Thread: Immigration rally draws 100 on Labor Day in Winston Salem

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Immigration rally draws 100 on Labor Day

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. An immigration rally in Winston-Salem didn't attract the same size crowd as a similar rally in April. Only 100 attended the latest rally and 15-hundred came to the earlier evcent.

But the people attending the Labor Day rally say they are part of a larger national movement seeking immigration reform.

Immigration lawyer Mark Atkinson says reform is needed because unskilled workers have few ways of entering the country legally.

Immigration reform is stalled in Congress.

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Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Local rally cites role of immigrant labor
Protesters link history of holiday to reform efforts


By Phoebe Zerwick
JOURNAL REPORTER


Evelyn Espinoza, a sixth-grade student at North Iredell Middle School, spent her Labor Day at Corpening Plaza yesterday collecting signatures in support of immigration reform.

She and others rallying for paths to citizenship wore T-shirts with English and Spanish words.

The English part said, "Amnesty for Mexican Immigrants Who Got Over," and the Spanish part spoke to the pride at the heart of the rally, one of several held around the nation yesterday.

"It says, 'We're not terrorists,'" Espinoza said, referring to the Spanish part. "'We are essential workers.'"

The crowd of about 100 was nowhere near the 1,500 at a similar rally in April. But organizers said that the effort was worthwhile.

"Today we're a fairly small group," said Mark Atkinson, an immigration lawyer. "The weather's not great, but I want you to know we're part of a larger movement across the United States."

Organizers here and in other cities with large immigrant populations chose Labor Day to rally because the holiday's origins date back to the late 1890s, when immigrant workers formed the backbone of the country's labor movement.

Today, Atkinson said, unskilled immigrant workers have few legal ways of entering the country and fewer ways of becoming legal once they're here.

"Most of the folks who are here illegally have no way to legalize themselves," he said. "We have a lot of employers come to us and say, 'I have a good worker. How do I help legalize them?' And I have to say, 'There's nothing.'"

He and organizers from the Holy Cross Hispanic Ministry in Kernersville said they support legislation that gives people here illegally a way of earning legal status by paying any back taxes and proving that they have lived and worked here for several years without breaking any other laws.

Immigration reform is stalled in Congress, with the House focused on tightening border controls and making it a felony to live here illegally, and the Senate focused on creating visas for guest workers and a path to citizenship.

The keynote speaker at the rally, Leo Anchondo, the national manager of the Justice for Immigrants campaign at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke about the importance of immigrant labor to the nation's economy.

Anchondo, who is accustomed to larger crowds, said before his talk that the trip was worth his effort.

"We felt it was important that immigrant communities in the smaller cities are taken as seriously as immigrants in Chicago or L.A.," he said. "It's not just about numbers."

• Phoebe Zerwick can be reached at 727-7291 or at pzerwick@wsjournal.com.