Immigrants rally for rights, unity
DIANNE SOLÍS and STELLA M. CHÁVEZ
The Dallas Morning News
Apr 3, 2007
An immigrant-rights rally on Sunday to mark the immense social protest a year ago was lower in turnout but more focused in its message: become a citizen, vote or learn to lobby.
And the speech that roused the crowd at the Dallas City Hall plaza came from departing Catholic Bishop Charles Grahmann, whose first " Sí, se puede" – the "Yes, we can" chant from the Chicano labor movement – was followed by a chorus of echoes.
Law enforcement estimates of the crowd varied from 2,000 to 6,000 – a fraction of the attendance at the 2006 march, believed to be the largest social protest in Texas history.
"There are people who are creating racism and division today in the community," said the Dallas bishop, who retires this month. "And that can't be permitted."
The bishop told the crowd members in Spanish that they had gathered to push "our federal government" for changes in immigration law. "The immigrants who are here illegally need the right to get papers, and citizenship, in this great country. ... Sí, se puede."
Citizenship and voter registration booths had prominent positions on the plaza. Activist Elizabeth Villafranca weaved among the crowd with her clipboard, looking to register new voters.
"I was one of the apathetic voters," said Ms. Villafranca, who has been fighting the Farmers Branch ordinance that would ban apartment rentals to most illegal immigrants. "But with immigration, that's all changed."
The rally had its detractors. Less than a dozen people gathered across the street from the plaza. One held a sign with a man wearing a sombrero that read: "No way, Jose." Other signs read: "Stop taking our jobs" and "Children of an invading force are NOT citizens."
Said one counterprotester, who asked not to be identified: "The problem is sheer numbers. There are too many coming in too quick. It's got to slow down."
And though the Texas director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps lives in nearby Arlington, Clark Kirby didn't attend the rally to counterprotest. "We don't do that," he said. "That is confrontational."
Mr. Kirby said illegal immigration was out of control, but rallies are a way for people to make their opinions known. Instead, Mr. Kirby was in the Rio Grande Valley on Sunday, leading a semiannual "border watch."
Last year, police officials estimated that 350,000 to 500,000 people took to the streets of downtown Dallas. At that time, many were angered by federal legislation that would have made felons of those in the U.S. illegally. The bill never made it to a vote of the full Congress.
And last year's Palm Sunday event was preceded by rolling protests and student walkouts in such cities as Los Angeles and Chicago, where labor and immigration activism have deep roots. Many in Dallas were taken aback in late March 2006 when high school students here staged three days of walkouts in defense of illegal immigrants, or as some of them put it, their parents.
Juan Hernández, who served in the administration of Mexico's former President Vicente Fox, urged those who were in the U.S. legally to become U.S. citizens and to register to vote. And then he urged the crowd to lobby, to make phone calls to federal lawmakers and to the White House. Holding his cellphone to the microphone, he called the White House and said, in Spanish, "I support immigration reform, Mr. Bush."
Former state legislator Domingo García hit the same lobbying theme. "If it is not now, cuando? If it is not this President Bush, who? ... It is time for this Congress to pass immigration reform."
Other speakers included Dallas City Council member Don Hill, who is running for mayor; Casey Thomas, president of the Dallas NAACP; and Gustavo Jimenez, the Duncanville High School student who helped kick off the student walkouts last March.
Coty Rodriguez Anderson, a counselor at a Dallas high school, called for immigration raids to stop. "The children must stop fearing that they will come to an empty house every day," she said.
Most of the crowd carried U.S. flags, though there was a sprinkling of Mexican flags. And the soundtrack ranged from old Santana tunes to even-older Mexican classics to last year's pop hit "Mojado," about an illegal immigrant. As the rally began, one speaker called out chants of "Stop the raids" and "Justicia para familias."
Rally participants marched in a circle around the City Hall plaza chanting, "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido" – the people united will never be defeated.
Vendors sold ice cream, American flags and magnets that said, "Latinos love America."
Ice cream vendors, or paleteros, pushed their carts and rang their bells among those marching around City Hall.
Said one vendor, "If I were here legally, I wouldn't be a paletero."Delores Thompson, a Jamaican immigrant, said she showed up at the rally with a friend because "we love Mexicans, we support the Mexicans." The Parkland Memorial Hospital emergency room nurse said she attends to legal and illegal immigrants all day long. "And Mexicans will pay their bills," she added.
Mario and Carmen Lopez of Irving unfurled a large yellow banner they made that proclaimed "Immigration Reform Now" and held it up for much of the rally. The couple came from Mexico in 1995. But the U.S. citizens were only able to legally bring their oldest sons, who are 13 and 15, to the country last year. Ms. Lopez said she did not want to bring her children illegally since it is so dangerous.
But she has many other relatives who are illegal. "I have a niece who graduated from North Dallas High School who's married with children," Ms. Lopez said. "She doesn't have her papers. I have another niece who's 26 and she came when she was 14 and has the same problem."
