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The March 10th Movement, in 20006, saw hundreds of thousands of supporters of “Legalization for all Immigrants” taking to the streets of Chicago, and later at rallies in Washington. These were followed by the late August March to then Speaker Hastert’s residence in Batavia. Since then, organizers have been working on several projects. Chicago Crescent spoke to Mr. Omar N. Lopez, Co-convener of the March 10th Movement to learn more. “We’ve been working with Chicago Workers Collaborative to fight the use of ‘no-match’ letters that are being sent out by the Social Security Department to employers, saying that a particular social security number has no match in their data system.” Employers were using these ‘no-match’ letters to fire workers. “Specifically, we want to make sure that employers are not using this to fire employees who’ve been with a company for 15- 20 years,” explained Mr. Lopez. Their other project is the Rapid Response Team. “Whenever there were raids by the immigration and customs agencies, we would respond to see how the families can be helped.” Getting jailed individuals out costs $10,000 to $20,000 per bond. Hence the focus on the families. “The news spreads very fast in the community, even when it’s a raid at small restaurants or businesses. As part of the Rapid Response Team, we find out what the families need depending on which family member was detained. If the father is taken away, we find out if the mother is employed. Is there an income? If it’s the mother who is taken away, we determine if the children have someone to take care of them,” explains Mr. Lopez. “During the first one hundred days, Congress won’t really address immigration issues, but if
they do, come May 1st, we plan to rally to either support their plan or denounce it,” says Mr. Lopez. “The marches last year were responses to the kinds of legislation coming out. We wanted to stop the passage of the Sensenbrenner bill and we were successful in doing that. Leaders of the March 10th movement have spoken to Senator Reed, Democratic leader in the Senate, and Speaker Pelosi. And they plan to head out to Washington and lobby for ‘Legalization for All’. “We need to go out there and lobby because having a Democratic congress doesn’t make a difference. Last year, Democrats had supported SB
2611, which didn’t quite meet our demands." November was a good sample of minorities thronging to the polling booths. “We are convinced that it was in response to the Republicans’ stand on immigration. If Obama is going to be a candidate, we really need to make him understand that we now have some political power at the ballot box. We are looking to become more sophisticated. We need to have a lobby in Washington. We will be joining the Greater Chicago Caucus which will help us lobby for human rights and not just immigrant issues. Greater Chicago
Caucus will help us articulate that kind of position.”
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