New Orleans joined in on global May Day demonstrations Thursday, with hundreds gathering for a raucous march and roving rally to protest President Donald Trump's policies while saluting the labor movement.
In the Crescent City, the event tied together the traditional day celebrating workers' rights and immigration issues. Speakers and attendees condemned Trump's border crackdown that's led to the detention of students, activists and people without documents.
Addressing participants, Unión Migrante organizer Edith Romero said immigrants are far from criminals and are a key part of this community.
"We are essential workers. We work in kitchens, we work in hospitals, we work in hotels. How would this city live off of tourism without immigrant workers working in hotels?," she said.
Romero called on participants to pay attention to corporations she said were exploitative, name-checking two correctional giants who help operate the South's vast network of immigration detention facilities.
People at the demonstration pounded drums, and rattled instruments as they rallied under the statue of indigenous former Mexican president Benito Juarez. Juarez, who was Indigenous, was an organizer who became the president of Mexico.
Participants held signs, often hand-lettered or crafted, with slogans including "Democracy is not a game" and "They blame immigrants so you won't blame billionaires." Some drivers honked, seemingly in support, as they drove past.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the White House didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on today's demonstrations.
Speakers included a member of the nurses' union which had picketed University Medical Center earlier that day as part of a labor dispute and members of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union with a presence in the city.
Chanting slogans like "Abolish ICE, no more hate, immigrants make America great," and "No somos criminales, somos esenciales," participants marched onto Basin Street then followed it upriver, turning onto Perdido Street then heading up Lasalle Street toward Poydras Street.
Once there, the group rallied again at the base of the tall, black tower that now houses New Orleans Police Department headquarters, then marched back down S. Robertson Street and turned back toward the City Hall building, where they convened before dispersing.
Felix Allen, an organizer with New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, urged attendees to pressure the New Orleans Police Department not to collaborate with ICE.
"They're coming at the people I grew up playing soccer with and going to school with and working with," he said, referring to the immigration enforcement agency.
The march was organized or joined by groups including Unión Migrante, New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, UNITE HERE, Step Up Louisiana and many others.
Attending with a friend from the North Shore, participant Sally Meredith said she was alarmed by immigrants not being given due process and the notion that citizens might be deported.
"Every day there's a new horror," she said. "I wake up and almost don't want to know what's going on, but of course I peek at my phone and I see the next horrible thing that's happened."
One bartender attending the protest said he loves the U.S., but feels its potential is being squandered on "all this racism and xenophobia and just tearing people apart, rather than bringing them together."
He gave the name Urban, asking Gulf States Newsroom to not use his last name at what he saw as a dangerous time to speak out.
"I just can't believe that we live in a country where people can be just disappeared, and sent to another country that they're not even from," he said.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
