Immigration not just about Mexicans

September 2, 2006

BY SUE ONTIVEROS STAFF REPORTER













On a weekend when mainstream America will gather with family to mark Labor Day, supporters of immigrant rights are joining forces to let America see and hear how important their loved ones are to them.



The Immigrant Workers Justice Walk began Friday at Chinatown Square in the first part of what is to be a four-day, 40-plus-mile walk through Chicago and a dozen suburbs before marchers wind up on Labor Day at the offices of U.S. Rep. J. Dennis Hastert in Batavia. They want to show the speaker of the House that the demand for fair and compassionate changes in the immigration law remains.

There has been a tendency to paint the immigration battle as one of primarily Mexican undocumented workers. Friday's rally and opening march demonstrated how widespread the problems of the current immigration system are and how they impact many different ethnic groups. Speaker after speaker talked about how they waited decades to reunite family members. Others talked about how people live in fear that a family member without citizenship will be taken from their legal family members here.

Jisan Yu of the Korean American Senior Center said there are some 1 million undocumented Asian workers in the United States with "no passport to legal status."

Change in the current system is "a battle of all immigrant communities," Yu said. "Walk for justice today. Our families are waiting now."

And with the common goal of uniting their families legally in the United States, the marchers headed west on Cermak. A large number walked between ropes bearing flags of the different native countries represented. Asian marchers walked alongside Latinos sharing a bullhorn, so rallying chants would alternate between Chinese and Spanish. One group of Latino men gamely listened to the Chinese chants and joined the chorus.

Along the way others would come outdoors to see what was happening or join the marchers. At Isabel's Beauty Salon, one patron came out mid-permanent to catch the action. When the Rev. Brendan Curran, associate pastor of St. Pius V Catholic Church in Pilsen, came on board, he led the group in a prayer that reminded, "we are a country founded on immigrant stories."

Just past Wood, a woman rushed up with a batch of homemade tamales, ready to share with any hungry marcher.

By the time the marchers stopped for another rally in Little Village, the crowd that probably was close to 500 was down to a couple hundred. More were expected to rejoin them as they headed to St. Francis Catholic Church in Cicero, where they'd bed for the night.

The numbers weren't that important, said march organizer Jorge Mujica. "The political meaning of the march message is still there."





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