“We won’t win immigration reform just coming to Washington. We need to walk the streets all over the country,” Ben Monterroso, national director of civic participation for the SEIU, told the crowd.
Thousands of supporters of immigration reform gathered in Washington, D.C., on April 10, with the main event of the day being the Citizenship for 11 Million rally held on the West Lawn of the Capitol. The Washington Post reported that the rally was co-sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and CASA of Maryland, identified as an “immigrant advocacy group.”
The rally came shortly before the anticipated unveiling of the immigration legislation package crafted by the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators.
“We’ve been through this before, but this time it’s different,” Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, told attendees at the Washington rally. “We are different, and Washington is different. The politicians can’t ignore us now. We will become citizens, and we will vote.”
A report from CBS News observed that many attendees at the rally carried hand-lettered signs and chanted “Si, se puede,” Spanish for “Yes, we can.”
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