Immigrant communities through out the United States came together on April 9th and 10th to send a clear message throughout the nation – “We Are America.” The National Day of Action began the nation wide protest on April 9th with Dallas (TX) San Diego (CA), Miami (FL), and Boise (ID) leading the way with the rest of the nation continuing on 10th 2006.
The “April 10 Day of Action” was not organized through well known organizing communities but through local grassroots organizations and coalitions are working together. More than two million immigrants and their allies gathered in cities across the US to oppose HR4437. These protests will go down in the history books as the largest display of decentralized, coordinated protest in US history. Cities everywhere broke historical records on the number of people gathering to voice their outrage.
Communities who lived in fear found thier voices and spoke out about America’s broken immigration system. A system that tears families apart; a system that exploits and forces them to work is conditions that are considered inhumane; and a system that violates their civil liberties.
Summary:
Birmingham (AL) – 4,000
Phoenix (AZ) – 100,000
Tucson (AZ) – 25,000
Springdale (AR) – 5,000
Little Rock (AR) – 2,000
San Diego (CA) – 100,000
San Jose (CA) – 25,000
Los Angeles (CA) – 7,000
Santa Ana (CA) – 300
Sacramento (CA) – 5,000
San Francisco (CA) – 5,000
Fresno (CA) – 10,000
Oakland (CA) – 10,000
Concord (CA) –
Gilroy (CA) –
Redwood City (CA) –
Richmond (CA) – 300
Hayward (CA) –
Denver (CO) – 1,000+
Colorado Springs – 1,000
Grand Junction (CO) – 4,000
Boulder (CO) – 200
Hartford (CT) – 2,500
New Haven (CT) – 2,000
Georgetown (DE) – 1,000
Miami (FL) – 7,000
Homestead (FL) – 2,500
Tampa (FL) –
Atlanta (GA) – 60,000
Boise (ID) – 4,000
Champaign (IL) –
South Bend (IN) – 5,000
Des Moines (IA) – 5,000
Kansas City (KS) –
Arkansas City (KS) – 200
Emporia (KS) – 1,500
Garden City (KS) – 3,000
Dodge City (KS) – 2,000
Great Bend (KS) – 300
Liberal (KS) – 80
Wichita (KS) – 4,000
Portland (ME) – 200
Salisbury (MD) – 200
Boston (MA) – 10,000
Grand Rapids (MI) –
St. Paul (MN) – 30,000
Jackson (MS) – 500
St Louis (MO) – 5,000
Omaha (NE) – 10,000
Lincoln (NE) – 4,000
Schuyler (NE) –
Jersey City (NJ) – 5,000
Las Cruces (NM) – 300
Sunland Park (NM) – 350
Albuquerque (NM) – 300 middle school and high school students
New York City (NY) – 125,000
Long Island (NY) – 2,000
Ellis Island (NY) – 4,000
State of North Carloina – 100 people joined a cross-state march
Winston-Salem (NC) – 1,500
Wilmington (NC) –
Siler City (NC) – 4,000
Toledo (OH) –
Cincinnati (OH) –
Louisville (OH) –
Oklahoma City (OK) – 10,000 (week before)
Salem (OR) – 10,000
Portland (OR) – 1,000
Philadelphia (PA) – 7,000
Harrisburg (PA) – 250
Pittsburg (PA) – 150
Columbia (SC) – 5,000
Greenville (SC) – 2,500
Charleston (SC) – 1,500
Nashville (TN) – 14,000
Knoxville (TN) – 2,500
Austin (TX) – 15,000
Dallas (TX) – 500,000
Fort Worth (TX) – 30,000
Houston (TX) – 50,000
San Antonio (TX) – 50,000
El Paso (TX) – 2,000
Tyler (TX) – 2,000
Laredo (TX) – 1,000 students (parents and media were barred from forum)
Cameron Park (TX) – 500
Harlingen (TX) – 150
Brownsville (TX) – 350
Corpus Christi (TX) – 400
Salt Lake City (UT) – 40,000
Seattle (WA) – 30,000
Madison (WI) – 10,000
Laramie (WY) – 50
Washington, D.C – 500,000
I need you help, I know there were more rallies out there so if you know of another city which I left out, please let me know. These are their voices, voices that need to be heard. If it is not reported, it never happened, and together we can make sure that America knows about the small towns or areas that the news media did not report.
As for Laredo, TX here is the latest development.
Parents and members of the media were barred Wednesday from entering Alexander High School, where 800 to 1,000 students filled the cafeteria to attend an open forum on immigration reform.
School officials also confiscated posters that said “Viva la Causa!” and other slogans advocating immigration reform, students said after the event.
…
Several representatives of television and print media outlets arrived at about 10:15 a.m. for the 10:20 event; later, Santos said the event was scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. Journalists were asked to leave school property and were forced to stand across the street on Del Mar.
