ``don't walk'' lights at intersections.
``This is not a protest. This is a presence to show that we exist and we do everything everyone else does - shop, pay taxes,'' said Arnalfo Carranza, a resident of Washington, Ill., and native of Mexico who became an American citizen in 1967.
In Chicago, the rally and march were planned by a coalition of groups representing the city's Arab, Asian, black, eastern European and Hispanic communities, along with labor groups and religious leaders.
Some politicians and activists called on demonstrators to carry American flags to show support for the United States. While most flags in Chicago were the Stars and Stripes, participants also carried flags from Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Columbia, Poland, Ecuador, Morocco and dozens of other countries. One man wrapped himself in both the Mexican and American flags.
Many participants carried signs, including ones reading ``We are workers, not criminals,'' ``Immigrant's rights are worker's rights,'' and ``The pilgrims didn't have papers.''
Hector Escobar decided to close his company, General Warehousing and Transportation, Inc., to allow his employees - about 180 of whom are immigrants - time off to attend.
While he's a business owner now, two decades ago, Escobar was a scared young man hiding in the trunk of a car crossing the border from Mexico.
``I know how hard it is to come here, to be hungry, and to work for just $120 a week,'' the Chicago resident said of his first job in the United States at a restaurant.
But along the march route, Maya Vuckovik, a Chicago commodities trader, said she didn't agree with immigrants coming to the United States illegally.
``My parents came from Serbia and did it the legal way,'' Vuckovik said as she stood outside the Chicago Board of Trade. ``There's a legal way and an illegal way to emigrate. The illegal way can destroy our economy in the long run.''
Meanwhile, grade school teacher Erick Chavarria, 23, held a Mexican flag and wore a bandanna and jacket with the Costa Rican flag, representing his family's heritage.
``This isn't pro-Latino. It's pro-immigration,'' said Chavarria, who said he encouraged his students from Eastern Europe and other non-Latinos to attend the march. ``Immigration rights is important for every American.''
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was one of several politicians who spoke to the group before the march began.
``To those who think we can simply seal off the borders and deport people and who appeal to our worst instincts, I say - There is nothing to fear. People who come here come for the same reasons that generations of people have come here for, because they want a better future for their children,'' he said.
The seeds for Monday's rally were planted after a demonstration at Chicago's federal plaza on March 10 unexpectedly drew more than 100,000 people. Similar rallies have been in cities across the country since then, casting a national spotlight on the debate over immigration reform.
``I just hope people will see what we're doing and realize that if these people work hard and pay their taxes, they should be treated just like any other American,'' said Norma Barrer, 36, a naturalized citizen from Mexico who took her son out of grade school to participate in the event.
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Contents of this site are Copyright © 2006 by WBBM. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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