More than 500 enthusiastic marchers in Fort Bragg joined millions nationwide, protesting peacefully to demonstrate the economic importance of immigrants. While the crowd for the “Day Without Immigrants” march was huge and many businesses reported curtailed spending on Monday, the reaction to a work and boycott was mixed both locally and nationwide.
College of the Redwoods Freshman Jose Rodriguez and his brother, Fort Bragg High student Ivan Rodriguez, marched to support their mom, who has joined her family in Fort Bragg.
“House Resolution 4437 would make my mom a felon,” said Jose Rodriguez. “Believe me, she is not a criminal.”
“She is the kind of person who would never break any laws,” said Ivan.
“They”re trying to make her a criminal, and that is just wrong.”
The idea of a “Day Without Immigrants” was to halt the economic contribution of immigrants, who often feel invisible despite making significant work and spending contributions. Marchers were most irked about the Republican-backed plan that passed the House in December to make felons out of undocumented immigrants and those who support them. The Senate has not acted on the plan.
The brothers are proud of their native U.S. and looking forward to its opportunities. Ivan is considering a career in banking while Jose leans more toward the arts.
“Many people with families there are very poor, and they come here to work hard and make a better life in this country,” said Ivan.
Monday”s march stretched from La Bamba grocery store on Franklin Street north to South Street, then back along Highway 1, with protesters packing the street and sidewalk in front of Town Hall while a cacophony of horns blared support. Marchers chanted and sang patriotic and union anthems, often cheering and clapping.
About eight in 10 of the marchers were Latino, and many were also taking part in an economic boycott, which included staying home from work and school for some.
Medical assistant Martha Rodriguez immigrated to Fort Bragg legally when a youngster and stayed home from work on Monday.
“We pay taxes. We work hard in this community. We contribute to our community just like everyone else. Criminalizing people who just want to work or building a wall are the wrong way to spend our money and sends the wrong message.”
She thinks the government in Mexico drives its people out.
“This country has been so good to everybody. It is a great country where you can work and save money and have a good life.”
Sixth grader Helena Gonzalez fashioned a sign from grocery sacks that read, “Brown is Beautiful.”
“I think people are being racist. I don”t want my parents having to go back,” she said.
Fort Bragg Unified School Superintendent Steve Lund said 177 students were absent on Monday, with usually only about 80 out on a given day.
“We would have preferred the kids stayed in school. We saw this as a teachable moment and a chance to engage the students in a discussion regarding immigration and respect. Although I honor students” rights to free speech and expression, I think they should do it in ways that don”t interfere with their education,” Lund said.
Many businesses discussed the economic boycott ahead of time to make contingency plans.
Jim Hurst, who co-owns Silver”s at the Wharf with Silver Canul, said the owners met with employees beforehand.
“We support the boycott. We told our employees they could go if they wished, but we had banquets scheduled, and we could not afford to shut down.” Three employees were out and others stepped up to cover their shifts, Hurst said.
Hurst said a luncheon cook who is a naturalized citizen took a vacation day and went to the march, and co-owner Canul took her shift. Hurst said the same plan was followed at the Harbor Lite Lodge which he owns.
At the Little River Inn, Cally Dym said about 30 employees were out, with the night shift still to come.
“We had a game plan and were able to cover our business, while supporting our Hispanic employees at the same time,” said Dym.
The economic boycott hit some businesses less hard than on April 10, when some businesses were taken by surprise by a boycott that wasn”t publicized in advance.
Teresia Haase, human resources manager for the City of Fort Bragg, said no workers were missing Monday due to the boycott. The city has 56 full-time employees.
North Coast Brewing Co. owner/partner Mark Ruedrich said there was no real effect on the business with a small number of workers missing on what happened to be a slow day.
At the Beachcomber Motel, Assistant Manager Carolyn Chernow said there was no effect on operations. “Some people left early to go to the march,” she said.
While some businesses took a progressive stand and planned ahead for missing workers, several business owners and managers contacted were enraged and even promised retaliation, but none of them would speak on the record.
Gonzalo Sanchez of Fort Bragg, who works in the timber industry, stayed home in solidarity with immigrants.
“That is all of us. This is an immigrant country, so we all should stay together,” Sanchez said.
Fort Bragg loan officer Joseph Garcia was pleasantly surprised by the huge, enthusiastic and peaceful turnout. Most of those interviewed were citizens or legal residents but knew people or had family members who are undocumented.
“This turnout is great. The other thing I hope is that these people will also realize they can get out and vote. That is another way they can make a difference,” Garcia said.
Across the nation the “Day Without Immigrants” had major impacts, with estimates of more than a million people staying home from work, despite divisions among activists over whether a boycott would send the right message, the Associated Press reported.
Rallies in Los Angeles and Chicago attracted an estimated 400,000 each, the largest in the nation.
Nobody questions that illegal immigration is up dramatically in the last several years.
The flow from Mexico into the United States has increased exponentially since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed in the early 1990s.
NAFTA was promoted by mainstream Democrats and Republicans, including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. One of the big selling points of NAFTA was that the pact could stem illegal immigration. But the opposite has happened.
NAFTA was opposed by right and left wing groups and third parties, such as the Greens and then-presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who predicted disaster from NAFTA.
By 1999, about five years after NAFTA”s implementation, 656,000 undocumented migrants came into the United States — a 66 percent increase over 1992 — according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center. The figure has been climbing since and neared 1.2 million — with 455,000 undocumented — in 2004, the center found.
Pew now estimates the undocumented population in the United States at a record level, between 11.5 million and 12 million. More than half, about 6.2 million, are Mexican, according to Pew. Mexicans account for even larger majorities in border states and in some large urban centers far from the border such as Chicago.
The overall Latino population has also been growing, with nearly 38 million Latinos in the United States, of whom two-thirds — or 25.3 million — are Mexican, according to a 2002 U.S. Census report. Migrants to California account for 24 percent of the unauthorized immigration, according to the Pew figures.
