2006: A year of marches over immigration

December 27, 2006
By Ryan Pagelow
Although there still isn't a solution to the nation's growing undocumented immigrant population, this past year will be remembered as a year when immigrant rights activists and their opponents were most vocal.

The protests began in response to proposed legislation, which would raise penalties for illegal immigration and classify unauthorized immigrants and anyone who helped them enter or remain in the US as felons.

Chicago initiated the national campaign when 100,000 immigrants rallied downtown on March 10. Other marches followed in dozens of cities around the nation, including a student march in Waukegan, and culminated on May 1 with a boycott and marches. In Chicago alone more than 400,000 took to the streets.


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Minutemen in Waukegan, church prevents clash

Activists who patrolled the Mexican border and oppose illegal immigration from the Illinois Minuteman Project held a rally in Waukegan on Jan. 29 in a grassy lot near Holy Family Parish to protest the church which helped immigrants air some of their complaints in a recent meeting with city officials.
Hoping to avoid a potentially volatile confrontation, Holy Family discouraged the community from demonstrating against the Minutemen, and instead offered the 40 demonstrators affiliated with the Minutemen coffee and doughnuts.


Lake County sends busloads to march in support of immigrant rights

Thousands of Lake County residents marched in Chicago on March 10 to show support for immigrant rights. They took off work and gathered at churches and parking lots from Wauconda to Waukegan to board buses headed to Chicago. When the buses were full, they loaded into taxi vans and took Metra trains downtown in one of the largest immigrant mobilization efforts Lake County has seen.

Students march for legalization for undocumented immigrants

More than 150 students skipped class on April 13 in order to march around Waukegan for a few hours in support of immigrant rights.
The students, mostly from Waukegan High School but also from Zion-Benton Township High School and Jefferson and Abbott middle schools, organized the event by text messaging each other and passing notes. It follows a morning demonstration in Yeoman Park by about 200 students at Webster Middle School on April 10 which was part of a "national day of action for immigration justice."


Round Lake businesses close in support of immigrant rally

Immigrants didn't bake bread, cut hair, stock produce or cook food in a number of businesses in Round Lake and Waukegan on May 1 as they closed for the day to let their employees march in Chicago in support of granting legal residency to the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Organizers of the national "Day Without Immigrants" called for a boycott and asked immigrants not to go to work that day, while local organizers held a march.

A dozen Latino businesses in Round Lake united to pass out flyers advising their clients that they would be closed May 1.


World Cup mania

Everything stops for the World Cup everywhere it seems, except in the United States. But for many Mexican immigrants, raised with World Cup mania, life stopped here too briefly in order to watch Mexico beat Iran 3 to 1 on Sunday. Some local soccer teams forfeited their scheduled games that morning in Waukegan while Mexico played. Although both Mexico and United States didn't move on.

Immigrant Aid Center opens in Waukegan

Immigrants now only need to go to one building in Waukegan to take citizenship classes, get legal assistance or apply for legal residency and citizenship. Holy Family Parish is coordinating all the church's immigrant assistance programs into one center on Waukegan's south side.
The former Lake Shore Catholic Academy building, located at 510 10th Street in Waukegan, is now home to the National Immigrant Justice Center, the New Americans Initiative programs and HACES, the Hispanic American Community Education and Services organization.


Latino pride fest

In a year when immigration reached the forefront of national debate, Waukegan held its largest Mexican Independence Day parade attracting more than 6,000 people in September. Floats and groups in traditional costumes stretched along Washington Street from Lewis Avenue to Sheridan Road.
About 60 groups participated including Mexican immigrant social clubs, businesses, politicians, car clubs and schools. For the first time, immigrants from Tonatico, Mexico, simulated a battle for Mexican independence between Spanish colonial troops and an alliance of Mexican peasants.


Jury awards $9 million for wrongful conviction

Alejandro Dominguez of Waukegan has waited 17 years for justice for the four years he spent in prison before DNA evidence cleared him of rape charges.
A federal jury awarded him $9 million in a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Waukegan and a now-retired police lieutenant.

The lawsuit alleges that Waukegan police violated his rights to a fair trial, said Jon Loevy, an attorney representing Dominguez. Loevy said police pushed the rape victim to pick Dominguez out of an "unnecessarily suggestive" one-person lineup. He also contends that police withheld documents and information that would have proved Dominguez's innocence.


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