Illegal immigration marches: May 1, 2008

This year's marches for "immigrant rights" - i.e., to give rights to illegal aliens to which they aren't entitled - were much less attended and made much less of an impact than those in 2006. There's a round-up of reports here and a round-up of the marches in various cities here. Barack Obama threw his support behind the marches; as discussed at that link one of the key organizers of several Chicago marches is an official with the PRD, a Mexican political party.

In Los Angeles, Teresa Watanabe, Anna Gorman and Ari B. Bloomekatz of the LAT spin, spin, and spin again (link):

Thousands of workers waved American flags, marched to mariachi music and rallied for labor and immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, as May Day gatherings drew light but peaceful crowds.

Not all were workers, the rights they want are those they aren't entitled to, and many were no doubt waving flags from other countries. What matters accuracy? Per them, a whopping 8500 showed up for three marches total. Gil Cedillo was one of the few politicians to speak at the rally, and supposedly Fabian Nunez was there as well. Per this, there were somewhere between 7000 and 30,000 and the organizers were the MIWON, March 25 Coalition, and the April 7th Coalition for Full Immigrants Rights with support from Hermanidad Mexicana, Latino Movement USA, ANSWER-LA, the Filipino American For Immigration Reform (FAIR), Pilipino Workers Center, Association of Filipino Workers (AFW), Youth UNITE, KMB Pro People Youth, JFAV, Samahang Pilipino at UCLA , People’s CORE, PWC and Gabriela-Network-LA, Bus Rider's Union, and the Filipino Immigrant Network for Empowerment (FINE).

Meanwhile, in Georgia, 200 people turned out for a march organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (link). Unlike in a previous report, Mary Lou Pickel fails to point out that a co-founder and advisor (link) to that group is Teodoro Maus, a former Mexican consul general.

In Seattle, the low turnout is blamed on: a change of organizers, fear of enforcement, high gas prices, and more. "Hundreds, perhaps thousands" were expected (link).

In Portland, around 500 showed up. Credulous Joseph Rose says:

Many were shouting "workers of the world, unite!" and following that up by yelling "we have nothing to lose but our chains!"

Those are Shriner slogans, right?

UPDATE: Per this, those attending the L.A. rally included Fabian Nunez, Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, and Cedillo, who said "No one is illegal, no one is a criminal". Somewhat unexpectedly, Mexican congressman Jose Jacques Medina of the PRD was booed, with one person in the crowd saying, "I know there are a lot of communists out here... We're against the communists. They're always putting rocks in the path of Mexican democracy."

UPDATE 2: Jonesing for a Mexican flag waving video? Here's one.

UPDATE 3: There are pictures here, via this. Note: one of the signs is misspelled, and the carwash girl is interesting.

Immigration2008a · Thu, 05/01/2008 - 20:28 · · Importance: 1