Organized labor and immigration rights coalesce as hundreds join Santa Rosa May Day march

Guadalupe Velasquez and his 8-year-old son, Angel, were among hundreds of people who walked from Roseland to downtown Santa Rosa on Tuesday afternoon for the annual May Day march organized by a coalition of North Bay community and labor groups.

The 25-year-old married father of two and Santa Rosa resident has made it a point to attend May Day rallies to speak up for immigrant rights, often bringing his young son.

“With everything going on, I have to show him we have a voice and we can be heard,” Velasquez said.

The threat of federal immigration raids, the lack of diversity in local law enforcement departments and ever-increasing rents, participants and organizers said, were among the biggest issues facing Sonoma County’s immigrant and blue-collar residents.

The demonstration, part of a series of events held nationwide Tuesday, began with a rally at the Dollar Tree store in Roseland. The theme on the day was “Workers’ Struggle Has No Borders.”

Aztec dancers led marchers east on Sebastopol Road, followed by representatives of the North Bay Rapid Response Network, a group that operates a 24-hour hotline to provide legal protection and support to Sonoma and Napa county immigrants targeted by federal agents.

“Obviously, we’re marching for immigration reform so everyone in our community can feel safe,” said North Bay ?Organizing Project co-director Susan Shaw, who helps spearhead the Rapid Response Network. “We’re not safe and we’re going to keep working until we are.”

About 50 people in the crowd of around 300 wore bright red Unite Here T-shirts and led a picket line in front of the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country on Railroad Street. The union has been in protracted negotiations with hotel management over a new collective bargaining agreement for represented hotel workers.

March participants proceeded to City Hall, where a few dozen demonstrators disrupted the council meeting Tuesday evening, protesting the city’s crackdown on homeless encampments. About six of the demonstrators were arrested.

Tuesday’s event was smaller than previous May Day rallies, including the Saturday demonstration last year that drew about 1,000 people.

This year, the occasion fell on a work day, and many local immigrants remain wary of attending large public events, where they feel more vulnerable to federal immigration agents, said Alexia Carrillo a 21-year-old organizer from Sonoma who also attends Santa Rosa Junior College.

“But there are still some people here who are at risk,” said Carrillo, who emceed a bilingual rally before the march.

Some in the march were collecting signatures to put rent control on the November ballot. A City Council decision establishing rent control in Santa Rosa was narrowly overturned by voters in a June 2017 ?referendum.

For Velasquez, whose son held a sign that said “Brown is Beautiful,” the cost of local housing is a pressing household issue.

“We need rent control, things are getting out of hand,” said the construction worker. “My wife and I both have jobs, but with rent going up and two kids it can be tough.”

Raquel Guevara, a senior at Sonoma State University and member of the Latinx Student Congress of Sonoma County, said the various issues raised in the May Day events boil down to shared struggles.

Stronger safeguards for workers and immigrants can benefit both groups, she said, echoing a rallying cry for the day. “Immigrant rights are worker rights.”

You can reach Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at ?707-521-5203 or nick.rahaim@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nrahaim.