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Azanaw Mengista (COL ‘09) stood by himself in the late afternoon shadows on the National Mall Thursday, but he was not alone.
He joined thousands of his fellow immigrants as they rallied for comprehensive immigration reform from the federal government.
“I felt it was important for me to support people who are trying to stay here and live like Americans,” Mengista said in carefully accented English.
The rally and subsequent march book-ended a week-long series of events organized by 59 groups, including the National Capital Immigration Coalition and the We Are American Alliance. Speakers varied from political leaders like Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and NAACP President Bruce Gordon to day laborers like Carlos Lopez.
“We’re the ones that clean the toilets, make the beds and do the construction work in this country,” Dora Avendaña, a maid from Revere, Mass., said in Colombian Spanish. “We deserve to be legalized; we just want to be heard.”
The goals of participants in this rally varied widely, unlike the specific opposition to H.R. 4437 that provoked rallies last spring.
“I’m not asking for open borders. I just want health care and a good education for my children,” Anastasio Canales, a construction worker from El Salvador, said.
Two little girls, one Hispanic and one black, shared a bag of cheese puffs as they crouched on the not-yet muddy lawn. Though the majority of protesters were Hispanic, there were flags from Korea, Ireland, Italy and groups like the Jewish Labor Committee.
Mengista, who immigrated from Ethiopia four years ago, noted the diversity of the crowd.
“I can sense a lot of unity here among all the races,” he said.
Members of the Georgetown community did not appear to be present in large numbers, though individuals from groups like MECHA, a campus immigrant rights group, and the Georgetown Solidarity Committee attended. Students from Denise Brown’s anthropology class also represented Georgetown at the rally, according to Solidarity Committee member Ashwini Jaisingh (SFS ‘08), who was there with a friend.
Additional reporting by Ryan Maye Handy
