BONITA (Florida) DAILY NEWS

May 2, 2007

Hundreds carry the rally cry

Immokalee workers join others from across the nation in support of immigration reform

By Katy Bishop

They’re still waiting, and they won’t be silenced.

Southwest Florida immigrant supporters joined activists across the nation Tuesday to push lawmakers and community members to support legalization.

More than 300 people marched four miles along State Road 29 in the hot afternoon, waving mostly American flags, and holding signs and white wooden crosses with the names of immigrants who died trying to reach the United States.

After marching two miles, the demonstrators stopped on the sidewalk across from Farm Worker Village and formed a single-file human chain stretching about a quarter-mile.

As cars drove by honking, the line erupted in cheers.

After forming the human chain at the march’s midpoint, organizers at the front of the line sent a wave of cheers toward the end of the chain. After a few tries, people along the entire line picked up the wave, raising their arms, flags, signs and crosses.

Marcos Escamilla, 29, a carpenter from East Naples, said spending the day walking under the hot sun took him back to the time when he crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico 10 years ago.

“When we came there wasn’t shade, there wasn’t food and there wasn’t water,” Escamilla shouted to the crowd in Spanish, waving an American flag.

After crossing the desert, Escamilla spent his first two days in the United States under a bridge in Tucson, Ariz., waiting with 13 other people for their contact to pick them up.

Escamilla came to the march with six co-workers, all undocumented carpenters. They all agreed they had suffered while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Their Lehigh Acres boss gave them the day to participate in the march, he said.

The carpenter hopes to become a legal resident so that he isn’t violating U.S. law and so he can travel back and forth between the countries.

“In the United States you can improve yourself a little more than in Mexico,” Escamilla said.

But no matter how the laws change, Escamilla plans to return to live in Mexico with his three children, ages 5, 3 and 7 months.

Today, he supports them by sending money every eight days.

Despite the lower turnout than last year’s rally in Lee County, Gloria Hernandez, organizer with Immigrants United for Freedom, felt that Tuesday’s demonstration was a success.

Last year an estimated 75,000 people marched in Fort Myers.

“We’re still here and we want the legislators who haven’t supported us in the past to support the new Strive Act,” Hernandez said. “We want a just legalization.”

Under House Resolution 1645, proposed by Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., undocumented immigrants who were living and working in the country before June 1, 2006, would be eligible for “conditional non-immigrant status.”

Holders of the visa, valid for six years, could apply for permanent resident status. To earn it, immigrants would have to pay fines, pass a background check, prove employment, learn English and re-enter the U.S. legally from their home country, among other requirements.

Many demonstrators held signs supporting HR 1645, along with other messages including:

• Solo queremos trabajar (We only want to work)

• We’re all humans and we’re all equal

• Illegals are workers, not delinquents

Willy Rene, 19, walked wrapped in an American flag and held a sign that read, “Keep families united, stop deportation.”

The Fort Myers resident, who came from Guatemala to the U.S. four years ago, took the day off from working construction to join the rally.

“I’m carrying this sign because there are many families here where the parents have been deported and the children stay here alone,” Rene said in Spanish. “It is important to stop deporting people and keep families together.”

Some immigrants wanted to attend the rally but were afraid they would be deported, said Jaxier Barahona, 39, a Golden Gates Estates resident who took the day off to march.

Barahona entered the U.S. legally from Ecuador 13 years ago on a tourist visa and never returned.

Later, his family joined him.

“We just want to improve our family’s well-being,” said Barahona, who lives in Golden Gate Estates and works as a chef in Naples.

Barahona walked with his daughter Camila, 9, who held an American flag larger than her body.

If his family was sent back to Ecuador, Barahona feels that his two children would suffer a psychological shock because they’ve grown up in the U.S. He feels thankful for the opportunities he and his family have had.

Just before turning around and marching the two miles back to the Farmworker Association of Florida’s office, the crowd cheered in Spanish, “What do we want?”

“Legalization!”

Then they yelled, again and again, “Si se puede,” or “Yes we can.”