Thousands of demonstrators advance down the Strip north of Flamingo Road as part of a five-mile Monday night trek from the Fremont Street Experience to Tropicana Avenue. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
Protesters pass the Sahara resort Monday night on their way to New York-New York. A crowd police estimated at 7,000-8,000 marched down Las Vegas Boulevard from downtown. Photo by Craig L. Moran.
George Gonzalez joins in Monday morning's march in downtown Las Vegas. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Anti-immigration protesters Jackie Pinjuv, left, and Carol Desmond, center, engage immigration reform demonstrators Monday morning in a heated exchanged at Jaycee Park. The two women were encircled and shouted at by angry marchers after showing up clutching a sign reading "Illegals Go Home."Photo by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal.
Immigration rights protesters marching down the Strip Monday evening pass Spring Mountain Road. Photo by Ralph Fountain.
Noel Guerra, a U.S. citizen originally from Cuba, marches in downtown Las Vegas with thousands of protesters Monday morning as part of a nationwide boycott. The marchers called for immigration reform and amnesty for illegal immigrants. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Thousands gather at the Fremont Street Experience Monday morning supporting immigration reform at a rally sponsored by Culinary Local 226. The crowd, estimated by Las Vegas police at 3,000, chanted "U.S.A., U.S.A." and "Yes, we can" in Spanish. Most who attended the rally later marched down Las Vegas Boulevard to New York-New York. Photo by Jane Kalinowsky.
Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.
A crowd thousands strong calling for immigration reform marched peacefully down the Strip Monday evening, snarling traffic and startling tourists with one of the largest protests in Las Vegas history.
Estimated by police to number 7,000-8,000, the mass of mostly Hispanic protesters boisterously chanted "U.S.A." while waving American flags during a three-hour trek from downtown to the New York-New York five miles away.
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Stunned tourists, many prevented from crossing the street, marveled at the mile-long column of humanity advancing down the closed southbound lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Deneen Wilson, a 42-year-old tourist from Virginia, was stuck at the Fashion Show mall for more than an hour waiting for a cab.
"This is wild. I have never seen anything like this before," she said. "This is history."
The size of the 7 p.m. demonstration forced authorities to blockade every Interstate 15 exit from Sahara to Tropicana avenues, something that typically happens just once a year, on New Year's Eve.
The march concluded at New York-New York, where a replica of the Statue of Liberty provided a poetic ending for an immigration demonstration.
Many of the evening marchers had first attended a 6 p.m. immigration rights rally at the Fremont Street Experience.
That event was sponsored by the Culinary union, which, in conjunction with local casinos, encouraged workers over the last week not to skip work Monday. The evening events were designed to give workers a voice without depriving Strip casinos of a significant portion of their daytime work force. The move appeared to have paid off: Tourists on the Strip went about their business Monday morning unaware of any protests by immigrant casino employees.
"Thank you for coming to work today," union official Punam Mathur told the thousands gathered on Fremont Monday evening. "You make our companies better. You make Las Vegas better."
Meanwhile, some of the 3,000 marchers who skipped work earlier in the day to attend the local daytime demonstration dismissed the Monday night protests as a ploy by the gaming industry and the largest union with which it contracts to keep employees from walking off the job.
"After six, that's not a boycott; that's a parade," said California-born George Solorsana, who helped organize the morning protest. "We need to boycott. We're sick and tired of being pushed around."
Activists began gathering about 8 a.m. for the daytime march. The numbers of participants swelled during the round-trip trek from Jaycee Park to the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse downtown, beginning with a group of a few hundred and ending with more than 3,000, according to Las Vegas police.
"People started jumping out of their cars and joined the march," said José Salais, 25, who was documenting the protest for a student film.
The daytime demonstration choked downtown traffic as police shut down all six lanes of heavily traveled Las Vegas Boulevard near the courthouse to accommodate a throng that eventually stretched hundreds of yards.
During the Day Without Immigrants march, protesters at times chanted lines in Spanish such as "Hoy marchamos, y mañana votamos" ("Today we march, and tomorrow we vote") and "Sí, se puede" ("Yes, we can"), the latter attributed to labor leader César Chávez, who led the United Farm Workers union's struggle to improve conditions for migrant workers.
The eight-mile protest march in punishing heat was no big deal for Arturo Zuniga. He knows a little something about long walks.
