Sep 4, 2006 6:46 pm US/Central
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_245085148.html
40-Mile Immigration March Ends At Police Barricade
Most Pariticpants Were Latino, But Marchers Came From Around The Globe
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Jon Duncanson
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO In West Suburban Batavia, a four-day immigration march wrapped up. Supporters of immigration reform say every step of their 40-mile march was meant to change lives. But as CBS 2’s Jon Duncanson reports, not everyone was glad to see them arrive at their destination.
Like a religious revival procession from Chicago’s Chinatown with crosses in hand, they descended upon the town of Batavia. Calling out the belief that immigration policy change is indeed possible.
Here to greet them, face to face with baton-wielding police, were people with other immigration concerns.
“Of course I have sympathy for them. I'm a Christian. But I still believe that rules have to be followed or there is going to be anarchy in this country,” said Bartlett resident Pat Bollman.
The marchers were well over 500 strong and rallied in front of the local office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert. They said Hastert and Congress: “has made a decision to play dirty politics and polarize against immigrants and manipulate the hate in the soul of America against immigrants for cheap political advantage,” according to immigration activist Joshua Hoyt.
Hastert was nowhere to be seen amidst the signs, flags, and the calls to suspend deportations until immigration policy can be sorted out.
But to those on the other side of the police barrier, they have their own opinions. As one bystander said, “our country can only handle so many people at a time coming into this country.”
For the marchers, many already citizens or legal aliens, the hope and goal is to keep walking along a long road and finally settle the issue in the voting booth.
About 200 marchers started in Chicago's Chinatown Aug. 31 and went through Cicero, Villa Park, West Chicago, and other suburbs.
While the majority of marchers were Latino, the demonstration featured immigrants from South Korea, India, the Philippines, and many other countries.
The march symbolized the time it takes Mexican immigrants to cross the desert to safety over the border – a line that some lawmakers, including Hastert, want to see under much tighter security.
Organizers said they chose Hastert's Batavia office as the march's ultimate destination to highlight what they say are his anti-immigration positions. Hastert has suggested fences, pedestrian inhibitors and the use of the Army Corps of Engineers and Border Patrol could be used to help seal the country's border with Mexico.
The march began in Chinatown to the beat of a Chinese drum. Marchers said they chose the Chinatown to demonstrate that this country is a nation of immigrants and that many of them feel the pain of waiting for years at a time for relatives to gain permission to come to the United States and make their families whole again.
Many of the participants have waited years for family members to gain permission to come to the United States.
“For the Asian community, this is about family unification,” said Filipino-American marcher Lawrence Benito, whose mother moved here decades ago to work as a nurse. “My mother has been waiting 23 years for her brother to come here.”
“We're marching because there are over one million Asian-Americans who are also undocumented; we're marching because hundreds of thousands of Asian-American families are separated,” said Becky Belcore of the Korean-American Resource and Cultural Center.
The marchers trekked through the Little Village neighborhood on the Near Southwest Side, and entered Cicero later on Friday. They made their first overnight stop there, and gathered in a church parking lot, where they heard Bible verses read in five languages.
They want immigration reform, something that has reached a stalemate in Washington.
Hastert, whose district includes some of Chicago's suburbs and outlying rural counties, has been emphasizing the immigration issue in making the case to voters that they should keep Congress in GOP hands.
“In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans are working together; the president is willing to work with the Democrats on this,” said Hoyt of the Immigration Coalition.
Brad Hahn, a spokesman for Hastert, said Hastert is focused on the issue, has talked to people on all sides of the debate and has visited the United States-Mexico border.
"It's important to note it isn't a question of who can yell the loudest, but finding the most effective solutions to securing the borders and strengthening our immigration system," Hahn said.
In Little Village, the protestors were welcomed by hundreds of supporters, including several priests.
“Many families that I know in my own parish, they've been waiting 12, 15, 17 years,” said Fr. Peter McQuinn of Priests for Justice for Immigrants. “And, you know, so it's just like why is it taking so long?”
But the marchers did not go unchallenged in their journey. Opponents with the Illinois Minutemen were at several stops along the route.
“We're outraged at them. We've been outraged for years!” said Carl Segvich of the Chicago Minutemen Project.
Segvich said all illegal immigrants should be arrested and kicked out of the country.
“We will be destroyed from within, and that's what we're witnessing sadly, tragically today. We're being invaded and taken over by illegal aliens,” he said.
Hundreds more immigrants joined the procession as it traveled through Melrose Park and Wheaton.
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