WASHINGTON – From Los Angeles to St. Louis, and from Jackson, Miss., to Washington, D.C., hundreds of thousands of people nationwide put on white shirts and picked up American flags to join rallies, marches and prayer services April 9 and 10 to call attention to the contributions of immigrants and to ask for changes in immigration law and policies.
In several cities, Catholic bishops gave speeches and led prayers. Many participants were encouraged to join the activities at their churches.
Crowds estimated to be as large as 500,000 in Dallas April 9 and in Washington April 10 blocked city streets and surprised even organizers with their size.
The events were part of the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice, aimed at opposing strict immigration enforcement legislation passed by the House in December and encouraging more comprehensive bills that would not criminalize illegal immigrants and those who provide services to them. Organizers also support legislation that would make it possible for the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants to legalize their status.
At an April 10 vigil at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in downtown Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony prayed in Spanish to "the God of one and all" to help members of Congress not be exclusionary, and he asked for the intercession of Mary, an immigrant who fled to Egypt with her son, Jesus.
In St. Louis the day before, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke said, "It is not right to make immigrants the scapegoats of social and political problems of our nation. It is profoundly unjust to place the blame for the acts of terrorism perpetrated by a few at the door of all immigrants."
On a stage where he was joined by Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders, he said: "Our presence here today expresses the teaching common to our different religious traditions which instructs us to receive immigrants as true brothers and sisters."
In Chicago about 400 people gathered to pray for immigration reform April 10 at Our Lady of Tepeyac Church, days after senators left Washington for a two-week recess without voting on a comprehensive immigration bill worked out in a bipartisan compromise.
The congregation prayed the Stations of the Cross, with each station focused on one aspect of immigrant life, from the lack of access to health care to unscrupulous employers stripping undocumented workers of their dignity. At the last station, "Jesus is laid in the tomb," Our Lady of Tepeyac pastor Father Robert Casey said that for immigration reform advocates it is a "time of watchful waiting ... of waiting inside the tomb."
In downtown Des Moines, Iowa, April 9, Lorena Perez, of St. Mary Parish in Ottumwa, Iowa, was with a group from her town who took a bus to the rally. She held an American flag with a palm frond woven into the shape of a cross on the stem of the flag. She said she was there "in support of dignity and just reform."
Eman Garcia, of Indianola and a member of Our Lady of the Americas Parish in Des Moines, said he wore his 2004 high school graduation cap to correct the perception that all Hispanic youths drop out of high school. "They get us all wrong," he said. "We're here for something positive. We can do this."
Elizabeth Ayala of Morton, Miss., brought her 8-year-old daughter, Anie, with her to a rally in Jackson, Miss., where hundreds of people met April 10 near the steps of the Mississippi Capitol. Many displayed the American flag and signs and chanted "Yes, we can do it!"
A native of Colombia, Ayala said Latinos are in the United States working and should be able to stay and to become citizens.
"We need our rights, we are good people who came here to work," Ayala said. "We support America, we support our families, and we want to stay."
In Colorado Springs, Colo., more than 500 people participated in a lunchtime immigration rally April 10.
"These are people who are paying taxes, buying from our stores and paying the sales taxes, contributing to their communities and churches and schools," said one speaker, a migrant worker named Jesus who did not give his last name. "This is not a group that should be pushed off to the side."
"Some people say that we come here and take all their resources, but we pay taxes," said a rally organizer, Victor Orozco. "Immigrants pay taxes, immigrants work. ... The immigration system does not work. So when people think that we come and take all their resources, we say 'No, we want to work.'"
In a statement for an April 10 rally in El Paso, Texas, Bishop Armando X. Ochoa urged people to use the two-week Senate recess to contact their representatives "to let them know that we expect true reform, and not just enforcement that does little to address the reality of the immigration situation in our country."
About 2,000 people were reported to have attended that rally. A few days earlier, a march for Cesar Chavez Day brought out more than 6,000 people in El Paso.
Bishop Ochoa encouraged such participation.
"Only by making our presence known will we ever truly achieve justice for all people within our borders," he said. "It is up to us to protect the rights and dignity of everyone ...
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