TEMPO.CO, New York - Labor unions and civil rights groups staged May Day rallies in several U.S. cities on Monday, May 1, to denounce President Donald Trump's get-tough policy on immigration, a crackdown they said preys on vulnerable workers in some of America's lowest-paying jobs.
Protests and marches challenging Trump's efforts at stepping up the deportation of illegal immigrants drew crowds by the thousands to the streets of New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with smaller gatherings popping up across the country.
A broad coalition of groups behind the events also took aim at various other Trump policies they saw as discriminatory or xenophobic, including his bid, so far blocked by the courts, to ban travelers from several Muslim countries and temporarily turn away all refugees.
But the primary impetus cited by civil liberties and labor activists was Trump's strict new immigration enforcement policy - falling most heavily on undocumented workers who toil in low-paying, non-unionized sectors such as fast-food, hospitality, child care, and agriculture.
A May Day gathering grew unruly in Portland, Oregon, where a group of black-clad protesters roamed downtown streets in the late afternoon, setting fires, breaking storefront windows, throwing projectiles and vandalizing a police cruiser.
Police, referring to the perpetrators as "anarchists," said they made three arrests.
Rallies elsewhere in the country were boisterous but mostly orderly, even festive.
In some cities, immigrant-run convenience stores and other businesses closed their doors in solidarity with the May Day rallies, and many protesters themselves gave up a day's wages to make their voices heard.
"Money will come back later, but not this opportunity, not this day," said David Anaya, 44, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, who chose to forfeit the $300 he would have otherwise earned at his job as a welder.
He was one of the thousands who gathered at MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles for what organizers called a show of "resistance, unity and defiance," then set off on an animated but peaceful march across town to City Hall.
A crowd of several thousand also assembled in Washington's Dupont Circle for a rally ahead of a planned procession to Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House.
REUTERS
