Junta for Progressive Action

NEW HAVEN — Hundreds of people — many of them declaring, "We Are All Immigrants!" — rallied on the Green Monday evening as part of a nationwide protest that saw hundreds of thousands of people demand an easier road to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants. It was one of the busiest days of protests since mass immigration demonstrations began around the United States last month.

"Amnistia para todos" — "Amnesty for All" — read a sign affixed to the onstage public address system as an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people, many of them Latin American immigrants, listened to Latin-Ka, a Latino rock band, a Mexican-American mariachi band and dozens of speakers ranging from immigrant rights and union leaders to Mayor John DeStefano Jr. to Auxiliary Bishop Peter Rosazza of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

"¡Sí, Se Puede," "Yes, we can!" the crowd chanted repeatedly, echoing the organizing chant of the late United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez. The Green was awash in the colors of waving flags, most of them the Stars and Stripes, although a host of Mexican flags also were visible along with the flags of Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador and Guatemala, among others.

"I’m for equal rights for everyone," said Edgar Sandoval of New Haven. A native of Guatemala City, Sandoval has lived and worked in the United States for 17 years, but remains an illegal immigrant. Two of his four children were born here and are U.S. citizens, he said.

"They should give the opportunity" for citizenship to people who have been here for a long time, Sandoval said.

"The American dream did not stop with Plymouth Rock or ... Ellis Island," said Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, D-5, an American citizen who emigrated many years ago from Cuba. "At the end of the day, what we are fighting for is not immigration, but justice."

New Haven-native Rosazza, the son of Italian-American immigrants, spoke both in English and Spanish, pointing out that one of the most disparaging terms for Italian immigrants, "WOP," stands for "without papers."

"We’re opposed to those things that criminalize people just for being here," said Rosazza, the archdiocese’s vicar for Spanish-speaking Catholics. "We want reforms so that people can obtain legal status, be treated properly, be reunited with their families."

DeStefano, a Democratic candidate for governor who angered many of the state’s Latinos a few months back with an aborted proposal to issue ID cards to undocumented immigrants, said that for generations New Haven "has welcomed people who have come to live their lives, take care of their families and, by their sweat, build a better America."

"The sweat of today’s immigrants is no different than the sweat of those who came before them and their rights should be no less," he said.

Elsewhere in the nation, rallies took place in communities of all sizes, from a gathering of at least 50,000 people in Atlanta to one involving 3,000 people in the farming town of Garden City, Kan., which has fewer than 30,000 residents. Gatherings took place in New York City, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Dallas and Mississippi, where demonstrators sang "We Shall Overcome" in Spanish.

Protesters have urged lawmakers to help an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants settle legally in the United States. A bill passed by the House would crack down on illegal immigrants and strengthen the nation’s border with Mexico. A broader overhaul of immigration law stalled in the Senate last week.

Sandoval, who speaks English, never thought he’d see the day when so many would come out, openly declare their status and demand change.

"It’s a good thing," he said as Mariachi Emperadores, a third generation Mexican-American mariachi band, first played a traditional Mexican tune and then the mariachi version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s "Sweet Home Alabama."

A few dozen feet away, Antonio Palma of New Haven, an eight-year immigrant from San Geronimo, Mexico, who works in a restaurant in Milford, waved two new, full-size flags, a red, white and blue American flag flying above a red, white and green Mexican flag.

"The laws have to change," Palma said in Spanish. "We don’t have rights."

Those sentiments were echoed across the Green as speaker after speaker addressed the crowd.

"I’m here to demand in the name of thousands of high school students that we be able to go to college because we are the future of this country," said Isaac Montel, 17, a student at Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden who came to the United States four years ago from Puebla, Mexico. He is prevented from attending college because without legal status he can’t obtain a social security number.

Yale University graduate student Xiaoye Li, a native of China, said he has fought for five years with colleagues in GESO, Yale’s graduate student union, "to make sure that the rights of immigrants are respected.

"You would think, because of the important work that we do, that our rights would be respected," but the government’s tightening of immigration enforcement since 9/11 has treated many immigrants "like criminals, even though they have not done a thing," he said.

"We at JUNTA often hear the stories of the immigrant families of New Haven ... immigrants who are treated as second-class citizens," said Kica Matos, director of JUNTA for Progressive Action, the city’s oldest Latino community service organization. "To that, I say, "Enough!"

Mark Zaretsky can be reached at mzaretsky@nhregister.com or 789-5722.