Immigration Protests Nationwide Pale Compared to Last Year

LOS ANGELES — Nationwide immigration rallies Tuesday produced only a fraction of the million- plus protesters who turned out last year, as fear of raids kept many illegal immigrants from coming out and organizers and activists began channeling their energies elsewhere.

In Los Angeles, where May 1 protests in 2006 brought out several hundred thousand at various activities, about 25,000 came out for a downtown rally, said police Capt. Andrew Smith, incident commander for the march. A second rally was expected in the afternoon.

In Chicago, where over 400,000 swarmed the streets a year earlier, police officials put estimates at about 150,000, by far the country’s largest turnout.

Organizers had long predicted lower turnouts, blaming stepped up immigration raids, frustration that marches haven’t pushed Congress to pass immigration reform legislation and a concerted effort by many groups to focus on citizenship and voter registration drives instead of street mobilizations.

Still, they argued smaller crowds didn’t mean the movement to win a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants had lost steam.

“People are saying we need to get together to demonstrate unity,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “But with so much happening, and so many concrete victories, you couldn’t say the movement is weakening.”

Protesters said that while anger over raids brought some people out, fear also kept many at home.

Los Angeles public school teacher David Cid said his students were suffering because recent raids had separated families. Los Angeles County has about 1 million illegal immigrants, by far the largest concentration in America.

“They feel terrorized,” said Cid, who declined to give more details about where he works to protect his students.

Thomas Rodriguez, 38, an illegal immigrant rallying in Chicago, said the raids were damaging families.

“We worry deportations are leaving too many young people without parents,” said Rodriguez.

Fear was apparent in Atlanta, where no rallies were planned, even though 50,000 marched on May 1 last year.

Organizers said immigrants were afraid of the raids and of a new Georgia state law set to take effect in July. The law requires verification that adults seeking non-emergency state-administered benefits are in the country legally, sanctions employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and requires police to check the immigration status of people they arrest.

“There’s a lot of anxiety and fear in the immigrant community,” said Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

In fiscal year 2006, federal immigration officials deported 195,024 people, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. Six months into the current fiscal year, 125,405 have already been deported.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean told immigrant supporters in Miami that a reform bill currently before Congress was “insane” because it would require many illegal immigrants to return home before applying for citizenship.

“This is a government that can’t find a 6-foot-4 terrorist. How is it going to find 12 million people?” he told a group of more than 100 party supporters at Miami’s Parrot Jungle Island.

About 15,000 people marched in Phoenix and another 2,500 in Tucson, waving signs reading “Stop the roundups” and “The sleeping giant woke up forever.”