May Day Marchers: "Immigration Reform is Urgent"

For the fourth consecutive year, thousands rallied for immigrants' rights at the Capitol in Salem on May 1st. This year's march mirrored the current realities facing the movement for comprehensive immigration reform: clear political progress but difficult challenges ahead.

CAUSA has a photo slideshow and video of the march.

Political progress: "uniting forces"

As the PCUN Update Editorial, Signs on the Road to Legalization, lays out, support nationally for prompt action on reform is aligning. At the Capitol march, led by CAUSA and PCUN, the addresses by Jeff Stone, legislative director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, and Bill Perry, head of the Oregon Restaurant Assocation, offered the most dramatic evidence in Oregon of this trend. Stone and Perry co-chair the Coalition for Working Oregon, representing twenty employer associations backing comprehensive immigration reform.

We counted 3,000 participants in this year's march, down from last year. A similar number marched and rallied in Portland. Nationally, Vivirlatino.com tabulated 90 actions in 24 states; more than a third were in California. Media in Chicago and Los Angeles reported much smaller gatherings--nothing approaching the mega-marches of recent years.

Without question, "Swine flu" gitters depressed turn-out, as did despair about economy. Western Oregon University in Monmouth, ten miles west of Salem, closed after a student was diagnosed with flu, the first reported Oregon case. Spanish-language and mainstream media were saturated with stories of public health response, of flu-caused deaths, and public life shut down in Mexico City.

Busloads from Central Oregon

For the first time, the march in Salem included a major contingent from Central Oregon organized by the Central Oregon Labor Council and Jobs With Justice and fueled by Spanish-language AM "Radio Bronca." SEIU, Basic Rights Oregon, Adelante Mujeres, and Latinos United for a Better Future also brought sizeable groups. Voz Hispana Causa Chavista's "PCUNcitos Club" led the procession through downtown Salem.

Planning for the March started earlier this year. Over 400 turned out for CAUSA's Immigrant Action Day February 28th in Salem and in early March, a coordinating committee began weekly meetings. Radio Movimiento devoted many hours to commentary and mobilization.

The next major event is a national address on immigration reform by President Obama some time in early June. CAUSA will co-lead a major national strategy summit scheduled for June 3rd in Washington D.C.