DENVER-
Thousands of people demanding changes in immigration laws and an end to federal raids marched through downtown Denver on Tuesday, capping the demonstration by lifting their cell phones in the air and calling Colorado’s U.S. senators.
The march was part of a nationwide day of demonstrations and rallies seeking a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Immigration activists want to press Congress to act this summer, before the issue is lost amid the 2008 presidential campaign.
Last year, 1 million joined similar events, including 75,000 in Denver by police estimate. This time, police estimated 2,000 people turned up, but organizers said they thought it was at least 10,000.
The crowd grew after they left a park near downtown and marched past the state Capitol on the way to a park tucked alongside Interstate 25, near trendy loft apartment buildings and Coors Field. People gathered to listen to speeches in both English and Spanish calling for reform while others spread out on the grass with their families, buying food, drinks and ice cream from vendors.
A few counter-protesters came. One woman held a sign saying that she spends $24,000 a year on health insurance for her family and that “Illegal means against the law.” A young mother wearing a T-shirt with “Chicana” printed on the back told her, “We do work you don’t want to do.”
Mario Rodriguez, 35, was skeptical when asked to dial Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, yelling back at the stage that immigration isn’t about reason, it’s about feelings of discrimination. He dialed but said he got a busy signal.
However Rodriguez, a Mexican native who said he is a legal resident, believes Congress could pass immigration reform this year under pressure from businesses that have lost employees in immigration crackdowns.
Rodriguez, a translator for mortgage companies, said many lenders are losing business because illegal immigrants are scared. He said some illegal immigrants have abandoned heavily mortgaged houses to live in other states with less strict laws.
“They feel in this country as if they are locked up,” Rodriguez said.
Last year, Colorado lawmakers passed several bills aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. They require state contractors to verify their employees are citizens or legal residents, and police and sheriff departments to report illegal immigrants they arrest to federal authorities.
Another requires people to prove they are in the country legally before they can get non-emergency state services, including driver’s licenses.
Because of the new laws, cabinetmaker Guillermo Gutierrez, 34, said he had to buy a used car on the street instead of a new one from a dealer and have a friend buy the license plates.
“It’s like driving someone else’s car all the time,” said Gutierrez, who said he and his wife, Cecilia Salazar, 35, arrived from Mexico illegally with two of their three children
Gutierrez said he worries about losing his job because he doesn’t think he could find another in Colorado again.
“We have to work hard all the time but we have a lot more pressure,” he said.
Salazar, who like her husband was wearing a University of Colorado baseball cap, said the family could leave their extended family behind and move to another state if immigration laws aren’t changed in the coming year.
Sixteen-year-old Isla Diaz, who wore an American flagged wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, said she was originally from Juarez, Mexico, but now, “I feel like I’m a part of this place.”
“I feel like I want to stay here,” said Diaz, who said she has been in the United States about six years.
Diaz, who declined to discuss her immigration status, said her parents worry about the recent raids in Colorado and across the country.
