Strong Ideals, Weak Leaders

The marchers may be fewer, some may even be piggybacking to promote their own wacky agendas, but the cause behind the May 1 "Great American Boycott II" is still a valid one: Comprehensive immigration reform, with a little compassion, is still urgently necessary.

Some anti-immigrant pundits are getting ready to tell us that the lower turnout in marches throughout the nation is somehow an indication that the movement seeking legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants is losing steam, and that much more draconian measures will prevail.

And unfortunately, they may be right.

The coalition of immigrants' rights organizations that called for a repeat of last year's boycott and massive marchers must have known that they could not possibly repeat last year's turnout of more than 1 million people in protests all over the nation.

It seems like they are trying to revive a movement that they allowed to dwindle.

Had they kept last year's momentum going, had they not wasted many opportunities to keep marching — and organizing a stronger coalition of immigrants' rights organizations — maybe they could have outdone last year's historic "Day Without Immigrants" marches.

But unfortunately, the movement has been on sabbatical since it managed to attract public attention last year.

Instead of staying on offense, they remained in defensive mode while Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform last summer. Now, after dropping the momentum like a football, they expect people to march again — as if their followers were wind-up protesters.

Too much has happened to discourage last year's marchers from continuing on the path for immigrant rights:

— There was little follow-up. Opportunities were missed to organize the kind of national immigrants' rights coalition that could have commanded much more respect, and many more followers, by now.

— After the giant rallies in the spring, the setbacks immigrants suffered in Congress were met with little protest in the summer. Even the immigrant-bashing hearings orchestrated by conservatives in Congress were met with little resistance in various parts of the country.

— This year's protests are not fueled by anger as they were last year, when illegal immigrants were threatened by legislation that would turn them into criminals.

— Last year, the goal was to raise awareness about the economic power of illegal immigrants and their supporters.

But this year, the goal seems to be to revive a movement that has been weakened by inadequate leadership.

— The inability of immigrant rights leaders to agree on which tactics the movement should employ has been discouraging. For example, instead of the marches, a couple of prominent DJs who stimulated the crowds last year are now promoting letter-writing and voter-registration campaigns as ways to fight for immigration reform. They forget that without unidad there's nada .

— The apparent inability of march organizers to prevent participants from showing up with flags and other symbols that serve other agendas has alienated many people from going to the demonstrations. Images of Che Guevara, for example, are enough to keep most Cuban-Americans away.

— Immigrants' rights advocates are discouraged by what they see as very slow progress from the Democratically controlled Congress they helped to elect and from which they expected much more support.

— Last year, it was easier for immigrant-rights Democrats to complain about the majority in Congress than it is this year.

— This year, even the pro-immigrant forces are divided over the current legislation that stands before Congress. Some say the bill sponsored by Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., puts too many conditions on the path to legalization for illegal immigrants. The measure has been moved much further to the right than the McCain-Kennedy bill passed by the Senate and rejected by the House last year. Some pro-immigrant activists are rejecting the bill as an unacceptable compromise.

— Recent raids on places where immigrants are employed have created fear of congregating with other immigrants, especially in a protest.

With America affected by what is clearly a more punitive climate, the time is right to start fighting back. Calling for protests is still necessary, but only if the leaders are going keep building on whatever momentum they manage to create this time.

What is lacking is real leadership. What this fight still needs is another Martin Luther King or another Cesar Chavez.

The ideals of comprehensive immigration reform are great, but the real leaders have not materialized.

To find out more about Miguel Perez, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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