Four years ago, Zuniga and a friend from his hometown in central Mexico slipped across the border and walked 33 miles through the Arizona desert before catching a ride to Phoenix.
From there, Zuniga traveled to Las Vegas, where he found work at a construction company.
The illegal immigrant said his boss told him he would be fired if he skipped work to march Monday, but he did it anyway.
"People need to unite," the 32-year-old father of three said in Spanish. "If we didn't stop working today, we are nothing."
Like other immigrants and their supporters nationwide, the morning protesters boycotted school and work to march in support of comprehensive immigration reform.
Most of them dressed in white, the symbol for peace, as organizers had asked.
One hoisted a sign reading "Mayflower Pilgrims Were Illegal Too." Other placards stated "The American Dream Is Our Dream Too" and "Bush Hates Brown People."
Among the protesters were hundreds of children. Dozens of men and women pushed strollers and walked next to kids of all ages.
Four of the five Clark County School District regions reported higher than normal student absenteeism.
Of Eldorado High School's 2,900 students, 39 percent did not show up for classes. Ronnow Elementary School, like Eldorado located in the heavily Hispanic eastern part of the valley, reported 64 percent of its 795 students absent.
"We've had a surprising number of elementary school students absent," district spokeswoman Pat Nelson said.
Eighteen-year-old Amanda Martinez brought along to the march her brother Rogelio, 13, a seventh-grader at Von Tobel Middle School.
"Nobody in my family went to work," said Martinez, who busses tables for a restaurant at The Orleans. "My boss should be around here, too."
Some protesters said their bosses gave them the day off or closed up shop altogether.
Maria Valencia, a 35-year-old mother of four, said the manager of the Taco Bell she works at had no choice but to close Monday.
All staffers are immigrants, most of them here illegally like Valencia.
"Only two people there have papers, but everyone was coming to the protest," she said in Spanish.
Others said in interviews that they were told they could either come to work as usual on Monday or they could come in today to pick up their final paychecks.
Unlike Zuniga and Valencia, many marchers said they were in the country legally, but were standing in solidarity with those who were not.
Among them was Connie Conde, 60, a Cuban emigrant who has lived in Las Vegas 12 years.
"Illegal immigrants are hard workers. They only come here to work," Conde said in Spanish.
A veteran maid in an industry heavily populated by illegal workers, Conde said people often assume she is not a citizen.
This would stop if Congress granted amnesty to illegal immigrants already in the country. "I don't like being treated like a criminal," she said.
Police reported no arrests or citations during the five-hour morning march.
In fact, the demonstrators faced little opposition. As marchers approached, a monster truck circled the courthouse with anti-immigration slogans painted on its windows.
"Wake Up, America," one said. "11 Million Uninvited Guests. U Hired 'Em. Fire 'Em. More Jobs 4 Our Kids, Less Taxes." The passenger in the vehicle was costumed as the animated character Shrek.
Earlier, two elderly women showed up at the park clutching a sign reading "Illegals Go Home."
Dozens of demonstrators at the park formed a circle around the women, Carol Desmond and Jackie Pinjuv, chanting "U.S.A." and "Yes, we can."
Desmond, a 74-year-old who walks with a cane, said she wasn't scared by the Hispanics who swarmed around her, some of whom called her a racist.
"If you came here legally, then I have no problem with you," she said over the angry shouting of the group surrounding her. "I'm against the illegals that came over the fence."
The intensity eased when the women left after about 10 minutes.
Protesters said the women failed to recognize the significant contributions of those in this country unlawfully.
"Without the illegals, there would be a financial impact that would hurt the economy," said demonstrator David Ruiz, a U.S. citizen whose parents are from Mexico. "We'd pay four or five dollars for a head of lettuce."
A local law firm handed out white shirts at the park, emblazoned with the name of the firm and an expression of support for immigrants.
Another attorney also saw the march as a marketing opportunity, handing out thousands of bottles of water to parched protesters. Taped to each was a flier with the attorney's name, address, phone number and a list of types of legal cases he handles.
Though some have predicted a backlash against illegal immigrants as a result of the nationwide boycott, Zuniga, the marcher who expected to lose his job, said he is sure the protest will only help their cause.
"When Martin Luther King organized and had a million people march, did it not help?"
Review-Journal staffers Henry Brean, Antonio Planas, Francis McCabe, David Kihara, Ruben D. Luevano and Angie Parkinson contributed to this report.
