Militant/Argiris Malapanis

The New York march on April 10 drew 125,000, among the largest in the country.

Opposition to House Resolution 4437, known as the Sensenbrenner bill, was the focus of many speeches from the platform and signs in the crowd. The bill, passed by the House of Representatives in December, would make it a felony—punishable by jail—to live in the United States without proper papers, and would mandate the building of a fence along the border with Mexico. There are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country.

The mood was celebratory as tens of thousands of people, many taking part in their first demonstration of any kind in the United States, were buoyed by the massive turnout and their sense of potential power.

“Sí se puede” (Yes we can) kept reverberating down the 12-block march route. Thousands chanted and waved signs demanding legal residence in order to live and work in this country without fear of firing or deportation, to travel freely to and from their home country, and to reunite with loved ones.

“We cook while you eat,” one worker pointed out with her hand-lettered placard.

“When we leave, who’s going to build your fence?” another sign asked, mocking proponents of HR 4437.

Many carried banners declaring, “We’re workers, not criminals.” Or simply, “We’re workers.”

In a variation on another popular slogan, a young woman declared, “Ya llegamos, y trabajamos, y solo muertos nos callamos” (We’re here, we’re working, and we won’t shut up until we’re dead).

“We are America!” “Legalization for all!” “We are not aliens!” were among the multitude of slogans displayed.

It was overwhelmingly a working-class demonstration. Restaurant workers, nannies, construction laborers, hotel workers, sewing-machine operators, food industry workers, and taxi drivers were among the many who marched. Some people left work early or took the day off to join the demonstration.

Most of the marchers were immigrants from Latin America, the most numerous of which were Mexican-born. But many hailed from China, Pakistan, Ireland, Korea, Philippines, Haiti, West Africa, or the English-speaking Caribbean. Restaurant and garment workers were part of a large contingent that came from Chinatown. Signs were visible in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Urdu, and Arabic.

March organizers had pressed demonstrators to bring U.S. flags and passed them out by the thousands. Many people also brought their own native flags: from Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Colombia, Poland, and elsewhere.

A number of trade union contingents marched with their banners: the Laborers International Union in their orange T-shirts, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE, Transport Workers Union (TWU), several locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and SEIU Local 1199, which organizes health-care workers.

SEIU Local 32BJ is planning a mass rally April 18 in preparation for a possible walkout by 28,000 residential building workers when its contract expires two days later.

“Without papers, we can’t demand better pay or rights on the job. We want to live without fear, not in the shadows,” said restaurant worker José Adán, 32.

“What we need is amnesty for all,” said Elda Sandre, 26, originally from Puebla, Mexico. “I came here to show that there are a lot of us.” A domestic worker, she carried a hand-lettered sign in Spanish that read, “We are the power.”

Mamadou Diallo, a seasonal worker on a commercial fishing ship, said, “I’ve lived here in the United States for 10 years. I’ve never committed a crime. We’re not criminals.” Diallo, who was born in Mali, added, “We’re here for papers for all immigrants.”

Many of the marchers were immigrants with residency papers who supported the legalization of the undocumented. One of them, Kelvin Santana, 26, a member of UFCW Local 888, works at a Goya Foods plant in Secaucus, New Jersey. “We’re a United Nations there,” he said. “I’m here to show that we’re willing to fight for the same rights—and not just Hispanic immigrants.” About 60 UFCW members from Goya were at the march.

Griffin Smith, 21, said he was one of a large group of New York University students at the march. “I don’t like any of the immigration bills in Congress. Personally, I’m for open borders,” he noted.

“We have to support each other, whether we’re here legally or illegally,” said 27-year-old Darwin Coronel, a waiter born in Ecuador. All the immigration proposals “are more or less restrictive, but I prefer the McCain-Kennedy bill as the best option.”

A measure sponsored by U.S. senators John McCain, a Republican, and Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, would institute a “guest worker” program that would force millions to work for six years as temporaries, dependent on their bosses, before being eligible to apply for residency. It would also beef up police agencies on the border.

The April 10 demonstration here, like a similar march of 25,000 held nine days earlier, had been built on a daily basis by the Spanish-language media, church and community groups, several major unions, and the offices of some Democratic politicians.

Speakers at the rally included numerous officeholders, such as senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, state attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer, and Congresspeople José Serrano, Nydia Velázquez, and Charles Rangel. Many of them spoke in favor of the McCain-Kennedy bill, touting it as a “path to citizenship.”

Also speaking were Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition; May Chen, vice president of UNITE HERE; and Roger Toussaint, president of TWU Local 100, as well as representatives of organizations of day laborers, domestic workers, and Haitian, Dominican, Filipino, and Middle Eastern immigrants.

Several speakers called for holding a May 1 “day without an immigrant,” urging immigrants not to shop, to skip work and school that day, and to join local May Day marches. The call received an enthusiastic response from many in the crowd, who answered with chants of “Huelga, huelga!” (strike).

April 9-10 Actions for Immigrant Rights by State and City