Uppity Wisconsin

I don't know how many people marched in Milwaukee on Thursday for fair treatment of immigrants.

No one has tried to put a number on it. Crowd estimates have gone out of fashion.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is content to say that "thousands" marched, and made a point of saying it wasn't as many as last year. (How do we know that?)

Meanwhile, the New York Times was pointing to Milwaukee as one of the places where crowds didn't decrease, and made it sound like the biggest march in the country took place here.

One thing is certain: TENS of thousands of people marched in Milwaukee. I can't say whether it was 20,000 or 30,000 or more, but it was undoubtedly the biggest march Milwaukee will see in 2008 -- and the biggest since last year's march organized by the same people.

Consider this: The march started at 5th and Washington about 11:45 and wound its way across the 6th Street viaduct and down Wisconsin Avenue to Veterans Park. That's a good two and one-half miles, maybe a little more.

When the first marchers got to the park, many marchers were still lined up and waiting to leave the starting point. Marchers were strung out all along the 2.5-mile route, and kept coming into Veterans Park until about 2 p.m., more than two hours after the march began.

There were indications of a growing coalition to support the demands for fair immigration reform, with religious, labor and antiwar groups joining the largely Latino crowd of all ages.

Here's how the JS summed it up:

This year's event drew fewer than the throngs that turned out last year, when Milwaukee had one of the largest May Day immigrant marches in the country.

The NY Times reported:

Milwaukee had one of the more robust turnouts, with thousands of people gathering, as they did last year. Protesters called on the presidential candidates, each of whom has supported Congressional efforts to allow a way for certain illegal immigrants to gain legal status, to make immigration issues a priority.

“We want a commitment from the three presidential candidates to pass humane immigration reform in the first 100 days in office,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera, the main organization behind the Milwaukee march.

Many marchers carried signs: "Today we march, tomorrow we vote."

Here's hoping they follow through with that promise. The Latino vote can be a real force for change, in Milwaukee and elsewhere. Thursday gave us just an inkling of the impact it could have.