Immigration protests smaller, just as passionate

Martin Sandoval is a worker, not a criminal. It said so in the handwritten sign he carried, just below an American flag, as he marched along Fifth Avenue with about 5,000 demonstrators Tuesday in downtown Seattle.

With his boss's permission, the native of El Salvador left an hour early from his job at an Auburn door and window factory and drove to the Seattle Center, joining a crowd calling for changes in U.S. immigration policies.

"We are here to support the march for rights," said Sandoval, who entered the country illegally seven years ago and received his green card in 2005. "We don't want more deportations ... to everyday people."

Mirroring protests in major American cities, demonstrators walked 2.5 miles to Westlake Park and back to the Center, periodically chanting "Si, se puede" -- "Yes, we can." In Seattle and across the nation in such cities as Los Angeles and Chicago, crowds were far smaller than in the inaugural immigration marches in 2006.

Last year, perhaps 30,000 people marched in Seattle.

Still, the stream of marchers Tuesday on Fourth Avenue stretched nine blocks, from Stewart Street to Denny Way.

At the front of the crowd, demonstrators towed a lime-green inflatable Statue of Liberty, tugging it by a noose around Lady Liberty's neck. The symbolism -- freedom denied -- was a theme throughout the event.

"Today we are here to say, immigrant rights are human rights," said Michael Ramos, director of social justice ministries for the Church Council of Greater Seattle. He is working with more than 15 local congregations to revive the sanctuary movement to house or otherwise support people in danger of being deported.

Unlike last year's May Day rally in Seattle, where the Mexican flag was prominently displayed, this year's march was far more red, white and blue. Although the crowd was overwhelmingly Latino, immigrants from other ethnicities marched as well.

"A huge number of Mexican immigrants migrate to the United States, but they're not the only ones," said Netsanet Tesfay, 23, who sought political asylum in the U.S. 16 years ago from Ethiopia. "We have different names, but it's the same struggle."

Melissa Bartolo and Cynthia Gutierrez, 15-year-old freshmen from Kirkland, draped a Mexican flag over their shoulders.

"We're respecting our country and where we're from," said Bartolo, who was born in California to Mexican parents. "And we want to represent why we want to stay here. We'll do anything to keep our families and friends."

Jesús Pedraza was 7 when his family came to Tacoma from Mexico City. Two of the 17-year-old's three siblings were born in the United States, giving them privileges he doesn't have.

Now that he's thinking about college, Pedraza is not sure his education could be worth much without documentation as a legal resident. But there's nothing for him back in Mexico.

"I came when I was a kid. My life was made here. It is here," he said. "People who are born here take it for granted. But to me, being here is worth a lot."

Flor Soria, 28, came to the rally with her husband, her 4-year-old son, Jarell, and a little girl on the way. She's due on Sept. 16, Mexico's day of independence.

She was here for last year's rally, too.

"Nothing's changed," she said, leaning on Jarell's stroller and looking around at the sea of signs and American flags. "In fact, it's getting worse."

Hearing more rumors of raids and surprise arrests of undocumented workers, she and her husband have stayed put in their home in Burien, leaving only to go to work.

Her biggest fear is what would happen to her American-born children if she or their father were deported.

It's a concern shared by many undocumented workers and their families.

"I'm scared," she said. "It's not fair. The parents are taken away, and the children stay alone."

The demonstration was organized mainly by El Comité Pro-Amnistia General y Justica Social (The Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice), a non-profit organization composed mostly of local social, labor and religious groups.

Organizers want a moratorium on raids and deportations, citing four episodes in Washington in recent months that resulted in nearly 70 arrests for various immigration violations.

They seek comprehensive immigration change that does not separate families, which they say could occur when undocumented parents -- but not their U.S.-born children -- are detained or deported.

Nationally, more than 1 million people were deported from October 2001 through April 16, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement figures released Tuesday. About half were removed after convictions for particular felonies and misdemeanors, commonly drug, violent and theft crimes. The other half were deported for non-criminal reasons, usually illegal entry or overstaying a visa.

Although some union leaders nationally have opposed the immigration reforms that protesters were demanding Tuesday, several Puget Sound-area unions -- including those representing equipment operators, service workers and longshore workers -- were well-represented at the march.

Health care worker Marcy Johnsen, a member of the Service Employees International Union, said she was marching for her patients and her coworkers.

"There are probably members of our local who aren't citizens yet," Johnsen said. "They're working, and they're needed."

Groups that oppose granting any kind of amnesty or benefits to those here illegally did not mount a counterprotest in Seattle, though they remained vocal.

"We're not violating anyone's rights, civil or human," said Hal Washburn, state volunteer coordinator for the Minuteman, a civilian border patrol group.

"We're just trying to get the government to secure our borders and enforce our laws. The number of illegal aliens in this country is growing to a staggering number."

Washburn is a retired financial adviser who lives in Olalla in Kitsap County.

The money earned by undocumented Mexican workers doesn't contribute to the local economy because so much of it is sent back to Mexico, Washburn said.

Chris Stephens, a King County organizer for the Minuteman, said he is working with about 40 people to monitor local contractors.

"We're not entirely focusing on illegal immigrants but on others who are, frankly, exploiting these people" by paying lower wages and withholding benefits, said Stephens, a commercial truck salesman.

"We need to secure the border and come up with a valid guest worker program that balances the need of the American economy with immigrant labor coming to this country on a temporary basis," he said.

At Osiris Dynamic Training on Fifth Avenue, trainer Todd Harmon gazed at the passing crowd. "I totally support it," he said. "Now that you're here, if you want to stay here, and you behave like an honest, taxpaying citizen, I have no problem making sure that happens, or doing everything I can as a taxpayer to make sure that happens."

On the corner of Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, Bryce Jones turned heads with a dissenting sign: "It isn't Jose can't you see."

"We don't have the economy to pay for these people's social ills," said Jones, a Capitol Hill resident. "I can understand people's freedoms and rights, but these people are here illegally. They don't have the right to be protesting. I do."

THE NUMBERS

Immigration rallies held nationwide Tuesday produced only a fraction of the million-plus protesters who turned out last year, as fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to change policy kept many at home. Among the estimates:

LOS ANGELES

2006: 650,000 -- 2007: 25,000

CHICAGO

2006: 400,000 -- 2007: 150,000

SEATTLE

2006: 30,000 -- 2007: 5,000