May Day Rally and March protests treatment of immigrant workers
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, June 2010) An animated crowd of 75 Cleveland area residents rallied and marched on May 1, 2010 to protest human rights violations against immigrant workers and their family members. The Cleveland protest was part of a series of nationwide events on May Day, a day celebrating the international labor movement.

During the rally at Market Square Park, Fr. Rob Reidy, pastor of La Sagrada Familia Parish, reflected upon his 17 years of experience as a missionary in El Salvador. Fr. Reidy told of his friendship with Jose, a 35-year-old community leader in El Salvador who left behind his wife, four children, and his elderly mother when he immigrated without documentation to the United States.

“I told him that he should stay, but he said that he had to go because there was no work and he could not stand to see his children hungry,” said Fr. Reidy.

Armando Labra of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network said that a recent law, passed in Arizona, provides local and state police with a broad authority to monitor and enforce immigration law--the enforcement of which has traditionally been under the purview of federal authorities.

“We have a problem; the government is breaking families up,” said Labra, noting that other communities throughout the country have begun to discuss replicating the Arizona law. “The new law in Arizona is a horrific law to check the entire Latino people and, by hate, keep us in our place,” he said.

“When you strip a person of a basic human right, you strip a person of liberty and (such violations) are the seeds of resentment,” said Labra.

“They (immigrants) are not here to take your jobs; they are here because they want it for their families first,” said Maria Quiles, who was 17 years old when the father of her 1-year-old son, Juan, was deported as an undocumented worker. Juan is now 5 and does not know his father, according to Quiles.

“We have a collective amnesia in this country,” said activist Sam Phillips. “If anyone has a right to this country, it is my Mexican brothers and sisters,” he said.

Following the rally, the protesters braved heavy rain for a 2.5-mile march along West 25th Street to Clark Avenue, returning to Lorain Avenue via Fulton Road.

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