Thousands gather for immigration rally

Several thousand people rallied in favor of equal rights for immigrants yesterday, marching from Guadalupe Plaza in the East End to Allen's Landing downtown. The crowd ranged from 10,000 to 50,000, depending on whom you asked and when — it wasn't as large as the estimated 500,000 who marched in Dallas over the weekend, but it was the largest such demonstration Houston has seen in decades.

"At this moment, the immigrant community is writing one of the most important pages in its history, telling of its fight," Teodoro Aguiluz, an immigrant activist in Houston, told a crowd that lined the bank of the Buffalo Bayou and spilled into surrounding streets and over the Main and Fannin streets bridges.

"This is only part of the fight, the beginning, because on May 1 we are going to do a general strike," Aguiluz said to spirited cheers and a chorus of "¡Sí Se Puede!" Yes we can.

There wasn't another mention of that strike, but there was a lot of support at the rally as speakers from a vareity of groups spoke against tighter immigration restrictions. Among them was immigration lawyer and former City Councilman Gordon Quan, who said Congress needs to "go back to work and give us a fair law," and Texas ACORN head Toni McElroy, who said all minorities have "more in common than the oppressors would have us believe."

Later in the day, about 300 people attended a prayer vigil at the University of St. Thomas where Archbishop Emeritus Joseph A. Fiorenza praised the contributions of immigrants and called on the government to craft a bill "truly reflective of this great nation."