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3/24 Phoenix Immigration March Report
by Rey Bell
Sunday, Mar. 26, 2006 at 12:41 AM
Close to 20,000 marchers lined 24th St. between McDowell and Camelback Roads in opposition to bill HR 4437
As I turned off the 202 and north onto Highway 51 I couldn’t help but notice the amount of people who were parking close to a mile away from the start of Friday’s march. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the beginning of what turned out to be one of the, if not, largest demonstrations in Phoenix’s history. The magnitude of the march was gradually realized as the march continued, and not fully understood until seeing all the reports later on in the night.
Thousands, estimated at 20,000, came out to protest HR 4437 in a show of solidarity against a bill criminalizing almost anything and anyone involved with ’illegal’ immigration.
The march started at roughly 11 a.m. just south of 24th St. and Oak St. with the guardianship of Phoenix Police. Little did the police, organizers, marchers, and reporters, including myself, realize that history was being made.
The crowd, of advocates for immigration reform and opponents of HR 4437, was comprised of people of all ages and skin color. Along the way marchers were cheered on by hundreds of workers along 24th St. One couldn’t help but feel even more empowered after passing individuals such as a man, stricken to a wheelchair, who was playing the bongos and trombone.
The crowd, which started out five lanes wide, made its way three miles north up 24th St. to Camelback before turning back around towards McDowell. Near the intersection of 24th St. and Camelback construction workers stopped working to show solidarity in turn firing up the crowd some 150 feet below them. Some of these workers, in a building on 24th St. just south of Camelback, dropped a sign reading ‘Si Se Puede’ or ‘Yes We Can,’ and chanted on the revved up crowd before and after the turn. One could cut the energy in the air with a knife.
After walking south back down 24th St., after the u-turn, I couldn’t believe the amount of people who were still marching north. At first I thought the beginning of the march decided to loop around, but soon came to realize just what was being accomplished in a Republican dominated anti-immigrant state. Hopefully the people of Phoenix have finally awoken our representatives as to just how important these bills are to their and our future.
For more photos of the march, go to: https://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/38981.php