By Elizabeth Aguilera
Denver Post Staff Writer
Thousands of marchers took to Denver streets Tuesday for the second annual immigration march, pushing for an end to immigration raids and for comprehensive immigration reform.
More than 10,000 immigrants and supporters marched from Lincoln Park, through downtown to Cuernavaca Park near 20th Street and Little Raven. Early estimates from police put the crowd at around 2,000, but witnesses and organizers near the end of the march route counted between 10,000 and 15,000 people.
“It shows that people are really ready for a change,” said Gabriela Flora, of the American Friends Service Committee. “The raids have created a lot of fear but also gave people courage to come out and say ‘this is not the solution.'”
Recent raids in Greeley and Southern Colorado affected nearly 300 families and have immigrants and supports upset about children left behind, parents deported and communities left to fill in the gaps.
For Maria Bernal and her husband, Cuauhtemoc Bustillos, both 31, the issue is personal and real. He is undocumented, she is a citizen from Texas. Their three children are U.S. citizens.
“This affects our family and our community,” said Bernal. “If my huband were to get deported, it would affect us deeply. He is the sole bread winner; I am a stay-at-home mom.”
Last year more than 75,000 people participated in an economic boycott and marched on Civic Center Park to push for reform. A special session of the state legislature last summer produced some of the toughest state immigration laws.
Marchers chanted slogans and carried signs that read “Stop the Raids,” “Immigration Reform Now,” and “Keep Families Together.”
Along with organizers Rights For All People and Colorado Coalition for Immigration Reform, the Colorado Council of Churches, Veterans for Peace and the Muslim American Society participated in the event.
“We must all stand and fight for the things that are the most important to us, families,” said Hashim Malik, of the Muslim American Society.
“We are backing you 100 percent,” he told the crowd.
Comprehensive immigration reform includes a pathway to legalization for undocumented workers and family reunification, organizers said.
“As Christians, the call to treat one another with hospitality and compassion is primary, especially when someone is a “stranger,”” said Jann Holloran, of the Colorado Council of Churches and a Unitarian Universalist minister.
A handful of protesters walked the park with flags, one shouted “We Speak English” during a “Si Se Puede” chant by the crowd.
Vicki Anderson and Lisa Drangshott, teachers from Englewood and Aurora, marched with signs that said “Teachers for Immigrant Rights.”
High School sophomore Berlinda Garcia, 16, took an excused absence to join the march.
“My dad came here illegally to fight for us, so we could be successful and educated,” she said. “We want Congress to know we are here to do something with our lives.”
Teens and kids were at the march with their families or decided to take absences from classes to attend.
“There are so many people working without papers,” said Maria Ortiz, who brought her family to the march. “They want to keep their families together and they come here to work and succeed because of the poverty back home. they should not be separated.”
Tammy Fredricks, 46, of Littleton, held a sign near the rally stage claiming she paid $24,000 in medical expenses last year and that undocumented immigrants received free care. She said she does not believe they pay taxes.
According to the federal government the estimated seven million undocumented immigrants who are working contribute as much as $7 billion a year to the Social Security system through income taxes.
University of Colorado at Denver student Megan Fleming, 25, pushed her bike along the route trying to figure out how she can help.
“I believe this is a country founded on immigration,” said Fleming, who said she once picked squash for a season on the east coast with immigrants. “Without immigrant workers, so many of our businesses couldn’t run.”
Along the route workers hung out in doorways and watched from windows as the crowd went by. On Blake Street, Curtis Bird stepped out of the Old Man Gallery to watch.
“I think it’s great because of what INS or whatever those jerks are called did in Northern Colorado,” Bird said. “The nature of how the economy has changed in the western hemisphere means we have to rethink these issues.”
From Washington D.C. Senator Ken Salazar extended his support for marchers in Denver and across the country. He has been meeting with Republicans and Democrats to develop a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate.
“Like President Bush, I believe we must reform our immigration laws in a manner that meets America’s needs for the 21st century,” said Salazar in a statement.
Dave Leo, who is anti-illegal immigrant, waved a large American flag in the park and held up a sign that said “Illegals not welcome.”
“We have certain laws in place today that don’t allow illegal immigrants to enter our country, therefor they should not be here,” he said. “If they are illegal they should go home.”
In the U.S. it is estimated there are 12 million undocumented immigrants, around half are estimated to be from Mexico.
The devastation on families targeted by the raids creates a humanitarian disaster, said Julien Ross, coordinator of the Colorado Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
“Immigration laws are unjust and the system is broken,” he said. “Until we reform the laws we can’t talk about broken laws.”
Juan Mercado understands why people break the law to get here so they can work. He did it once too before he became a legal resident.
“You break the law out of necessity and then you have years here of contributing to the government, and if they don’t help people the country does not progress,” said Mercado, 54.
Josh Ordonez, 25, walked several blocks from his job at the Capitol with the marchers. His father entered the U.S. illegally in the 1970s and eventually became a citizen. But others in the family haven’t been as fortunate and are still trying to get documentation.
“This could have been handled so long ago and it wasn’t,” he said. ‘It’s about the economy but its more about human lives. They are just trying to make a living.”
Georgeanne Bley, 41, said she participated because she is tired of people bashing immigrants.
“My brothers and sisters are human,” Bley said. “They don’t belong in just one country.”
Bley, who is gay, said that gay immigrants face even more discrimination because once they become citizens, their partners are not eligible to come to the United States because they are of the same gender.
Fernando Gutierrez, 29, of Denver walked toward the throng of marchers and was sorry he had not joined the rally. The American-born Gutierrez was raised in Mexico and came back to the U.S. a couple of years ago.
“We need them to do jobs others don’t want to do,” he said. “If they are gone, no one else is going to try and get those jobs.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona contributed to this report.