What the local media is reporting:
UISD Superintendent Bobby Santos later claimed that the media was never “officially” invited. No, we didn’t have it in writing. We often don’t. If we get a phone call from an official asking us to cover an event, we try to respond as quickly as we can. We don’t wait to get in writing.
This is the first time in a combined 30-year memory here at the paper that we have been barred from attending such a student event.
…
According to witnesses, parents were initially prohibited from entering the cafeteria by Principal Sandra Alvarez. Later, after the parents protested, Alvarez said she had received a new directive and allowed them to enter. Shortly thereafter, however, at least one other parent was barred from entering by school police. She, too, was later admitted.
We can not stop fight, our voices still need to be heard. Those in small towns, their voices need to heard.
¡¡¡Luchemos por justicia, trabajo y dignidad para todos!!!
Fort Myers (FL) – 50,000
Pensacola (FL) – 1,000
Lexington (KY) – 3,500
Rockford (IL) – 2,000
I didn’t see Bakersfield, CA on the list so since you asked I just spent the last hour looking up stats for the march here(I live about 25 minutes from there in a little town called Taft).
I ended up finding a wonderful local webblog of a author in B-town and he had dozens and dozens of pictures and commentary…the turnout in Bakersfield was put at 10,000 plus even possibly 20,000. And no disturbances to mar the march and rally.
I was pretty happy to read this-this area is a very red part of Ca. and also has a fairly openly racist attitude toward anyone who isn’t white. So I was glad to see their were no acts of violence.
It was hard wasn’t it. I figured it would be easy, but I spent my morning looking this up. I have to admit, CA was hard to get. I know there was suppose to be 20 cities but only mentioned a few, San Diego and San Fran of course. But it is those little towns that are skipped.
I know of Taft and that area, I used to live in LA, more like La Cresenta.
I thank you for the number, I will go with 20,000. Not because I perfer the bigger numbers, but I have noticing at all the places that I have looked through, a lot of downplaying, so 20,000 is about right.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you participate in one?
Only in my heart and thoughts did I participate. I’m disabled and if I was able to go to a rally someone would have to lend me a wheelchair. I can not walk much at one time(I’m lucky right now that I haven’t had to use one of those carts in the grocery store for awhile now when my sister takes me to get groceries(haven’t been able to drive for many years due to almost no feeling in feet)-and I’m only mentioning this because I would so badly like to be out there in person doing something and I really can’t). It’s also very difficult for me to be around too many people as it makes me too tired and quite literally my brain starts to shut down and I can’t think.
I usually do my grocery shopping on the first of every month but in May I’ve already told my sister that we won’t be doing that and will defer the shopping -it is about the only concrete thing I can do…and she also is planning to do nothing that day as far as shopping or spending any money. I am so hoping that the country literally shuts down for the day.
In my book, you did participate in the march. You did something that was equally important, you gave a voice to the 20,000 who marched, you helped them become part of history and they will thank you for that and so will the 1,969,180 other marchers and counting.
As long as the media suppresses the numbers, nobody will ever know what they have done.
I am hoping as well too. 😉
which are traditionally around 30-50% of actual crowd estimates, which might be disturbing to more sensitive viewers.
One of the chants I heard:
“Hoy, marchamos. En Mayo no compramos.”
This is a reference to plans to show respect for the US economy by empowering it, for one day, to function without the burden of people who have not purchased their papers from the Washington retailer.
Many guests on the Lou Dobbs show have asserted that these workers do not contribute to the economy, that on the contrary, they harm it.
Interestingly, Mr. Dobbs sounded quite alarmed the other day when the subject of the May 1 plans came up…
Thanks for this diary XP. I remain uncharacteristically optimistic. There is nothing quite like watching the tectonic plates of history heave and shift under one’s feet. 🙂
I wish I knew where to get those transcripts and put them up and pass them out the communities. Translated of course. Just to get those who weren’t able too and those who also didn’t think it would do anything more motivated to walk out.
I know they are scared because there isn’t a single voice doing it. It is like a hydra and cutting a head won’t do damn thing because there is another person who is willing to continue the effort.
The same type of hydra the Repugs have created, no matter who is caught in corpution, there is another to take their place. So the only message I have for the Dobbs of the world – Payback is a bitch, isn’t?
I never much cared for the Dobster but I now really and truly hate that sob..he is doing so much to fan the flames of fear and racism with his dam show and all his phony so called facts on this whole issue. Or his plain out/out lying in the place of facts.
A friend of mine said someone came into the place she worked and was saying that all those ‘illegals’ you know were destroying the country and not only that that our prisons are made up of 80% illegals who are dastardly evil criminals…and she got her ‘facts’ from watching that wonderful man Lou Dobbs…insert unprintable ranting here.