Immigration debate fuels May Day demonstrations

Protesters across US call for changes to laws

Immigrants and activists march Wednesday in Chicago calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP

By Raquel Maria Dillon and Elliot Spagat

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Dem­onstrators demanded an overhaul of U.S. immi­gration laws Wednesday in an annual nationwide ritual — one that carried a special sense of urgen­cy this year as Congress considers sweeping legis­lation to bring many of the estimated 11million people living in the U.S. illegally out of the shad­ows.

May Day rallies were held in dozens of cities from New York to Boze­man, Mont.

“The invisible become visible on May 1,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

The crowds were not expected to approach the massive demonstrations of 2006 and 2007, during the last serious attempt to introduce major changes to the U.S. immigration system. Despite the large turnouts, many advo­cates of less strict immi­gration laws believed they were outmaneu­vered by opponents who flooded congressional of­fices with phone calls and faxes at the behest of con­servative talk-radio hosts.

Election’s effect

Immigration reform gained little traction in Congress during Presi­dent Barack Obama’s first term.

But the November election brought some op­position Republicans to the issue after they watched the growing number of Hispanic vot­ers overwhelmingly side with Obama and Demo­crats.

A bill now being craft­ed in the Senate would strengthen border secu­rity, allow tens of thou­sands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, require all employers to check workers’ legal status and provide an eventual path to citizenship for immi­grants now in the country illegally. Many rallies featured speakers with a personal stake in the debate. The May Day rallies, which coincide with La­bor Day in many coun­tries outside the U.S., of­ten have big showings from labor leaders and elected officials.

Koreatown clash

Salas, whose group is known as CHIRLA, dates the rallies to a labor dis­pute with a restaurant in the Los Angeles Korea­town neighborhood that drew several hundred demonstrators in 2000.

Crowds grew each year until the House of Representatives passed a tough bill against illegal immigration, sparking a wave of enormous, angry protests from coast to coast in 2006.