Rochester rally calls for immigrants' rights
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Source: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080502/...
From the D&C:
Displaying signs that say "No Human Being is Illegal," about 50 activists held a rally Thursday for immigrants' rights at the Liberty Pole in downtown Rochester.
Their demonstration was among the more than 200 rallies expected to be held around the nation calling for immigration reform and legal protection for undocumented immigrants.
Sister Janet Korn of Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester opened the rally with a prayer that ended on a note of inclusion.
"Help us think of the common good," she said.
Featured speakers told of the importance of the immigrant tradition to the American experience.
"The well-being of a nation depends on how the most vulnerable members of a society are treated," said Berardo Jurado, 59, of Rochester, who is an immigrant from Panama.
Jurado urged Congress to enact legislation that would include provisions allowing the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.
Several of the speakers said that they came here as undocumented immigrants and have since become legal, but they criticized what they see as a public mood that has soured on immigration.
"I'm here to tell people the anti-immigrant mood is wrong," said Alina Diaz, 49, of Rochester, who immigrated here from Colombia.
Librada Paz, who came here from Mexico, added: "I couldn't achieve my dream in my country."
An estimated 10,000 undocumented immigrants live in the Rochester area, said Walter Ruehle, director of the immigration program for the Legal Aid Society of Rochester.
Thursday's rally was organized by the Rochester Alliance for Immigrant Rights, a group that Roberto Resto said he helped organize a couple of years ago because of mistreatment of immigrants here.
Michael W. Gilhooly, regional spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that his agency is mandated to enforce immigration laws.
"We will aggressively pursue that mandate," Gilhooly said. Enforcing the law is not optional, he said.
He said that agents do not randomly enforce the law.
But activists said that Latinos, whatever their legal status, get singled out.
"They are supposed to enforce the law, but they are abusing their power," said Peter Mares, an outreach worker with Catholic Charities of Wayne County.
