Sea Of Immigrants Rallies For Fair Law
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Expressing the position of most local lawmakers in Washington, Congressmember Joseph Crowley had stated: "This compromise helps put some of them on the pathways to citizenship, but still leaves large numbers too scared to return home and too vulnerable to exploitation if they stay."

Following weeks of turmoil in Congress over immigration bills, one of which would deal harshly with some illegal aliens and U.S. citizens who hire them, tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters staged a huge rally at City Hall on Monday aimed at getting fair legislation passed.

Waving posters proclaiming "Fair Rights for All Immigrants" and denouncing a House of Representatives measure that would make illegal immigrants felons, the demonstrators staged a mostly peaceful four-hour rally, sometimes breaking out into song and dance.

Their lines stretched from City Hall north past Canal Street as 2,000 police officers kept the peace. The demonstrators came from all over the city; the local rally was one of several held around the United States simultaneously.

The main focus of the protest was a Republican-backed bill passed in the House that would brand illegal immigrants as felons and authorize construction of a 700-mile-long fence on the Mexican border.

In the Senate, a bipartisan compromise was reached, but collapsed before being voted on. It would have cleared the way to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Opponents attacked it as little more than amnesty for lawbreakers.

Another part of the compromise called for illegals here less than two years to leave the U.S.

Throughout the long and heated dialogue in the Congress, President George W. Bush's position has been that Congress should pass legislation which would authorize a temporary work program that would legalize millions of immigrants.

Expressing the position of most local lawmakers in Washington, Congressmember Joseph Crowley had stated: "This compromise helps put some of them on the pathways to citizenship, but still leaves large numbers too scared to return home and too vulnerable to exploitation if they stay."

Crowley commended Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and others who worked for the compromise. He stated:

"I can honestly say as the congressman from the most diverse district in the United States that I don't love it, but I can learn to like it."

Crowley (D-Queens/The Bronx) urged his colleagues in both houses "to make this the starting point, and not the ending point as we go to conference on immigration reform."

The Senate will have another try at passing an immigration bill when both houses return next week from a brief recess.

Among other things, Monday's rally demonstrated the huge political impact of the immigration issue across America and the broad political spectrum. It also indicated that the issue will likely have a tremendous effect on the congressional elections that will be held in November and will determine whether the Republican Party will continue to control Congress next year.

At the rally, New York State's two senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats, addressed the throng.

Schumer paid homage to "the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have made New York City the great city it is," and noted: "The reason America is different from other countries is that we take new immigrants and turn them into Americans in one generation."

The Brooklyn lawmaker concluded: "Every immigrant has had the guts, the gumption, the fortitude to say, 'I'm going to make a better life for my family in America.'"

Clinton praised the crowd, saying, "Your faces are the faces of those who give us a fair day's work-and often not for a fair day's pay."

The march was planned mostly by labor organizations and immigration advocacy groups.

The leader of one such organization, Chung Wha Wong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, addressed the marchers and said: "The No. 1 message here today is we are America. We're here and we're here to make America strong."

Those in attendance represented many nations including Mexico, Israel, Ireland, Pakistan and countries in Central America.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed to show, but Democratic gubernatorial rivals Eliot Spitzer and Thomas Suozzi attended.

Local 32 BJ, the largest building service workers' union in the country and one of the rally's organizers, was headed by Hector Figueroa. He estimated the crowd at about 125,000 and said 140 organizations participated in the march, which was held between 3 and 7 p.m.