Thread: Over 500 March in Fresno for Immigrant Rights

There are pictures at the link.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/0 ... 305985.php

Over 500 March in Fresno for Immigrant Rights
by Mike Rhodes ( MikeRhodes [at] Comcast.net )
Monday Sep 4th, 2006 8:13 PM
A march in support of Immigrant Rights was held in downtown Fresno today. The march, which called for fair and humane immigration reform, was attended by over 500 immigration rights activists and their allies. The marchers went from the Free Speech area at the Fulton Mall to Fresno Street, down R street, and back to the mall for a rally. This Labor Day march was organized by a coalition of immigration rights groups.

Yesterday they were estimating 3 to 5 thousand.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/12 ... 1067c.html

Immigration march planned
Fresno rally on Labor Day to demand legislation.
By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Sunday, September 3, 2006, 7:45 AM)


What: Labor Day march and rally
When: 4 p.m. Monday
Where: Fulton Mall Advertisements

Immigrant workers and their relatives are expected to flood a few streets in downtown Fresno on Labor Day.

They will join a massive march to demand legislation that offers undocumented workers a path to a legal status and U.S. citizenship.

Organizers estimate between 3,000 to 5,000 could come to Fresno. Marches will take place the same day in Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

The march will begin at the free-speech area at Fresno's Fulton Mall. Demonstrators plan to walk to R and Tulare streets and then return to the Fulton Mall.

"It's a way of saying we are here," said Rufino Domínguez, general coordinator of Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional, a nonprofit cultural and immigrant-rights group in Fresno.

Domínguez said: "We want Congress to come up with a good proposal."

Marchers want legislators to hear their concerns this election year about the proposed immigration bills in Congress. They say they'd like federal lawmakers to agree on a bill that doesn't just focus on stricter border enforcement.

Weeks ago, members of faith-based groups, immigrant-rights organizations, unions and other groups gathered in Chicago for a convention. They formed a coalition called The National Alliance for Immigrant Rights. The group agreed to hold marches and rallies on Labor Day or on other days in early September.

President Bush has deployed National Guard troops at the U.S.-Mexico border. Some Republican legislators have demanded building a wall, more aggressively enforcing deportations and punishing employers who hire undocumented workers. Democrats have pushed for a bill that includes border enforcement but also provides a path for some undocumented immigrants to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.

"Resolving the immigration issue will involve depoliticizing the issue itself. ... The U.S. does not have the stomach to keep enforcement too long because the demand for workers is too strong," said Gordon Hanson, professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego.

Hanson said the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Mexico and Canada didn't raise wages enough in Mexico. The Mexican government also hasn't invested enough in its country and educational system to stop the migration of its citizens, he said.

"Migration will not stop until wages increase," Hanson said.

Local immigrant-rights groups don't believe Fresno's Labor Day rally will be as big as the May 1 boycott, but they say it will deliver a strong message for immigration reform.

"If there's no reform, we will not stop mobilizing or stop hearing our voice. We have learned that staying in silence and working does not convince those opposed to a reform," said Leonel Flores, an immigrant-rights activist in Fresno.


The reporter can be reached at vcolon@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6313.