At last week’s massive pro-immigration rally in New York, as elsewhere across almost 100 cities and towns where a fresh round of protests were held after the Senate failed to pass a Immigration Bill, the boisterous energy was almost palpable in its confidence of ‘people power’ – the conviction that no government can ignore the demands of such massive turn-outs, even though, ironically, the masses are not citizens of the country.
The rallies in the United States – held as it was on the heels of the sequence of events in France where a controversial labor bill that would have given businesses the right to fire at will young workers was rescinded after massive protests and violence on the streets – have been remarkable for its peaceful demonstrations.
Last week’s rallies were also described by immigration advocates as the biggest social movement of Hispanics since the United Farm Workers of Cesar Chavez. The plans for protests, vigils, and marches included also a less visible tier of people stirred to action over U.S. immigration policy: non-Latinos.
“If you watch TV and read the papers, you would think this immigration reform is primarily an issue only for Latinos or only illegals or only poor immigrants,” said Abdul Malik Mujahid, a Chicago-based Islamic cleric who said 7,000 Muslims marched in the rally there to protest the ‘climate of fear’ since 9/11. “Latino organizers have done a big favor not just to themselves but to all other immigrants, as well as America itself, by standing up and saying this country’s immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. Now the rest of us must join in.”
The protesters, who have been sensitized by immigration advocates to even the flags they should march with – American flags rather than displaying Mexican to gain sympathy –may be smug with the knowledge of with a vigorous people power did in France, but are adopting almost a Gandhian non-violent way to achieve their goals.
The undocumented immigrants also know well by now that the conflict within Capitol Hill is working to their advantage, especially in an election year with no party wanting to be seen as the monster who chewed up the dreams of million of prospective voters and whose single action drove away all the existing Latino voters the other way.
Latino voters would in all probability decide who occupies White House in 2008, and even before that the fate of several candidates in this year’s November Congressional elections on the basis of an immigration bill this year.
With even President Bush coming down heavily on the Senate for not passing the bill, the question is not anymore of undocumented immigrants being thrown out of the country, as some measures in the Congress had proposed last year in December. Instead, immediacy has gained over stronger border protection, with a concrete understanding being shaped over the week that illegal immigrants who have abided by the rules of country and paid taxes need to be given their due rights.
A CBS news poll showed that an overwhelming 74 percent of U.S. citizens favor granting the right to undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the country if they have been law-abiding residents who have paid their taxes. A Los Angeles Times/ Bloomberg poll showed that 63 percent of U.S. citizens favor a guest worker program for undocumented immigrants, though along with stronger border enforcement. And an ABC News/ Washington Post poll showed that 50 percent of U.S. citizens think Democrats can do a better job of handling the immigration issue as compared to 38 percent who think Republicans are better suited for the job, is sure to send the jitters up the GOP.
The question now on everybody’s mind is how many of the almost 12 million undocumented immigrants would be given the right to citizenship, and how many would have to wait longer to get citizenship, and how many are going to be given guest worker status and for how many years.
“This is America’s civil rights battle for the 21st century,” said Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for about 150 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees. Immigrants are anticipating a duel between the House and the Senate over immigration-reform language, she says, but the rallies are really about “whether or not America will continue to be what it has always been-a nation of immigrants.”
And the battle for the civil rights as Hong puts it was evident in the action a school in Montgomery County, MD, who gave its students who participated in the immigration rally in the nation’s capital credits toward graduation. Students in Montgomery County Public Schools are required to put in 60 hours of ‘service learning’ between the sixth and 12th grades in order to graduate. To complete the requirement, students can either do community service or become involved in advocacy, which includes ‘participation in marches, rallies and other political activities, provided the activities are legal and sponsored by a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.’
County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who noted in his memorandum to the school board that the school system has one of the most diverse enrollments in the nation, with nearly six of every 10 students identified as American Indian, African American, Hispanic or Asian American, stated that ‘the growing public interest in potential changes in immigration laws continues to impact the Montgomery County Public Schools.’
Many disagreed with his action, but students nevertheless marched along with the illegal immigrants, and got a close-up view of what is sure to become a defining moment in America’s history, even as they came closer to graduate and to being voters.
