This years Seattle May Day rally and march for rights and justice for illegal immigrants was much smaller than last year. The (credible) estimates for last year were 25-30k. Police estimates for this year were about 8k, which is possible but still seems a little high to me.

The full gallery of pictures for this year (2007) is here.

The gallery of pictures for last year (2006) is here.

The gallery of pictures for the April 10, 2006 march is here.

First, here are some crowd shots. The first one has pretty much everybody, if you want to do your own crowd estimate.

Notice the sign in the upper left corner of the last picture. It is the same old labor union sign saying “Jobs with Justice” recycled from last year, but they have added “Stop Destroying Families” to it. Before the day of the march I called the organizers and asked them what the main messages of the rally were going to be. The new message this year is a push to stop raids and deportations on the grounds that it is destroying families. Many of the signs were reflecting this new theme, and we should expect to see more of this angle in the immigration debate from now on. They seem to be encouraging children to participate more to play up this angle. Of course, this is an attempt to gain sympathy, but it has a fatal flaw. There is no acceptance of any personal responsibility for putting their families in that tenuous situation in the first place.

Always on the periphery, and helping organize the marches, are the same old leftist groups that appear at every protest around here.

You also have the usual dichotomy of racial pride contrasting with white guilt and self loathing.

A recurring theme is the Reconquista notion that illegal immigrants have a right to be here because it still belongs to them. “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us!”

There were many flags. I liked last year better. The dual US/Mexican flag last year had the US one above the Mexican one. They seem to have been reversed this year. Assimilation progress?

The news outlets have been claiming that the reduced turnout is because of the fear of being deported. I did overheard their security guy telling the volunteer “peace keepers” to be on the lookout for ICE and to tell them if they were seen. I’m not convinced that it is the sole reason, but it was pretty obvious that the community was very unhappy with even the small number of recent enforcement actions. There were many signs condemning the raids, and one I saw (sorry, no photo) that even equated ICE enforcing federal immigration laws to committing a terrorist act.

Unlike last year, I didn’t see any voter registration tables. But there were signs. Oh well, at least any illegal aliens that sign up to vote in US elections will be voters that have a pulse, which is still an improvement in King County.

As usual, Che’s dour visage was there to grace the march. By the way, is that the only one picture of this guy in existence?

Unlike the last protest I covered, this one was official. It had drums.

And some cool mascots.

I find it a little ironic that they used the Statue of Liberty as a symbol. It’s true that it is an iconic symbol of freedom, however, it is also known as the first sight that 12 million (legal) immigrants had of their new home as they came to America. Of course, they were on their way to Ellis Island to do it the right way.

This years march didn’t have the Mayor and Ron Sims. But then it wasn’t an election year. However, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett was there. And other Democrats.

Well, that’s it for this year. Remember to breathe. Take your blood pressure medication. And vote.