Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

WASHINGTON

–

This Spanish chant, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” flooded the National Mall from all directions Sunday as thousands marched to demand immigration reform.

People from around the country traveled by bus to demand reform from President Barack Obama and Congress. They chanted, waved signs and beat drums.

Speakers, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., encouraged the protesters.

“We’ve been waiting for this for 20 years,” said Manuel Guerra Casas, 26, spokesman for the Florida group Students for Equal Rights. “I feel strongly in my heart there’s going to be change.”

Juan Jose Gutierrez, 49, coordinator of the Los Angeles Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, said immigrants ought to be treated fairly. He is not related to the congressman.

“They have the obligations we all have as citizens,” Gutierrez said, noting that undocumented immigrants work and pay taxes.

Unlike citizens, they are “persecuted, arrested … treated like criminals,” Gutierrez said. “This is not the American way of doing things.”

Casas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, lives in Martin County, Fla., and traveled to Washington with a group of protesters by bus.

“I feel like I’m being a part of history,” Casas said.

He climbed over mountains for six days and nearly starved to cross into Texas in 2000. He attended high school in the U.S. and wanted to become a priest. But undocumented men weren’t permitted to enroll in the seminary. Casas has been in court procedures since 2006 trying to get a U.S. visa.

“If I don’t go, they’ll come and get me,” Casas said. “So I don’t have a choice.”

Charlotte Droogan, 67, a retired teacher from Joliet, Ill., came to Washington with her church group for the protest. She said she has first-hand experience observing the treatment of immigrants through her students.

“Every so often, I see one of their parents deported,” Droogan said. “Two weeks ago, one of the parents was stopped for having a broken taillight. Now she’s sitting in jail.”

Gutierrez said the protesters seek “fair humane and responsible” immigration reform.

“Most undocumented immigrants are impeded from realizing their full potential as workers or students,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said undocumented immigrants often graduate from high school and “run into a wall. … They can’t continue their education.”

Most protesters supported the Dream Act, which would allow undocumented students to go to college. First introduced in 2001, the bill has not come to a vote. The main aim of the protest was to encourage the government to enact comprehensive reform, something Obama promised during his campaign.

Nerida Maria, 23, an undocumented immigrant from Indiantown, Fla., traveled from Mexico to the United States at age 6.

“We had to cross the river,” Maria said. “I was scared. I cried.”

Maria graduated from high school in the U.S. and earned a full scholarship to a nearby college. But she was unable to attend because of her undocumented status.

“I’m stuck,” said Maria, who babysits.

She traveled by bus with 71 others from Indiantown to join the demonstration. She said the two-day bus ride was exciting, full of people singing, sharing their stories and their enthusiasm.

Maria said she hopes the march will bring change.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for all my life,” she said.

Morgan Guyton, 32, a youth pastor from Durham, N.C., said he teaches many Hispanic students, most of whose parents are undocumented.

“My faith brings me here,” Guyton said.

Guyton said he fears for his undocumented friends. “If they get pulled over while driving, I’ll never see them again,” he said.

Guyton said the U.S. is like an artificial gated community. Americans ignore poverty in other countries, he said.

It is as though Americans are saying, “Don’t come here and be poor,” Guyton said. “What we’ve lost is a sense of what it means to love thy neighbor.”

Gutierrez said the movement leading up to the march has been underway for years.

“Countless actions have been the building blocks of this effort,” he said, pointing to the Oct. 10 Los Angeles marches as precursors to the Washington march.

The plan for Sunday’s march came about in February, when Rep. Gutierrez met with immigration rights organizations. Juan Carlos Gutierrez attended the meeting.

“He decided we needed to make a mass mobilization in the nation’s capital,” Gutierrez said. “It came to us as a surprise.” He and a number of other activists came to Washington to organize the march. Gutierrez plans to return to California to help plan another demonstration for March 27 to urge the government and the American people to address immigration.

“We will not quit,” Gutierrez said. “We will not give up.”