Immigrants unite around a theme: opportunity

LOS ANGELES -- Candido Hernandez, 26, trekked through the mountains more than two decades ago from Mexico and now works construction to support his three US-born children.

Carmen Vazquez, 50, cleaned homes in Los Angeles while relatives raised her daughter in El Salvador before she became a legal resident and the two could reunite several years later.

Maria Ortega, 30, came from Mexico to look for better opportunities and found work at a plastics factory after presenting false documents.

They were among a festive crowd police estimated at 500,000 that marched through downtown Los Angeles to City Hall on Saturday to support immigrants' rights and oppose a pending federal bill that would criminalize illegal immigrants.

Marchers over the weekend also took to the streets in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Dallas, and Columbus, Ohio.

In demonstrations yesterday, nearly 3,000 people, many wrapped in Mexican flags, rallied at the Ohio State House in Columbus, and an estimated 3,500 United Farm Workers members and their supporters protested in Los Angeles.

Amid a sea of US and Mexican flags, the Los Angeles protesters chanted ''Sí, se puede" [Yes, we can] and waved banners in Spanish that read, ''We aren't criminals" and ''The USA is made by immigrants."

''I love this country as if it were my own, for the opportunities it has given me," said Laurentino Ramirez, 32, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who makes the minimum wage at a Los Angeles garment factory.

Ramirez took the day off to come to the march with 20 relatives. He said he is worried about being deported and separated from his two children. If he became a permanent resident, Ramirez said, he could get a driver's license and a higher-paying job.

Many of the participants were immigrants -- both legal and illegal -- from Mexico and Central America. Some arrived recently, while others have been in the United States for decades. Construction workers, business owners, families with young children, and people in wheelchairs joined the march, coming from San Francisco, San Diego, and other parts of the state.

Jorge Valdovinos, 43, of Fresno came with his wife and three children, he said, to show that he and other immigrants have made significant contributions to the US economy.

''It's outrageous, because this country is built by immigrants," said Valdovinos, a legal resident who owns a financial services company. ''They want to kick us out of this country. We aren't going back."

Julio Cruz, 20, said he does not want to return to Mexico because his infant daughter is hospitalized in the United States. He worries what would happen to her if he had to return to his native country.

In Mexico, Cruz made about $3.50 a day. In the United States, he can earn as much as $2,000 a week in construction. ''I came here to work," said Cruz. ''I didn't come here to be out in the streets. . . . I don't think it would be too much to ask for legal documents so that I could keep working."

In Washington, D.C., demonstrations were planned today near the Capitol, including a prayer service organized by immigration advocates and clergy.