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Immigrants march in U.S. but rallies lose steam
2008-05-01
Thousands of immigrants marched through cities across the United States on Thursday, but the smaller crowds suggested their cause had lost momentum in this election year. Immigration-rights activists tried to focus this year's rallies on stopping workplace raids after Washington failed last year to act on reforms that included a path to legal status for illegal immigrants. In Los Angeles, a few thousand people converged on downtown before a major rally. But numbers were nowhere near the 500,000-strong showing in March 2006 that caught authorities off-guard and prompted activists to hail the start of a new civil rights movement. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former Latino rights activist, earlier criticized U.S. immigration officials for raiding businesses that employ illegal immigrants, saying they should focus instead on arresting violent criminals. "What I'm saying is we need to prioritize our resources," he told a news conference after two recent raids on local factories. In one major raid last month, U.S. immigration agents arrested about 400 employees at five Pilgrim's Pride Corp chicken plants from West Virginia to Texas in connection with immigration-related crimes including identity theft. In Phoenix, no one turned out to march, in contrast to past years when central thoroughfares were packed with activists waving banners and placards. In Tucson, Arizona, a few hundred pro-immigration supporters walked through the streets carrying placards that read: "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote" and "Citizenship Yes! Deportation No!" falling short of organizers' hopes that several thousand would attend. 'NO REAL FOCUS' Activists said the low turnout stemmed from the failure to push an immigration reform bill through Congress last year that would have given illegal immigrants living and working in the shadows a chance to legalize their status. An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, mainly from Mexico, live in the United States. "The marches didn't achieve anything last year and there was no real focus this time," said Salvador Reza, coordinator of the Macehualli Day Labor Center in Phoenix. "People would go out if there was reason to go out." Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University in Houston, said the protests were smaller because activists had lost their momentum during an election year when the issue had largely been put on the back burner. "I think as an issue it has died away, it isn't an issue in the campaigns," Jones said. "They don't see the need to react to (presidential candidates) Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain. It's much harder to mobilize people around a messy compromise when there is not a threat." A march in Chicago drew only about 2,000 people along the same route into downtown that drew tens of thousands in the past two years. "This year, we represent a lot of diverse issues from immigration to ending the war in Iraq to health care," 35-year-old student Angelica Rivera said. Asked why the issue had ebbed in national debate, Rivera said: "It's because of the economy. The candidates don't want to discuss immigration because its a polarizing issue." About 1,500 protesters gathered in the south end of New York's Union Square, opposing immigration raids they say have increased on Amtrak passenger trains and Greyhound buses. "It's too late for this president to do anything on immigration reform. We're looking to press the next president hard," said Fausto Sicha, 27, an Ecuadorean student. "We're calling for a stop to immigrant raids by police this year." (Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix, Andrew Stern in Chicago and Timothy Gardner in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)
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