Immigrant marchers roll through Boston

Yawu Miller

A crowd estimated at 8,000 rallied for the rights of undocumented immigrants in Copley Square Monday as part of a national effort that saw more than 2 million demonstrators in 140 U.S. cities.

After a kick-off at the Boston Common, thousands of marchers made their way through downtown Boston the Copley Square, chanting slogans in Spanish and English.

In the Square, the marchers were greeted with a band playing Irish music from the bandstand before speakers including Cardinal Sean O’Malley who addressed the crowd urging policy makers to have compassion on the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the country.

By the time Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Executive Director Ali Noorani spoke, the crowd was fired up.

“We are not criminals,” he said.
“No!” the demonstrators responded in unison.
“We are workers.”
“Yes!”
“We are not foreigners.”
“No!”
“We are your neighbors.”
“Yes!”
“The fact is, we are Americans.”

As the crowd roared in approval, Noorani urged the activists to call and write President Bush as well as leaders in Congress and the Senate, asking them to support immigration reform.

The debate over U.S. immigration policies came to a head last year after the Republican-controlled house passed a bill that would have increased penalties for undocumented immigrants, the companies that hire them and even people who offer assistance.

In the Senate, Edward Kennedy and John McCain ironed out a compromise bill that would have given undocumented immigrants the opportunity to apply for citizenship and beefed up enforcement of immigration law. But that bill failed to gain sufficient support to pass.

Many in the immigrant communities in the Greater Boston area are living with a great deal of uncertainty while the Senate is in recess.

“We had some hope that things would get better,” said Jose Barros, an organizer with the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and an activist in the Cape Verdean Community. “But now we don’t even know if we’re going to get anything.”

“It’s hard to be optimistic,” added Denise Gonsalves, executive director of Cape Verdean Community UNIDO. “You feel like there have been these public demonstrations all across the United States, but Congress still seems to go against what the people are saying they want.”

While the fate of immigration reform hangs in the balance, immigrant activists across the country are not waiting for the Senate to take up the matter again. A crowd estimated at 500,000 took to the streets in Dallas. In Washington, D.C., it was 100,000. More than 50,000 marched in San Diego and 40,000 in Salt Lake City.

Immigrant activists are hoping their advocacy will demonstrate the breadth of support for more compassionate policies toward undocumented immigrants.

“There’s a lot of negative publicity about immigrants,” said Gladys Vega, associate executive director of the Chelsea Collaborative. “But they know that if they were to stop working, this country would shut down.”

Vega attributes the anti-immigrant sentiment in the national debate to prejudice.

“This is more about racism than it is about immigration,” she said. “In America, it’s based on the color of your skin.”

The Rev. Hurmon Hamilton, speaking on behalf of the Black Ministerial Alliance and the Ten Point Coalition, said the black clergy stands with the immigrants.

“Here in Boston, the black church — insofar as the Black Ministerial Alliance and Ten Point Coalition represent her — is here with our brothers and sisters standing for just immigration reform,” he said.

Demonstrators also heard from Cardinal Sean O’Malley who told the crowd that while borders must be respected, U.S. immigration policy “must be based on the cornerstone of respect for the dignity of every human person.”

At the heart of any immigration bill that makes it through the heated congressional debates is likely to be a computerized system that could help employers determine instantly whether someone can legally work in this country.

A voluntary version of the Internet-based system has been up and running on an experimental basis since 1996 and now includes more than 5,000 companies nationwide. Democrats and Republicans alike — including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — have included expanded versions in every bill now under serious consideration.

(Associated Press contributed to this story)