http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_247183504.html

Sep 4, 2006 3:33 pm US/Pacific

Thousands Nationwide Rally Over Immigration
(AP / BCN / CBS 5) SAN FRANCISCO In far smaller numbers than they did this spring, supporters of illegal immigrants marched in several U.S. cities Monday, calling for them to be given the chance to live and work freely in the United States.

Labor groups joined legal and illegal immigrants in a boisterous march of more than 2,000 in downtown San Francisco, beating drums and singing in the streets.

“Treat us as the labor force that moves the wealth in this country,” Haydee Martinez, a San Francisco march organizer, told participants in Spanish. “We want legalization for everybody.”

Marchers gathered on San Francisco’s Embarcadero Monday morning to start a half-day series of Labor Day speeches and rallies that ended near City Hall.

They met at Justin Herman Plaza around 10 a.m. to pass out leaflets, wave banners and signs, and articulate their viewpoints on issues relating to immigration and workers’ rights.

One organizer, Evelyn Sanchez of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Coalition, said the group’s mission is half-labor, half-immigrant rights.

“For today’s Labor Day, it’s about unions finding that many of their workers are immigrants. There’s a link between labor and immigrant rights,” she said.

Speakers in front of City Hall marked the end of the march, which had filled Market Street some three or four blocks at a time with people chanting slogans and making music. Speakers switched from English to Spanish and back with the help of translators.

Sanchez said leaders from the Service Employees International Union Locals 87 and 790, as well as Mayor Ruben Abrica of East Palo Alto, were slated to speak.

Dozens of groups waved signs while walking along Market Street, including the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Gray Panthers of San Francisco and Out4immigration.

Kathy Drasky of San Francisco marched as part of the Out4immigration group. She supports its cause of equal rights for gays and lesbians trying to sponsor their non-U.S.-citizen partners for green cards and on the path to citizenship.

“I can’t sponsor my Australian partner for a green card because we can’t get married here. We are ‘legal strangers,’” Drasky said.

Labor Day marches and rallies also took place in Oakland and San Jose. A San Jose rally against illegal immigration was scheduled as well.

Crowd estimates for Labor Day rallies in cities from San Francisco to suburban Chicago ranged from the hundreds to the low thousands, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands who gathered in several cities in the spring. Organizers blamed the holiday weekend and said Monday’s rallies were less coordinated.

Immigration bills have stalled in Congress, where members remain divided over whether to crack down on illegal immigrants or give many of them the opportunity to become citizens.

In Southern California, about 400 people marched Monday, compared with the 400,000 marchers who had jammed a Los Angeles boulevard in May.