Over the last several years the Clinton administration has led the bipartisan drive to limit the rights of residents born outside the U.S. borders. In 1996 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act was signed, beefing up the immigration cops and giving them greater powers to deport immigrants. Factory raids by the INS have become increasingly common. The 1996 "reform" also barred 1 million immigrants with legal status from receiving social entitlements, and made it harder for those without papers to gain legal status. In the last two years more than 300,000 people have been deported, more than twice the number expelled in the previous two years.

There is resistance to these attacks. In Miami, for instance, there have been several protests demanding freedom for people detained at Krome Detention Center under the 1996 law, which retroactively punishes noncitizens for past crimes, even minor ones, with deportation.

Some of those who came to Washington on a bus from Long Island, New York, have been involved in a struggle by Mexican workers to defend themselves against attacks by a right wing, anti-immigrant group. The workers have faced intimidation and even physical assault as they gather on the sidewalk to be hired by area contractors. Workers responded by mobilizing against the rightists.

In addition to dozens of buses from New York, marchers came in buses, mini-vans and cars from Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas. Some traveled across the country from California. Many city residents also joined the protest. The action included immigrants from four continents. The largest numbers were those from Latin America and the Caribbean.  
 

'We're here, we won't go back!'

The action was called as a "March for Dignity and Amnesty." Many of the speakers promoted lobbying Congress for a "general amnesty" law under which undocumented workers who are currently in the United States could apply for legal status. Some speakers also promoted measures such as a bill proposed by Rep. Lincoln Díaz Balart to give amnesty to Colombian and Peruvian immigrants who came to the United States before December 1995 due to "terrorist violence."

Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, a Democrat from Chicago, sent a message to the meeting stating, "If you can vote, you have to vote." Those who can't vote can still work to get the Republicans out of Congress, he urged.

This action had a much larger trade union presence than a similar protest in 1996. The single largest contingent was from the Laborers International Union. New York City locals brought members on 13 buses with the unionists carrying flags from their respective countries, including Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Poland. Other Laborers here included a group of poultry workers from Morganton, North Carolina and some from the Washington area. These workers were especially noticeable as they blew the hundreds of whistles that they brought.

"While some [workers] are undocumented, the taxes they pay are very well documented," declared Manuel Escobar, who was part of the Laborers contingent. Zoila Rodríguez, another member of the contingent, said that many of the 100 workers where she works at Core Recycling in New Jersey came to the march.

When asked why he made the more-than-20-hour trip Salvador López, a Mexican farmworker from Bonita Springs, Florida, explained "We need amnesty and better treatment, and better wages. We are paid $5.15 an hour and get no benefits whatsoever."

There were farmworkers' contingents from Toledo, Ohio, and North Carolina organized by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). The FLOC members, wearing bright red T-shirts and waving flags, were building support for a boycott of North Carolina–based Mt. Olive Pickle Co. The union has won contracts with pickle makers in Ohio that included pay increases and some control over health and safety conditions. Workers are fighting to extend these gains to North Carolina.

As one of the buses arrived in Miami on its return trip, Max Borieux told the group of mostly Haitian participants, "This was a good event, it is a step in the struggle, and we will continue to mobilize until we reach victory!"

Rollande Girard is a member of the International Association of Machinists Local 1126 in Miami, Florida; John Sarge is a member of the United Auto Workers Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan.  
 
 
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