http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3576421
3/7/06

Run for immigrant rights gets local boost
By Jason Newell and Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writers

POMONA - A group running from coast to coast for immigrants' rights may have an extra skip in its step today after scoring a symbolic victory from Pomona city leaders Monday night.

The City Council passed a resolution late Monday condemning a federal proposal for tough new immigration restrictions -- a decision made on the heels of a colorful morning rally staged by the runners on City Hall's steps.

The vote followed nearly two hours of public comment, much of it in favor of the resolution.

City council members, concerned about the resolution's language, however, proposed amending portions of it before taking a vote.

The amended resolution passed the council in a 4-2 vote, with council members Paula Lantz and George Hunter in opposition.

The vote was met with cheers of "Thank you" and "Si se puede" (It can be done) from a crowd of about 500 people gathered inside and outside the council chambers, and inside City Hall, where people watched on television monitors.

The resolution, which has little practical effect, urges the U.S. Senate to reject any portions of the proposed federal law that would require Pomona police officers to enforce immigration laws.

It doesn't address other proposals in the legislation, authored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., which includes provisions to build new fences along the Mexican border, stiffen penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers and criminalize assistance given to illegal immigrants.

The portions removed from the city's resolution included those opposing stiffer penalties for illegal immigrants and those aiding them, deputizing local police officers to act as immigration agents and eliminating birthright citizenship of babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants.

Defeating the Sensenbrenner bill is one of the cross-country runners' main goals.

The group, consisting of a dozen day laborers, began a Santa Monica-to-New York City run Saturday with a stated aim of spreading a message of "peace and dignity" along the way.

On Monday, three days into the two-month trek, the runners and their supporters gathered at the Pomona Day Labor Center to purify themselves with incense before setting off.

About 50 people jogged from the center to City Hall -- passing the city's police headquarters on the way -- chanting and singing as they went. "Aqui estamos. No nos vamos," which means, "We're here and we're not leaving," was a popular refrain.

Outside the Civic Center, participants explained their mission and urged city leaders to support them. With running shoes on, they hoisted decorated staffs and gave speeches in both Spanish and English through a horn.

"We're here to ask the mayor and the City Council to oppose draconian legislative proposals that would only send the immigrant population further into the shadows," said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which is coordinating the run.

The run's mission is four-fold, Alvarado said.

Participants want to promote immigration reform that clears a path to citizenship, celebrate immigrants' economic and cultural contributions, oppose the Sensenbrenner legislation and create peace with groups that oppose illegal immigration.

"They are not our enemies. We don't see them as our enemies," Alvarado said of groups such as the Minutemen. "The runners are carrying with them a message of peace, a message of justice. ... The hate, if it exists, is not mutual. We do not carry hate in our hearts."

Proponents of an immigration crackdown say the nation's porous borders pose a threat to national security. Many also argue that the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States have created a drain on the nation's schools, hospitals and prisons.

Tightening security at the border and removing employment opportunities for illegal immigrants will reduce the number of people who illegally cross the border, they say. Opponents of a crackdown say the proposed reforms are inhumane and would criminalize people who are only here to build better lives for their families.

Ten men and two women plan to complete the entire cross-country run, which will stretch east to Georgia before veering north to New York. They will be accompanied by vehicles carrying food and supplies and will get support from day labor centers, churches and community organizations along the way.

On Monday, they expected to rest for the night in Fontana after a brief afternoon stop at a Rancho Cucamonga day laborer center.

Chino resident Al Gonzales, who has participated in past runs from Alaska to Southern California and from Southern California to Panama, said he planned to run with the group as far as San Bernardino, where it is scheduled to rest tonight.

He said he hopes the run will spread the message that people who cross the border illegally do so only because they have no money or government services to provide for their most basic needs, he said.

"They have nothing. They have nothing to lose," said Gonzalez, 46. "Instead of shutting the door on them, we should find out why they are coming across and work to help them."

Gilberto Bernal, a Los Angeles resident who is a laborer at the Pomona Day Labor Center, is among the 12 runners who plan to complete the entire run.

The response Bernal and his fellow runners saw in the first two days of the run was energizing, he said.

"It encourages us even more to go forward," Bernal, a native of the central Mexican state of Nayarit, said in Spanish. "I give thanks to God for all the people he has put on our path."

Alfredo Saucedo, a resident of Pomona and a laborer with the center, said that after two days of running he thinks he may not have been prepared for the run, but that won't stop him from going through with the trek.

Prior to the start of the run, its magnitude hadn't sunk in, Saucedo said in Spanish.

"But people are supportive and that provides the strength to go on," said the native of the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

Jason Newell can be reached by e-mail at jason.newell@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9338.

Monica Rodriguez can be reached by e-mail at m_rodriguez@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9336.