A mixture of sentiments and emotions abound, as demonstrators gather to share their frustration at the current United States immigration policy at Confluence Park in Denver on Sunday, March 21, 2010. Undocumented immigrants have been systematically subjected to raids, harassment, deportation and exploitation.
The protest was held peacefully, with an overwhelming sense of dignity, which only further legitimized protesters' claims for a more loving immigration policy that would keep families together and reward hard work.
Protesters made it clear that they are here to work. Immigrants comprise 15% of the national labor force and contribute to key economic sectors such as agriculture, construction, and services, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
The protesters are calling on the United States to reward their hard work with legislation protecting them from workplace discrimination, sexual abuse, violence, arbitrary raids, and other social injustices. They are asking for basic human rights that every person should enjoy without discrimination.
They are proud to call the United States home as workers, residents and tax payers. They are only asking for the United States to recognise them as such. Education, representation and protection from criminal acts are human rights, not privileges.
Americans are often tone-deaf to the daily acts of discrimination that immigrants to the United States face, both small and large. However, our ignorance is no longer an excuse for inaction once we become aware of the injustices that pervade our society.
Learn more at the Reform Immigration for America website: http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/
"American-born workers suffer if there is a vast pool of undocumented workers who are easily exploited by employers who seek unfair advantage. All of us are stronger if all of us have rights.
"Untargeted raids in workplaces and neighborhoods and rogue enforcement agents at all levels are terrorizing immigrant workers and dividing families without making us any safer and without fixing the real problems with our immigration system.
"Our out-of-date laws force many American families to remain separated for years – and in some cases, decades – because of backlogs and barriers to family unification in our immigration system.
"Finally, our outdated laws are practically unenforceable, driving too much immigration into the black market and not enough immigration through legal and orderly channels for immigrants who want to work in this country.
"The result is hundreds of thousands of immigrants being detained each year, hundreds of thousands deported, people forced to take life-threatening risks because they cannot enter legally, people dying in the desert, and people dying in detention due to awful conditions and official neglect.
We can and must do better."
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