LOS ANGELES: Cruz Serrano, 46, an immigrant from El Salvador who is a legal resident, was waving a U.S. flag from a 6-foot pole outside Los Angeles City Hall in the first of two rallies. That noon rally drew an estimated 25,000 people, police reported. During the second rally in MacArthur Park, police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators; it was not immediately known if anyone was injured.
If comprehensive immigration reform isn’t enacted, Serrano said immigrants like himself will just have to vote to make a difference. Serrano will be a citizen next year after 24 years in the United States, he said.
“Even if they don’t listen to us, they’ll see we have power for something that’s good for everybody,” said Serrano, a cashier who took the day off from his grocery store job
WASHINGTON: “We refuse to accept that our future, our families, and our workers, have to be limited,” said Ricardo Juarez, a representative of Mexicanos sin Fronteras, which coordinated Tuesday’s rally in Washington. “We have a short time — maybe only May — to affect what’s happening in the government.”
Less than 100 people in Washington picketed the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee offices and offered direct messages: to Republicans, a warning that while a tough stance might win a primary, it could cost a general election; to Democrats, a plea not to sell out immigrants to get a compromise measure with the White House.
Pedro Aviles, executive director of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, said the small numbers belied the popularity of their message.
PHOENIX: About 15,000 people marched in Phoenix waving signs reading “Stop the roundups” and “The sleeping giant woke up forever.”
“We are not criminals,” said Roberto Organo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who said he has lived in the U.S. for 15 years.
A few dozen counter-protesters near the Arizona Capitol got in a shouting match with some at the rally.
