Thousands demand immigration reform at May 1 events across the state

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On May 1, OneAmerica organized or participated in more than 10 events statewide to demand immigration reform. These events were attended by more than 15,000 people from all parts of the state. Some reports from across the state:

SEATTLE
About 10,000 people marched in Seattle on May 1 demanding change to the broken immigration system and challenging the anti-immigrant law in Arizona. More than 250 OneAmerica members joined the march, between Judkins Park and Memorial Stadium.

Photos of the Seattle March
Q-13 story about the march
 
WALLA WALLA
Over 700 people joined a march in Walla Walla, started at a park and marched right through the middle of downtown, with cars honking in support and even some wine-tasting tourists jumping in to march for a little bit. A four-member delegation visited Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers' office and two of her aides - one in charge of agriculture - came out to speak to the crowd. After the aides avoided several questions from the audience related to immigration reform, the audience become more passionate about continuing the fight, continuing to march and reach out with petitions and demand change.

Walla Walla Union Bulletin story
 
WENATCHEE
About 1,000 people marched in Wenatchee demanding immigration reform. The event was organized by El Grupo and OneAmerica and featured speeches by OneAmerica's Executive Director Pramila Jayapal and OneAmerica Organizing Director David Ayala.
 
TRI-CITIES
OneAmerica Organizing Director David Ayala spoke to a crowd at the Cinco de Mayo festival in Pasco and gave a beautiful and rousing call to people about how we have to take risks and how it is time to step up our efforts.  He talked about how people and start to think everything needs to be easy if they have been in the U.S. for a while, but in fact everyone has been through struggle and taken risks and now it is time to do that again.

Tri-City Herald Story
Tri-City Herald Photos
Pasco TV Coverage
 
SKAGIT COUNTY
In Bellingham, C2C held a conference for Immigrant Rights and the Reform. There were 60 people in attendance. In Mt. Vernon, the vigil was held in Valle de Mission Church at 8:30 p.m. last night with 250 people. It was a trilingual service in English, Spanish, and Mixteco. There was a good mix of Hispanics, indigenous Mexicans, and a smaller amount from the Anglo community. Josefina Beecher from the Episcopal Church did a tremendous job choosing the readings and with the messaging: "Se ve, se siente, jesus esta presente!" "You feel, you see, Jesus is present!" Jose Ortiz lead the beginning with a call to action for the community, saying we need to awaken our neighbors. That now is not the time for division, nor the time to sit in our homes. Families, brothers sisters, neighbors, we need to make our voice heard in the streets, in our churches, all the way to the White House! There were also strong messages denouncing Arizona and laws of hate.

VANCOUVER
Vancouver was true community event with 300 people - lots of kids and moms with strollers. At the end there was a vigil. It was the first event of its kind in Vancouver. The crowd chanted "Sí, se puede!" (Yes, we can!) and "Obama, escucha: Estamos a la lucha!" (Obama, listen: We are fighting!). OneAmerica Base Group Leaders Rick Covington and Maria Covington were present to lead the effort and were pleased with the great turnout.
 
Vancouver Columbian story

Additional Media Coverage:

KOMO TV Story
Seattle Times
Seattle P-I Gallery