Rally Opposing Alabama's Immigration Law Winds Through Downtown Huntsville

The Huntsville Times: As marchers gathered this afternoon to oppose Alabama's new immigration law, Jessica Rodriguez read a newspaper article reporting that President Barack Obama had criticized the law during a briefing with the Hispanic media.

"This is what we want," said Rodriguez, whose husband is in the process of obtaining a green card. "This brings tears to my eyes."

Though Rodriguez agrees that reform is needed, "the way Alabama is doing it is wrong. It's targeting one group.

"My three children are part Mexican, and I want them to be proud of that. I don't want them to live in fear."

Rodriguez was one of the organizers of the rally that attracted about 200 people who walked east on Clinton Avenue from the post office to Jefferson Street, circled the Madison County Courthouse then headed to Big Spring International Park.

As they walked, they shouted, "Stop HB 56."

They carried signs reading "We Pay Taxes Too," "We are Workers Not Criminals," and "Stop Separating Families." A sign was propped in a stroller that read, "Can You Tell Me Why You HATE My Daddy? Is it for his Skin Color?"

Evelyn Servin, director of the North Alabama Hispanic Coalition, said she's glad Obama spoke out against the law. "But I wish he would take a bigger stand and stop all this," she said.

Servin's 9-year-old son, Yahir, was with her at the rally, carrying a sign, "I Don't Want to Be Afraid to Go to School." Servin's husband, who's trying to work through the citizenship process, is in Mexico.

"That's why I'm here," she said. "My children can't have their daddy here."

When the marchers arrived at Big Spring International Park around 2 p.m. today, Joe Ferrazas of the nonprofit Todo Razas Unidos (All Races United), read from his letter to Gov. Robert Bentley. The Alabama law, Ferrazas said, has created "more hate, racism, bullying in schools and a great divide in America."

Ferrazas said Latinos have "risked their lives, left their families and lost their names and identities given to them by their mothers and fathers to come here to work and provide for their families -- all in the hopes for freedom and opportunity."

Instead of Latinos taking Americans' jobs, "in reality, we are doing jobs that most Americans do not want to do, for what the job pays," Ferrazas said. "We get these jobs because we are reliable, hard-working and dependable individuals, not cheap labor."

The Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion quoted Obama as saying the Alabama law is "a bad law. The idea that we have children afraid to go to school, because they feel afraid that their immigration status will lead to being detained -- it's wrong."

Federal judges in Birmingham and Atlanta have blocked some sections of the law, including those related to transporting illegal immigrants and checking the immigration status of students.

Consuelo Mendoza of Athens, who works with Todo Razas Unidos, carried a sign Saturday that read, "What Land of Opportunity?" She has helped families pack to move from Alabama and is concerned about the future of her own family members, including her companion of 19 years.

"We just want to be heard," she said.