In San Jose, the Bay Area and the nation, tens of thousands march for immigrant rights

By Linda Goldston

lgoldston@mercurynews.com
Posted: 05/01/2010 06:43:26 PM PDT
Updated: 05/02/2010 03:52:18 AM PDT


With their American flags flying, Karina Hernandez and her family waited patiently in the shade Saturday for a march from San Jose's East Side to City Hall to get under way.

The family β€” Hernandez and her husband, her sister, brother-in-law and children, nine in all β€” march every year on May 1. But this year it was more than a tradition of asking for better immigration laws. This year, Hernandez, 25, said she felt sad and worried for people in Arizona, which passed a new state immigration law last week that some call the toughest in the nation.

"I was born here. My parents came here 30 years ago, and they became citizens," she said. "But we're all human; we should be united."

The San Jose march and rally was just one of dozens of events held around the country Saturday to protest Arizona's law, which gives police the right to question people about their immigration status if being investigated for something else. It also requires immigrants who have become citizens to carry papers proving their citizenship.

Several thousand people began the march from the intersection of King and Story roads and were joined by about 5,000 others on the way to San Jose City Hall, where a brief but impassioned rally was held.

In Oakland, thousands of demonstrators moved along International Boulevard, waving American flags and holding signs with slogans such as "We are all Arizona,"
"Legalizacion Ahora," and "Brown and Proud."

The group marched from East Oakland's Fruitvale BART station to City Hall downtown.

The streets of Watsonville also echoed with chants Saturday, as nearly 400 people rallied for workers rights and against Arizona's law.The May Day protest and rally filled Watsonville Plaza at 4 p.m., where hundreds of immigration reform supporters created signs and T-shirts demanding nondiscriminatory reform.

In San Francisco, thousands more marched through the largely Hispanic Mission neighborhood, an event that's taken place each May 1 for years. "We are marching today in solidarity with all immigrants," 27-year-old event organizer Diana Macasa said before the march.

Another rally was held midafternoon at San Francisco's Civic Center, where poets, singers and rappers performed, in addition to the political speeches.

About 70 members of the Golden Gate Minutemen, a pro-legal immigration group, were on the steps of City Hall when marchers in San Francisco arrived.

"We were standing up for the 200 million Americans who believe in legal immigration," said Steve Kemp, a member of the Minutemen group that supports the Arizona law. "The Arizona law mirrors federal immigration law."

Kemp said his group was "barricaded in" on the steps of City Hall "and when marchers finally did arrive, a number of them immediately started calling us racist and other hate names."

Around the country, thousands of activists, politicians and students took to the streets to demand rights for immigrants. In Los Angeles, police said the crowd had peaked at 50,000. Protesters numbered 25,000 in Dallas, more than 10,000 in Chicago and Milwaukee, and in the thousands in Washington, D.C., according to the police and independent estimates. Organizers said rallies and prayer vigils were held in more than 70 places around the country.

Critics of the new law say it will allow for racial profiling and is racist, despite word changes made in the law late last week.

Supporters of the law, however, including Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, a Republican, said the state had to act because the federal government had failed to enforce the immigration laws.

Hernandez's sister, Claudia Chavez, 31, said she wanted to be part of the march and rally in San Jose because she supports "the immigrants who are already here, who are working, with families and are not criminals."

History lessons

Nodding to the big American flag her family carried, she said, "We love America. We want to be here. Our children were born here, but there are a lot of families who work hard and are here illegally. What happens if a spouse has to leave and go back to Mexico? We want the economy to go up, not down."

Salud Pineda of Los Banos also came to the San Jose march with a large group of family members β€” 12 from Los Banos and Gilroy. She said she also knows of a lot of people who could be sent back to Mexico if asked to prove their citizenship, and doesn't think it's right.

"I have a green card, but you never know with the laws," she said. "I've been here since I was 8 years old."

Organizers said many high school and college students planned to attend the marches and rallies Saturday, including 200 from Yerba Buena High School, said Macario Ortiz, a history teacher at the school.

"We are finishing the Cold War in class, but we had studied the history of immigration in the U.S.," he said, including what that meant when more workers were needed in various industries.

"When there is a shortage of labor, they open up the borders," he said. "When there is a recession, they close them down, and then they start pointing fingers at immigrants."

Legislators in Arizona "should have thought about it more before they passed that bill," said Gabriel Jimenez, manager of the Mi Pueblo supermarket. "It will help people get organized more, not be in the shadows anymore."

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