Thousands of immigrants in the United States re-establish May 1st as International Worker's Day as the date to protest the demands of Workers: They demand General Unconditional Amnesty for all of the undocumented.

Press Release on May 1, 2000 in New York

Bro. Joel Magallan Reyes, SJ
Executive Director of Tepeyac Association
Co-cordinator of the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty

Pics: Joel Merino

On May 1, 2000, the Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty mobilized thousands of immigrants in 20 states: California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington.

Last year on October 16, 1999, the march organized 15,000 undocumented immigrants. During that event, Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois was present to support the proposal of the demonstrators.

On the February 16, 2000, the AFL-CIO announced that it would favor a General unconditional Amnesty for all undocumented immigrants and against employers that recruit undocumented workers from abroad simply for the purpose of exploiting them.

Three days before the march, on the 27th of April of 2000 at Liberty State Park of New Jersey City, Invitees of Raymond M. Pocino, president of Laborers' International Union of America (LIUNA), four congressional representatives considered the challenge and joined together to support General Amnesty for all undocumented immigrants: Robert Menendez, William, Pascrell, Jr., Steven R. Rothman, and Donald M. Payne.

In New York, around 9,000 people participated in this action. The mobilization begun at 12:00pm at Union Square Park (14th & Broadway). Some young people who came to support the new immigrants, from Direct Action (they also participated in Seattle and Washington, DC) were arrested before the march. And at 1:30pm, a contingent of diverse organizations, nationalities, creeds, and unions will walk on Broadway, making a stop at Federal Plaza, the Immigration building, and continue on to City Hall.

In front of City Hall, several representatives from the union movement were speaking: Local 1199, 78, 79, 23-25, UNITE, and from the AFL-CIO in the state of New York, and other community-based organizations such as Asociación Tepeyac, Haitian Mobilization, Bangladesh Society, Filipino Worker Center, etc. Clergy from some different denominations, and representatives of international movements like Martin El Grito de los Excluidos.