A Rally for the Ages

Courtesy J. Emilio Flores AFP/Getty Images

From ABC News: Elsa Rodriguez, 30, a trained pilot who came to Colorado in 1999 from Mexico to look for work, said she just wants to be considered equal.

"We're like the ancestors who started this country, they came from other countries without documents, too," the Arvada resident. "They call us lazy and dirty, but we just want to come to work. If you see, we have families, too."


So if you were hiding under a rock over the past week, you may have missed perhaps the biggest rally in the history of California, and one of the biggest in recent American history. An estimated, 500,000 people marched down Broadway Ave. in Los Angeles to City Hall, protesting against the proposed, House Resolution 4437: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.

This wonderful piece of legislation, would make felons of all undocumented immigrants in this country as well as all those who would provide work, services or humanitarian assistance to said immigrants. How wonderfully Christian of our federal representatives wouldn't you agree? My first question to these lawmakers would be... So when were you issued your indictment?



Sit back in your seats and recount what you ate in the past couple of days? Did you eat a fresh plum recently? Or perhaps maybe a nice spinach salad? Or maybe you had a Double Double Animal Style from In-N-Out? Where might all this food have come from?

Definitely not from Never-Neverland. In fact, the backbone of the agricultural, meat, poultry and fishing industries are the hardworking hands of legal and illegal immigrants. From the grape picker in Dinuba, to the fish packer in Rhode Island, your food is cultivated by them.

Your house may have been built by them, or your hotel room cleaned by them. The official and unofficial activities of Latin American, Asian and even European immigrants has a huge impact on the American economy and shouldn't be ignored. A good way for us to educate ourselves about the true nature of immigrant impact on the American economy. Check out a sampling of research from the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute which is a run out of Claremont College in California.

Check out this interesting article on illegal Irish immigrants in America.



Today on Air America Radio, I heard a woman call into the Randi Rhodes show, saying that while she agreed with Randi on 99% of issues, she disagreed with Randi on immigration. "My single mother raised me and abided by the law... these people need to go back to their countries, no matter if that means separating familiies... their lives don't affect me." What irony it would have been for a citizen to have said the same thing to her ancestor as they entered the United States without documents?

It is true that people that are here undocumented have violated the law. What is also true is that something truly desperate and human has driven them to cross great stretches of law, and go past huge obstacles to get to the United States. That will not stop if we and our trade partners in NAFTA and CAFTA don't address the economic disparities that exist that bring these people to enter the United States.



And as the leaders of North America, or as my dad might call them, the Three Stooges meet in of all places, Cancun... home of Papas and Beer and Wet T-Shirt contests... Professor Robert Pastor of American University brings us a simple, yet radical idea for address the problems of today.

Let's hope that a few days in Cancun can do for the future of North American immigration policy. Certainly the Wet T-shirts and Pacifico hasn't bridged the North American divide.