New Immigrant Rights Campaign to Mount Largest March of
Obama Era

By Randy Shaw Beyond Chron March 15, 2010

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7907

    "I cannot underscore strongly enough how pissed
    off the base is over the lack of action"
   
    Gabe Gonzalez, Center for Community Change

Last week, immigrant rights groups became the first
major progressive constituency to issue a release
publicly denouncing the Obama Administration. Blasting
the White House for "escalating deportations and
detentions" while taking no action toward enacting
comprehensive immigration reform, national immigrant
rights leaders are escalating a pressure campaign that
will feature the largest march of the Obama presidency
in Washington DC on March 21. The march comes amidst
growing frustration over the President's failure to
advance an issue that galvanized enough Latinos to the
polls in 2006 to give Democrats control of the House,
and which helped elect Obama president in November
2008.

Within days of the public criticism, the President met
with activists to frankly discuss the political
realities of moving forward. Having used massive
marches in cities across the nation to put immigration
reform in the national spotlight in 2006, activists are
now returning to this tactic as part of new campaign to
escalate pressure on Obama and Democratic Congressional
leaders. The goal is to finally pass comprehensive
reform this year.

After activists came close to winning comprehensive
immigration reform in 2006 and 2007, the election of
Barack Obama and Democratic control of Congress
seemingly made enactment a certainty in either 2009 or
early 2010. Given the steep political cost of inaction
- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and dozens of
Democratic Congressmembers need large Latino turnouts
to keep their seats - one would have thought that the
Democratic Party would act quickly on this signature
issue.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez certainly thought so. The
strong immigrant rights advocate told the UNITE HERE
convention in June 2009 that President Obama had
assured him that if a comprehensive reform measure were
not introduced in 2009, it would happen at the start of
2010.

But after Obama devoted but a single sentence to
immigration reform in his State of the Union speech,
and March 2010 began with no legislation even on the
horizon, activists decided to take matters into their
own hands.

The March for America

Organized by the Center for Community Change (CCC), the
March 21 event will be the largest protest march since
President Barack Obama took office. It will include
activist groups from nearly every state, and revives
the labor-religious-community coalition that built the
mass marches of 2006.

According to lead CCC March organizer Gabe Gonzalez,
SEIU, UNITE HERE, LIUNA and the UFCW have all committed
to mobilize for the march. Gonzalez also told me "the
churches are totally on board," with evangelical
churches - which have seen a steady rise in Latinos -
playing a larger role than in 2006. Such faith-based
activist networks as Gamaliel, PICO and the IAF are
also involved, which means that a large cadre of very
experienced organizers is involved in ensuring the
event's success.

Having written about how the immigrants rights movement
was built, and then exploded onto the public stage in
2006, the reassembling of this movement in Washington
DC next Sunday is significant. It means that many of
the nation's most strategic organizers from diverse
fields - labor, immigrant rights, faith-based activism
- are again working in concert to protect the over 10
million undocumented immigrants who face deportation
and the break-up of their families due to the
government's failure to legalize their status.

And while the march sends a powerful message, Gonzalez
and key organizers know that even more important is
what happens afterward.

The New Immigrant Rights Campaign

Following the march, activists plan to turn out in
large numbers to the Town Hall meetings that congress
members will hold during the two week recess starting
March 29. The traditional media gave massive coverage
to Tea Party members attending town halls last August,
and should be under pressure to provide something close
to that coverage for the immigrant rights activism at
these upcoming events.

On April 10, there will be an immigrant rights rally in
Las Vegas with Senator Reid. Reid knows his re-election
depends on massive Latino turnout in November, and
immigrant rights advocates are sending a message that
they will mobilize for him provided he provides
leadership on legalization.

Other rallies are also planned, but the chief focus
will be on pressuring legislators to support
legislation that activists now expect to be introduced
in April. The key issue that divided progressives in
the past - the treatment of guest worker programs - is
likely to be resolved through various potential
compromises, including the possible appointment of an
independent commission to regulate such programs.

Because the groups aligned with the CCC-spawned "Fair
Immigration Reform Movement" have weaker ties to the
Democratic Party than do some of the key health care
advocacy groups, the upcoming campaign will not
hesitate to publicly criticize wavering Democrats.
Gonzalez has already made it clear that "we expect the
Democratic leadership to act as leaders and hold their
Party's votes," and said New York Senator Chuck Schumer
- who would be the lead Democratic Senator on the
immigration bill - has "got the ball and he's got to
get off the dime."

The Politics of Reform

Both President Obama and activists recognize that
immigration legislation requires some Republican
support in the Senate. This is not as impossible as it
seems: recall that John McCain once co-sponsored a
legalization bill, and Maine's two Republican Senators,
along with Lindsey Graham (SC), Judd Gregg (NH), Scott
Brown (MA) and George Voinovich (OH) are potential yes
votes.

Facing a primary challenge from a right-wing former
Congressmember whose anti-immigrant attacks cost him
his seat in 2006, McCain no longer supports
legalization. But a grassroots pressure campaign that
includes religious groups could potentially sway enough
Republican Senators to avoid a filibuster, and Reid can
use his clout to prevent any Democrat from joining a
filibuster, even if they eventually vote against the
bill.

So comprehensive immigration reform that offers a
feasible path to legalization remains winnable this
year. And for President Obama and other Democrats
looking to fulfill their 2008 campaign promises to
Latino voters, moving the legislation as far as it can
go is essential.

This means requiring Republicans to actually take to
the floor and spend day and night on the filibuster,
clearly exposing GOP obstructionism - rather than the
Democrats' betrayal - as the cause of legislative
inaction. Republicans have paid a steep political price
for opposing legalization, and with key Senate contests
upcoming in Colorado, Nevada, and Florida, and other
states where Latino voters could prove the difference,
Republican Senators may want to avoid a high-profile
opposition strategy that galvanizes Latinos to come out
and vote against them.

In a recent speech on health care reform, President
Obama countered calls for delay by stating, "If not
now, when?" The same argument applies to comprehensive
immigration reform, which is why activists are mounting
this unprecedented grassroots campaign to win
legalization for millions of families this year.

________________

Randy Shaw is the author of Beyond the Fields: Cesar
Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the
21st Century.

_____________________________________________



for more of my work please go to:

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The man who has no imagination has no wings. 
Muhammad Ali


Rodney D. Coates
Professor