Marchers to push immigration rights
Remember the thousands-strong crowd that took to the Strip a few years ago to push for immigration reform that would provide a path to legalization for illegal immigrants?
Well, organizers of what was one of the largest protest marches in Las Vegas history hope to do it again next month.
The United Coalition for Immigrant Rights, a mostly college student-led organization that comprises several immigrant-rights groups, plans another march May 1, the three-year anniversary of massive immigration-reform marches that took place across the country in 2006.
Similar marches are planned in Chicago and other cities.
Participants will march in support of immigration reform that keeps immigrant families together, Jose Manuel Santillana, a local community organizer with the organization, said Thursday.
They also will march in opposition to stepped-up arrests of illegal immigrant workers in nationwide sweeps, he said.
Organizers have begun spreading the word through online social-networking sites, churches and student organizations.
"Everyone is welcome," Santillana said. "Immigration affects everyone, not just Latinos. Haitian immigrants, European immigrants, people from all over the world are affected by policies in Washington."
The march is scheduled to begin after a 3:30 p.m. rally on May 1 at the Commercial Center, on Sahara Avenue just west of Maryland Parkway. It will end at the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse downtown.
Marchers will observe a moment of silence at the courthouse "for all those who have been affected by immigration raids," Santillana said.
Police estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 people participated in the 2006 march. Students of every age skipped school to take part.
A one-year anniversary march in 2007 also drew thousands who marched through downtown Las Vegas.
The United Coalition for Immigrant Rights also organized a May 2008 march in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act would allow undocumented immigrants who came to the United States with their families at age 15 or younger, and who plan to attend college or join the military, to move toward legal status in the United States.
That march, which drew just a few dozen people, was held May 23.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
