The movement for immigrant rights that exploded onto the streets of U.S. cities in March and April has been breathtaking.

On April 10, demonstrations took place in an estimated 140 cities in 39 states, from New York and Washington, D.C. to Lincoln, Nebraska and Atlanta. Even in Garden City, Kansas, a town of 27,000, more than 3,000 turned out.

In Chicago on March 10, 300,000 turned out for a march in its overwhelming majority composed of workers, thousands of whom walked off their jobs to participate. The size and character of the Chicago protest made plausible comparisons to the 1886 demonstrations in the city for the 8-hour day—which bequeathed to the world working class the holiday of May Day. Of course, the Chicago turnout was dwarfed by the one million who took over Los Angeles on March 25. And it should not be forgotten that so-called “red state” cities like Dallas and Phoenix on April 10 witnessed their largest protests ever, with turnouts that would be considered immense even in New York or San Francisco.

During the buildup to the Iraq War in 2002 and 2003, it was common for the media to remark that the large mobilizations against the war didn’t just involve the “usual suspects.” That characterization goes double for the immigrants’ rights mobilizations that have brought out from the shadows a significant section of the working class of this country.

Besides their size and multigenerational proletarian composition, the most noteworthy feature of the demonstrations so far is the feeling of solidarity, confidence, and simple assertion of the rightness of their cause that they exude. In this, they echo the African American civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The popular chants “Sí se puede” (“Yes we can”) and “Aquí estamos, no nos vamos, y si nos echan, nos regresamos” (“We’re here, we’re not leaving. If they throw us out, we’re coming back.”) sum up these sentiments.

At the same time, the movement has reinvigorated the politics of protest that has been so lacking in the broad Left these days. While the most visible actions of the movement so far have been the mass demonstrations, the movement has also championed job actions, such as the call for all immigrants and their supporters to walk off their jobs on the national day of action on May 1. Moreover, student walkouts in high schools and colleges have spread like wildfire.

The eruption of this movement not only comes from the outrage of the estimated 11–12 million undocumented immigrants at being made scapegoats by unscrupulous politicians and racist vigilantes, but by immigrants’ sense of their importance to the U.S. economy. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that undocumented workers compose 5 percent of the U.S. workforce. And they make up a significant percentage of workers in particular industries. Meat-packing plants in the Midwest reported a decline in productivity on April 10—and noted that they wouldn’t penalize workers who took off the day to attend protests.

There’s no doubt that the mass protests have already had an impact. On the day after the April 10 protests, Republicans, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, announced that they would propose legislation that would drop provisions making undocumented workers felons. This is one of the key—and most odious—provisions of the House-passed (and Hastert approved) HR 4437, which has been the most palpable target of the mass demonstrations.

Unfortunately, many activists and unions not only believe that some version of the bill put forward by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) is the best they can get today, but they believe that Democrats are defenders of immigrants. In spite of the fact that Democratic politicians have turned up on the platforms addressing the mass demonstrations, they and their party don’t believe that it’s possible to rout the Republicans.

Even worse are those who act like they’re defending immigrants today, when not too long ago, they were calling for a crackdown on the border. At the top of this list is the ever-slippery Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who, in 2003, told WABC radio that “I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.” Yet the senator from New York was on hand to address the crowd in Battery Park on April 10, including complimenting the immigrant maids who make her bed in hotel rooms.

Presenting themselves as “tough on terrorism,” the Democrats run away from advocating “amnesty” for immigrants. In fact, when they talk about “legalization” and a “path to citizenship,” they are talking about an expensive, multi-year process of paying fines and jumping through legal hoops. What is more, they have adopted a position very similar to Bush’s on the question of “guest workers,” a de facto new Bracero Program.

The so-called “compromise” bill that collapsed in the Senate in April went even further in creating three tiers of immigrants—allowing some to earn their way to U.S. citizenship, some to become guest workers and leaving the rest to be deported.
There exists a real danger that, with Republicans split on the question of immigrants, the Democrats will be the ones who deliver for Bush and the bosses the only thing both really want—a guest-worker program that will provide them with a stable, but rights-deprived, workforce.

That is why this movement must remain independent of the maneuvers of the politicians who are more interested in serving big business than in defending immigrants. That is why the movement must reject half-baked compromises that are cooked up to preserve politicians’ hides rather than to give immigrants the justice they deserve.

Nativo López, president of the Mexican American Political Association and leader of the call for the May 1 national protest, had it right when he flung this back at the racist CNN host Lou Dobbs, who asked him if he would accept anything short of amnesty:

Absolutely not. We’re looking for full immediate, unconditional legalization for all persons currently in the United States. They’ve already paid their way, Dobbs. They paid their way more than enough, than anybody can expect of them, we don’t need earned legalization, we need legalization right now of all our folks here.