Immigrant workers and others in the greater Los Angeles area spent Labor Day weekend raising awareness about laborers struggling to work in the United States.
LINDSAY TUGGLE
Staff Writer
Activists hosted a number of events this Labor Day weekend to bring immigrant rights reform to the national as well as Congressional spotlight. Leaders urged political reform, wage readjustment and pressed Congress to deliver a comprehensive reform policy before they break for midterm elections.
Marches and rallies in downtown Los Angeles were held by immigrant rights advocates and several immigrant women’s groups to bring more public attention to specific issues including wage equity and the deportation of illegal immigrant parents with U.S.-born children. The largest rally Monday however was held in nearby Wilmington, near the Port of Los Angeles, where roughly 400 people marched for labor solidarity. Similar rallies in Arizona drew about 900 people.
Pepperdine Social Science professor Joel Fetzer said he believes the events this weekend are important to promote public awareness of the immigration issue.
“The marches and rallies in the spring were so large that the issue is really already in the public eye,” Fetzer said. “The ones this weekend are important more because of the specific issues that are being addressed, such as wage equity.”
Andy Canales, a sophomore and the secretary for the Latino Student Association, has been to rallies in the past, including the large one of last spring. He said he believes they are important in bringing exposure to the immigration debate, but he is wary of the effects of too many ill-planned events.
“Too many rallies are bad for the cause if they aren’t well organized,” Canales said. “Lots of people need to participate in them for them to be effective.”
The most defining event regarding immigration labor and reform was an address Monday by Cardinal Roger Mahony at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. At the special mass, the outspoken community leader urged Congress for comprehensive immigration reform in the coming weeks or face retribution at the polls in the upcoming elections.
Bart Benjamin, an immigrant from Holland who came to the United States in 1959, saw the Cardinal speak and agreesd with the leader’s call for immediate political reform as well as his insistence that is Congress’ moral responsibility.
“We do need a just immigration system,” Benjamin said. “Congress needs to come out with one inclusive policy that will withstand the test of time.”
Fetzer said he agrees that changes in immigration law must be made. “There are issues, such as the deportation of a mother living as an illegal immigrant while her United States born child stays in the country as a citizen. People really need rethink these issues.”
Benjamin said he believes that it is significant to bring the immigration issue to the public eye on a holiday such as Labor Day because of the impact that immigrants have on the labor force.
“Immigrant labor is essential to our society, and as a leader and public figure, it is important that Mahony speaks out for those he leads,” Benjamin said. “People would have been surprised if he had not spoken on a day such as today.”
Fetzer said he believes that voting for the upcoming elections will be greatly affected by Congress’ inability to pass any comprehensive immigration reform.
“Politicians have been using immigrants as scapegoats in the past,” Fetzer said. “This may have worked in communities that are 95 percent white and above, but will become increasingly ineffective as there are more minorities becoming voters in America.”
Canales also foresees the issue of immigration to be a big part of the upcoming elections.
“In the early 90s, Governor Pete Wilson blamed immigrants for a lot of the problems in California, and Republicans had a hard time winning back the state after that until Governor Schwarzenegger came along,” Canales said. “That could definitely happen on a national scale if Congress doesn’t address the important issues soon.”
Canales, a son of El Salvadoran immigrants, hopes that all the events this weekend help continue to keep immigration reform at the center of the American political stage.
“The issue absolutely needs addressing,” Canales said. “If it isn’t dealt with and immigrants are not allowed a pathway to citizenship, it will create an underclass in our society made up of people who don’t have what they need to succeed or even survive.”
He said that the demonstrations are a sign of the fight for survival.
“The rallies this weekend just continue to show that people are willing to unite and eager to work towards citizenship and better themselves.”
09-07-2006