Hundreds of people march to courthouse

Their numbers were smaller than in previous years, but their passion for a cause was as strong as ever.

Several hundred people, many with banners and U.S. flags, took to the Strip on Friday evening in support of U.S. immigration reform with a path to legalization for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

They chanted now familiar slogans such as "Si se puede! Yes we can!" as they made their way north along Las Vegas Boulevard from Sahara Avenue to the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse downtown.

Tourists, some with drinks in hand, gawked, cheered and whistled as the police-escorted marchers strode past casinos, quickie wedding chapels and pawn shops.

The lower-than-anticipated turnout for the march mirrored that of May Day events nationwide.

Organizers said fears of contracting swine flu, not lack of interest, kept some away.

"People are scared," said 20-year-old College of Southern Nevada student Jasmine Rubalcava, who helped organize the march. "But we are still going to get our message out there."

That message is to support immigration reform that keeps families together.

And the people it focuses on include families such as that of 22-year-old Sandra Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen whose husband was deported to Mexico in January after being pulled over in Texas, where he was working construction. The couple's two young children carried a sign during Friday's march which read: "Jose and Briana miss daddy! Stop separating families!"

"My kids aren't going to have a dad," Rodriguez said, adding that her husband hasn't found steady work in Mexico. "We have to live with my parents now because we can't afford our own place. We have to stop this."

Mario Torres, 40, took the day off from his sales manager job at a local car dealership to support keeping mixed-status families such as Rodriguez's together.

Torres' mother came to the United States illegally before he was born, he said. She eventually gained legal status, and he thinks others who are now without it should have the same opportunity.

"These people pay taxes, and they aren't going anywhere," Torres said. "They're not asking for welfare. They just want the American dream like everybody else."

Torres said he supports a plan that would grant illegal immigrants legal status if they paid fines and learned English.

Providing a path to legalization for those already living in the United States is the sensible, humane way to reform current immigration policy, said Anita Revilla, an assistant professor of women's studies at UNLV who marched on Friday with several of her students.

"They are here for survival," Revilla said of the undocumented, whom she calls "economic refugees."

"Their livelihood was threatened in their home countries," she said. "The U.S. depends on the labor of the undocumented. They helped build the country."

Revilla and other marchers were optimistic about the chances of a federal immigration reform plan moving forward this year with Barack Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress.

"We supported Obama and we're hopeful he'll return the favor," Revilla said.

One of the largest gatherings on Friday assembled outside the White House, where more than 2,000 people rallied.

Thousands were expected at events in Houston, Milwaukee, Denver, Chicago, New York and other cities.

On the West Coast, several thousand people rallied in Los Angeles and hundreds gathered under cold rain in San Francisco's Dolores Park.

Outside the federal courthouse in Las Vegas, Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, told marchers theirs was "a righteous cause."

"This is not a Democratic issue. It is not a Republican issue," he said. "It is a human rights issue. All of us deserve laws that allow for family reunification."

A coalition of immigration-rights groups, including the mostly student-led United Coalition for Immigrant Rights, organized Friday's local march that was on the three-year anniversary of massive immigration-reform marches that took place across the country in 2006.

In Las Vegas, police estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 people participated in the 2006 march. A one-year anniversary march in 2007 also drew thousands who marched through downtown Las Vegas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.