Waving flags and chanting on a beautifully cool early September morning, 200 immigration rights advocates marched through Oak Park and River Forest Saturday. The march remained a peaceful expression of free speech throughout the 2½ hours it took the marchers to walk from Austin Boulevard and Roosevelt Road to Lake Street and the DesPlaines River.
The two villages were part of the second leg of a four day, 40-plus mile trek, organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). While police had to block vehicular traffic early on, the march went smoothly, with only a couple of minor glitches. There were no counter-protests in either Oak Park or River Forest.
The turnout for the march, which started Friday afternoon in Chinatown, mirrored the low turnouts for other rallies throughout the country last weekend, including Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas and Phoenix. Oak Park and River Forest police had expected as many as 500 marchers, a tiny fraction of the 400,000 that turned out for a Chicago rally in May.
Joined by State Police officers, several dozen Oak Park and Cicero officers and command staff were on hand at 9 a.m. as the marchers left St. Frances of Rome Catholic Church at 14th Street and Austin Boulevard, where they’d spent the previous night. Waving American, Chicago and Mexican flags, the group was orderly but assertive as it walked slowly west on Roosevelt Road, chanting in Spanish, as well as in English. “We are America!” they chanted, calling out, “Today we march, tomorrow we work,” and “tomorrow we vote.”
While mostly Hispanic, the marchers were joined by a number of Anglos, including one wearing a T-shirt that read, “McDowell is an immigrant name.”
One Hispanic man carried a placard reading, “No Bush wall. No 2nd class citizenship. No compromise.”
The line crossed Roosevelt to the Oak Park side, then turned west. With police leap-frogging the approximately 300-foot-long march, the participants walked to Oak Park Avenue, where they were directed across the street to the west side, then north.
Police steered the marchers to the west side of Oak Park Avenue so as to avoid having to cross any intersections at Lake and Oak Park. They also wanted to avoid the construction zone on the north side of Lake Street in Downtown Oak Park, said Oak Park Deputy Chief Bob Scianna.
That separation likely helped keep things calm during the only emotional moment on the 100 block of North Oak Park Avenue when marchers looked across the street as they approached Lake Street and spied the Oberweis ice cream shop.
“They were getting all stirred up at Oberweis,” said Scianna, who informed the march leaders they had five minutes to pause, then had to move on. The marchers complied, turned west onto Lake Street, took bottled water and juice offered by members of the Oak Park Peace and Justice Coalition and continued west toward Harlem Avenue.
Watching from Scoville Park were members of the Illinois Green Party, including Lt. Governor candidate Julie Samuels and 8th District Rep. candidate Nathan Halsabeck. Both expressed support for the marchers’ efforts, saying the issue was one of fairness and justice for people, adding that they were simply coming here to secure a better future.
“People come here because they’re under duress, said Samuels. People feel it’s necessary to leave their homeland to survive.” Samuels decried what she saw as a continuing lack of understanding and of progress on the immigration issue, saying, “Two centuries later, we still have the same issues.”
Mehrdad Azemun, a spokesman for the march, said his group was happy with the support they found in Oak Park.
“We’re thrilled at the gestures of support and solidarity,” he said. Azemun said the ultimate goal of the four-day, 40-some-mile trek was “to highlight the lack of comprehensive immigration reform.” The group, he said, was marching to Batavia to confront Speaker Hastert and urge him to push for such action.
“It’s not just a walk for us, it’s a pilgrimage,” said Azemun. “People’s spirits are really high though their feet are a little sore.”
At Harlem Avenue, Oak Park police watched as the marchers and their State Police escorts crossed over just before 11 a.m. In River Forest, it was more of the same.
“Everything went real smooth,” said River Forest Deputy Chief Dan Dhooghie. “Traffic continued to flow, and there were no protestors.”