Immigrants Take Economic Impact to the Streets

USA (Michael Muskal and Carol J. Williams, LATimes) May 1, 2006 — Across the country, hundreds of thousands of Latino immigrants and their supporters took to the streets to demonstrate that they are a political and economic presence that can't be ignored.

Marches in Los Angeles and Chicago, demonstrations in New York and boycotts that forced closures of Midwest and Southern meat-packing plants marked a day when immigration rights activists again called for a new policy, the first in two decades.

The earliest marches began this morning in Florida, quickly followed by protests in New Orleans and Denver, where tens of thousands marched to the state Capitol.

In Chicago, the site of violence in 1886 that turned May 1 into an international labor holiday celebrating the right of legal protest, as many as 300,000 were reportedly marching toward the city's civic center. Smaller rallies were planned in more than 50 other cities nationwide.

Ernest Calderon, 38, came to the Chicago rally with a sign listing the names of his heroes: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Pancho Villa.

"Our heroes understood that they had to fight for freedom and democracy, and we are here doing the same," Calderon, a concrete worker who came from Mexico and gained his citizenship more than a decade ago, told the Associated Press. "We are here for the same reasons."

Washington has been debating its first major revision of immigration policy in two decades. There is bipartisan support for toughening border security, but the key issues of how to deal with the estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented workers in the United States and a guest worker plan has opened fissures in both parties.

The issue has also created unusual political alliances. Major industries, including parts of agriculture, apparel and tourism, have joined with labor unions and human rights activists to support changes. Conservatives in both the Democrat and Republican parties have opposed guest-worker programs and paths for citizenship for those illegally in the United States, insisting that border security had a higher priority.

President Bush supports a guest-worker program and has praised a Senate approach, backed by top Republicans and Democrats. The House has passed a harsher plan that among other provisions would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to assist them.

Most economist said there would be little long-term impact from the boycotts — but there were visible signs of dislocation.

Some major U.S. companies, dependent on Latino immigrant labor, announced that they would be closed for the day. Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat producer, shut nine U.S. beef plants and four pork plants. Cargill, the second-largest meatpacker, also closed some plants. Six of 14 Perdue Farms plants were closed.

Gallo Wines in Sonoma, Calif., gave its 150 workers the day off. Restaurants across the country were forced to close or to limit their hours.

The sharp social divisions on the immigration issue were also felt in non-Latino communities where immigrants had faced the same issues.

In Miami, Fla., Stanislav Fridman said he got from the Soviet Ukraine to South Florida the legal way, with a visa and enough hustle to propel his extended Russian family into the good life.

But the 43-year-old taxi fleet manager said he doesn't begrudge those who cut legal corners or climb fences in pursuit of their own share of the American dream.

Today's events provoked emotional solidarity with undocumented immigrants but not to an extent that would come out of his pocket.

"It's not an easy life here. It's real hard work and immigrants know that the best,'' he said. "We all understand each other, but we're not united. Everyone is out for himself.''

A burly, jovial man with a wife in real estate and two sons thriving in the upscale Sunny Isles Beach public school system, Fridman, who has been a U.S. citizen since 1984, socializes and identifies with the Russian community, less so with the ethnically and politically factionalized Latinos.

He waves off as hypocrisy the contentions of anti-immigrant conservatives that others don't have the right to seek opportunities in his adopted nation.

"This is an immigrant country. Only Native Americans come from here. Everybody else's parents came from someplace else,'' he said, taking both hands off the steering wheel to gesture in all directions. "Even the rednecks in Texas -- their relatives came from somewhere else!''

Despite large crowds that thronged through downtown Denver, it was mostly business as usual at the Denver International Airport, with restaurants, newsstands and shops fully staffed.

Several immigrants said they had contemplated taking the day off to rally, but decided that earning their paycheck was more important than making a political statement. Others said they were doubtful the protest would have any practical effect.

Delia Rivera's employer, the Cantina Grill restaurant chain, offered workers the day off and even provided transportation to the rally in downtown Denver. But Rivera chose to put on her white uniform, slick her hair into a ponytail and assemble taco salads for her regular eight-hour shift.

"I think it will cause more problems. I think it will bring more racism," said Rivera, 19, who emigrated from Mexico when she was a toddler. "I worry that you'll be walking down the street and someone will see you as Hispanic and get mad that you're here."

The boycott made a mixed impact in Phoenix, where some restaurants and supermarkets were closed, but many immigrants were still working. Across the street from one pro-immigrant rally, several Latino workers clambered on the roof of a shopping center, finishing new store buildings.

Benjamin Ruiz, 32, said that after work he'll refrain from shopping and will join in a candlelight vigil planned for tonight, but he could not get the day off.

"There's a lot of pressure for us to be here," said. Ruiz, an electrician. "I'll make my impact felt at home."

Larger crowds gathered at two Home Depots, where several hundred people shielded themselves from the searing desert sun with umbrellas, waved American flags and chanted "Si se puede!" (Yes we can) and "Aqui estamos! Y no nos vamos!" (We're here and we're not leaving.)

Jose Cruz said that most of his fellow employees at a company that installs shower doors were given the day off.

"He supports all of us," Cruz, 34, said of his boss, who is Anglo. "He wants all of us out here supporting other Latinos."

In Seattle, officials were preparing for thousands of protesters to take part in a late afternoon march in the downtown area. But there was hardly any other visible signs of protest in Seattle.

Pete Kosin, 31, a Ukrainian immigrant who works on office interiors for a construction company, said he never considered taking the day off despite his uncertain future in the United States. The Seattle resident said his visa is going to expire soon and he is not sure what he will do.

"I understand why people are marching. It's frustrating — immigrants are invisible in this country," said Kosin as he smoked a cigarette near a downtown office building. "But I have no backup — I lose my job, or get in trouble at some protest, I'm done. I can't afford it."