Welcoming the Stranger: Massive Protests Advocate for Immigrants’ Rights
¡Si se puede! (Yes we can!)
by Mica Root
Project Voice Program Assistant
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| Children protest with "I AM NOT A CRIMINAL" T-shirts. |
On March 7, more than 20,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for a massive rally and interfaith service organized jointly by AFSC and representatives of immigrant and refugee communities and organizations from the National Capitol Immigration Coalition.
By 3:30 p.m., the lawn of the Capitol was full of protestors although the rally wasn’t set to start for another half hour. Holding signs that read “No human being is illegal” and “We are not criminals,” the waves of people kept coming.
They came, in part, to protest the draconian immigration bill HR 4437 (also known as the Sensenbrenner-King bill). Among many harmful provisions, HR 4437 makes undocumented presence in the United States a federal felony, criminalizes humanitarian work with migrants, and guts due process for the undocumented.
A Rising Tide
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| The 20,000-strong crowd starts to form. |
The outpouring of immigrants standing up for their rights in D.C. that day has been echoed throughout the country in recent months. Thousands of immigrants and their allies flooded the streets of more than 50 U.S. towns and cities in February and March—500,000 in Los Angeles, 300,000 in Chicago, 30,000 in Milwaukee, to name a few.
AFSC staff and community members have been instrumental in a number of these events, including getting 100,000 into streets in Denver, Colorado, on March 25, 6,000 in Charlotte, North Carolina (also on March 25), and 4,000 in Portland, Oregon, on March 4.
In addition to protesting the Sensenbrenner-King Bill, immigrants’ rights advocates have called on the Senate to reject bills that include similar provisions and instead to pursue fair and comprehensive immigration reform.
Allies Stand Firm
In D.C., the events surrounding the rally included a superb lobbying day with 21 teams visiting 85 congressional offices. There also was a well-attended press conference during which doctors, lawyers, teachers, and other human service providers testified about the negative impacts of HR 4437—and pledged to continue providing services to undocumented immigrants, despite efforts to criminalize these actions.
AFSC Board Clerk Paul Lacey represented Quakers and AFSC at the interfaith service.
In an email describing the day, Paul noted that "being one of the speakers at the rally was a great privilege, not only because I was permitted to speak on behalf of AFSC, whose stand on the rights of immigrants is so important, but also because I was in such splendid company."
This included AFSC staff from Cambridge, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California; and Washington, D.C. AFSC’s San Diego staff, together with the Border Community Alliance for Human Rights, brought more than 200 residents of border communities to D.C., following through on AFSC’s Project Voice commitment to lift up the voices of those most affected by U.S. immigration policies.
Peta Ikambana of the AFSC Washington, D.C., Program Office played a key role in the planning and organizing of the events. His leadership helped shape the character of the rally, which was built on the theme Welcoming the Stranger.
Prayer for Justice
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| AFSC Board clerk Paul Lacey leads the crowd in prayer. |
Speaking from the steps of the Capitol to the crowds, Paul Lacey’s prayer reflected this theme:
"God of justice and mercy, we come here today to witness for justice for the stranger, justice for the poor and disenfranchised, justice for those who come to this country willing to do our hardest jobs, our least-rewarded jobs, to feed their families and give their children hope for the future…
"We come here to witness for laws that protect the strangers that will give them equity in this society, laws that will make it possible not to be strangers any more."
Click here to read the full text of Lacey's prayer for immigrants' rights.
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