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IMMIGRATION RALLY | DC march today
By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Monday, April 10, 2006



Ricardo Juarez encourages day laborers outside Rico Tacos Moya in Woodbridge on Sunday, April 9, to attend a rally in Washington, D.C. (DANIEL GILBERT PHOTO)
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As an estimated 180,000 people converge on Washington, D.C., to protest immigration reform today, one protest organizer will be sleeping in.

Ricardo Juarez, a regional coordinator for the National Capital Immigrants Coalition and for Mexicans Without Borders, has spent the last month contracting buses, arranging parking permits and distributing flyers to build momentum for the rally.

After a frenzied weekend resolving last-minute problems, the 38-year old construction worker originally from Mexico admitted that there is not much more he can do.

"I'd say 95 percent of the work is done," Juarez said with a weary smile Sunday, a day before the demonstration is scheduled to take place.

On Saturday afternoon, Juarez stared at a computer spreadsheet in the basement of his Woodbridge home, while negotiating on his cell phone.

"Listen, the problem is the following: How much time will it take to print the banners?" Juarez said into the phone.

Hearing the response, he slumped back in his chair, muttering "Oh my God."

A bigger headache still was procuring the appropriate parking permits for the buses.

"The bus companies want the permits in their hands before Monday," Juarez said. "We're faxing them. Only there are different permits, depending on where a bus parks."

If a bus parks at the D.C. Armory, Juarez said, the permit must be signed by the metropolitan police. But if the bus parks along the Mall, it must have the approval of the District Park Office.

Working alongside Juarez was Juan Arreaga, 25, son of a prominent political activist in Mexico, and point man for organizing transportation to the rally from Manassas.

Arreaga said 10 buses were scheduled to pick up people in Manassas.

Juarez and Arreaga tallied the buses they had ordered for the entire Northern Virginia region.

"Seventy-three," Juarez said, sounding doubtful, "I think I made a mistake." He and Arreaga recounted.

"Seventy-two," Arreaga concluded.

"Sixty-eight confirmed," added Juarez.

With fifty people per bus, the two calculated around 3,500 would travel by bus.

That doesn't include the people who will drive themselves, Juarez noted.

How do they know there won't be extra buses?

"We're going to lack buses," Juarez said.

Throughout Woodbridge and Manassas, business owners with a sizeable Hispanic personnel are treating Monday as a kind of holiday.

"This is an issue that concerns all Latin Americans," said Salvador Moya, Mexican-born owner of Tacos Moya in Woodbridge, who is closing on Monday to allow his employees to participate in the march.

Gregorio Martinez, owner of Confety's Restaurant and of a construction company in Manassas, is also taking Monday off. The bulk of his employees - more than 100 between the two businesses - will take part in the rally, said Martinez, an immigrant from Honduras.

Others remain undecided.

"I wanted to close Monday," said Jose Tenas, owner of Cuna del Sol Restaurant in Manassas, "but then I heard about the strike on May 1st," he said, referring to a general strike among Hispanic businesses rumored to occur next month.

"I really don't know what to do," said the Guatemalan immigrant, "but if an employee asks me for permission to go to the rally, I will give it with pleasure."

Twenty-four hours before buses are scheduled to drop off demonstrators at the corner of 15th and Euclid streets in the District, Juarez addressed a group of day laborers in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Woodbridge.

The paint-spattered crew of mostly undocumented immigrants stands at the heart of the immigration debate in Congress, but many of the workers seemed unaware of it.

"There will be six buses in front of Todos Supermarket at noon tomorrow," Juarez told the group Sunday. "Another two will be in Marumsco Plaza at the same hour, to take you to and from Washington, free."

"I'm asking you to give me a little consideration," Juarez said as two laborers slipped away from the group to talk to someone in a shiny red Cadillac that has just pulled into the parking lot.

"There are times when we have to make sacrifices, even if it means missing an opportunity to work," he said.

Asking the workers to spread word about the protest, Juarez apologized for a delay in processing their identification cards.

"Between my construction job and trying to organize this, and answer 20 phone calls at once, I'm a little behind," he explained.

The two laborers and the driver of the Cadillac - with gestures and nodding heads - reached an agreement, and the men climbed into the car and drove away as Juarez continued to speak.

Moments later, a blue sports car pulled up, and a tall man dressed in construction clothes stepped out, approaching the group.

Introducing himself as Roland Lugardo, owner of R&R Construction, he asked Juarez what the meeting was about.

Lugardo, a Dumfries resident, had not heard about the rally.

"I've got about 30 Hispanic guys working for me, and I'll take them there myself," he said. "Just tell me where to go."