Labor Day Marches to Tell Congress ‘Give Us Comprehensive Reform’

WASHINGTON, DC -- August was the longest month for millions of immigrants across the United States. None of the decision-makers in the immigration drama, including President Bush and U.S. Senators, changed their positions. Meanwhile, misguided House Republicans, rather than negotiating an immigration bill with their Senate counterparts, assembled a chaotic flurry of one-sided media events euphemistically called “hearings” and bashed immigrants to bolster faltering poll numbers. Unwilling to compromise and unable to browbeat opponents into bending to their extreme positions, the House leadership returns to Capitol Hill on Sept. 5.

Just in time. A new round of pro-immigrant Labor Day mobilizations is being planned in communities across the country between Sept. 2 and Sept. 9. Immigrants and their allies are taking to the streets once more to demonstrate that they have not been intimidated into silence by the actions of irresponsible public officials.

This week of events under the We Are America Alliance, will kick off in Illinois on Sept. 2, where a coalition is planning a four-day march beginning in Chinatown and ending in Batavia at the home office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert. As they march, immigrants and their supporters will be thinking of Elvira Arellano, a Chicago-area activist and undocumented immigrant, who took refuge in her church to avoid deportation and removal from her 7-year-old son, who is a United States citizen.

On Sept. 4, pro-immigrant demonstrators will rally once again in Phoenix. This time the message is a direct call on Congress to take action on immigration reform. Event organizers will focus on the growing political power of immigrants in Arizona. As they rally in the desert heat, marchers will reflect on the more than 130 immigrants who have died on the Arizona border since last October. They will courageously take a stand against harsh rhetoric that stoked nearly 50 anti-immigrant bills in the state legislature this spring, increasing incidents of racial profiling and chilling actions taken by local law enforcement officials in Maricopa County.

On Sept. 7, in what will likely be the largest of the September demonstrations, hundreds of thousands from across the eastern United States will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., calling on congressional leaders to get back to work in a bipartisan manner to negotiate a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

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