Thread: Thousands march in Bay Area for immigration rights

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Thousands march in Bay Area for immigration rights
- Rick DelVecchio and Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Staff Writers
Monday, May 1, 2006

05-01) 14:04 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Several thousand immigrant rights supporters marched up Market Street this afternoon and converged on Civic Center Plaza, where they sprawled on the grass listening to speakers and eating brown-bag lunches in order to avoid buying anything as part of today's "Day Without Immigrants" demonstrations that are happening all across the country.

"This is not a movement of politicians, but of human beings -- and that's why it will be successful," said Matt Gonzalez, a former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. "The laws of this country will not change unless we stay united."

The heavily Latino crowd wore white shirts and carried American flags as well as flags from Latin American countries.

Among them were a number of teachers and parents from Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

"Latinos have consistently been scapegoats," said Maria Sandoval, a third-grade teacher who emigrated from Mexico in 1976.

Another woman, who does not have citizenship, was Maria Correa, who was marching with her third-grade daughter, Alondra.

"We want to have papers and to be legal," said Correa, who came to the United States from Mexico on a visa that she overstayed. "My parents and sisters have (papers), but I'm still waiting for the last 16 years."

Marlon Valle of Hercules, a mechanic, came to the United State 18 years ago to escape the civil war going on in his native El Salvador and became a citizen.

He was at the rally with a contingent of about a dozen children, all wearing red bandanas and carrying a banner of Latin American flags all stitched together.

"We brought the children along because we want to show they are the future of the country, and we're here to stay," he said.

Meanwhile, in the core of the Mission District, many shops remained barred, and parking space after parking space along Mission Street was empty.

"It's just wide open," said artist Ron Slayen, 62, who was driving down Mission Street on his way to his woodworking shop this morning. "If nothing else, that tells the tale very quickly in San Francisco. It's just stunning."

Slayen, who considers immigration reform a subject too complex to take a simple stand on, said he was surprised by the Sunday-like feel of the strip.

"I had a feeling I would see something of this nature, but I thought I would have to look more carefully," he said.

Marchers in Oakland were some of the first to hit the streets this morning, walking down International Boulevard toward the Oakland federal building in a line that spanned 15 blocks.

A banner carried at the head of the march read: "No mas tratamiento de segunda clase," or "No more second-class treatment."

Rigoberto Lopez, 33, of Oakland had taken the day off from his job as a sheetrock installer.

"I'm just supporting my people," he said. "All my people all took the day off."

Ismael Lopez, 67, of Livermore, came dressed in the colors of the U.S flag, with red, white and blue pants, vest and jacket and a star-spangled plastic top hat. His wife, Lucy Lopez, was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, with a sparkling silver outfit and silver crown.

"My mother was illegal when she came over here, and I was left in Mexico,'' said Lopez, recalling how he was left behind as a 6-year old while his mother came north in search of a better life.

Lopez rejoined his mother when he was 15, went on to fight in the Korean War and today runs his own party supply business in Hayward.

"I love this country very much. When people tell me if you don't like it leave, I don't appreciate that,'' Lopez said. "I am America. That's why I'm dressed like this."

Jonnie Livings, 46, a registered nurse in Oakland, came out because she said that as an African-American she identifies with the struggle of immigrants.

"We are all God's children," said Livings, who was waving a small American flag. "Divided we fall, and together we stand.''

The nationwide protests, boycotts, store closures and scattered student walkouts are intended to show the economic role of immigrants, legal and illegal, and to protest an immigration reform bill passed by the House in December. The bill, which has no parallel yet in the Senate, would make illegal immigration an aggravated felony and erect 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Opposition to the House bill began building in March, when large rallies were held in cities across the country.

At issue is how to handle the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, whether to offer them routes to legal residency, which leads to citizenship, or to increase penalties and enforcement for their illegal status.

Other immigration reforms under debate in April in the Senate, none of which has passed, would offer legal residence to many people considered to be living in the United States illegally. The migrants would have to learn English, pay fines and satisfy other requirements.

California is home to the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States -- 2.4 million, or about 7 percent of the state's population. California is home to about one-quarter of the nation's immigrants.

Not everyone demonstrating today was on the same side of the debate.

Today in Washington, several Latino citizens opposed to the protests and bills in Congress spoke out emotionally at a press conference organized by the anti-illegal immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform.

They said such proposals that would grant the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship are unfair to those who came legally, and warned against a "reconquista" of the United States by Mexican immigrants.

"They are making very real threats to everyone and want to reconquer this country by sheer numbers and return it to La Raza, the Mexican race," said Claudia Garcia Spencer, of Vista, Calif.. Spencer came to the United States at age 30 and became a citizen by marrying her U.S.-born husband. "They could not be more obvious marching in the streets waving the flag of Mexico. The only thing they are demonstrating with certainty is they are still bona fide members of their world."

Miguel Cruz, who came to the United States from Peru at age 9 and now works for the Social Security Administration, said that Monday's demonstrators "are basically an insult and slap in face to every American and to every American voter, to every hyphenated American and o every immigrant who is here legally.

"They are demonstrating that they really are not immigrants. They don't act like immigrants. They don't behave like immigrants. Immigrants are those who come here legally, and those who remain here legally. Immigrants refuse and reject the maltreatment, the corruption, the poverty and crime of their dead-end countries. Immigrants are proud and grateful to be here, and eager to learn English, eager to assimilate and acculturate. Real immigrants will embrace and obey the laws of America and work hard with realistic hopes of achieving the best life and the American dream."

House majority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, denounced a resolution passed last week by the California State Senate endorsing the boycott, and challenged House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to do the same.

"The brazen support of California Democrats for this walkout amounts to a reckless endorsement of policies that make our nation and our borders less secure. Nancy Pelosi and her Capitol Hill Democrats should explain to the American public whether they support California's Democrat leaders who defied their oath to uphold the laws of the land. If Nancy Pelosi cannot bring herself to denounce this stunt, it will serve as yet another signal of Democrats' support for open borders, weak enforcement, and more illegal immigration."

E-mail the writers at rdelvecchio@sfchronicle.com and clochhead@sfchronicle.com.

What part of lawbreaking illegals does the braindead media not underatand?

I want to know what country these news people live in.