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By DOUG ALDEN
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Latino community leaders hope momentum from a huge immigration rally four weeks ago carries over to the next push for immigration reform.
The "Walk for Liberty" is scheduled for Monday, coinciding with nationally planned "Day Without Immigrants" boycott aimed at raising awareness of the effect and value immigrants have on the country.
Local leaders are asking people to support the boycott as much as they can.
"In the spirit of civil disobedience, we want it to be a meaningful event, but not at the risk of people losing their jobs or facing retaliation from their employers," said John Renteria, president of Centro Civico Mexicano in Salt Lake City.
Volunteers have made thousands of blue ribbons for people to wear to show their support. The national boycott calls for workers and students to take the day off.
On April 8, a downtown march up State Street to the state Capitol drew an estimated tens of thousands of demonstrators. Another march is planned Monday around Liberty Park southeast of downtown.
"They might surprise us again," said Tony Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah.
Yapias organized the April 8 event and Proyecto Latino is also behind Monday's event at Liberty Park.
A small contingent of illegal immigration opponents is also expected at Liberty Park Monday. Nearly 100 demonstrators staged a counter-protest at immigration reform rallies earlier this month. Many wore Utah Minutemen T-shirts.
Yapias, the former director of the State Office of Hispanic Affairs, said Latinos can still get the premise behind Monday's boycott out, even if they still have to go to work.
"They have my total support as to what they want to do individually. It's a personal decision for everybody," Yapias said. "I'm going to take the day off because I can afford it. There's a lot of people who can't. If they can't take the day off, we encourage them to wear a blue ribbon as a show of support."
Some employers aren't leaving it up to the workers -- they're making it a company holiday.
Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co. will shut down four of its five beef processing plants -- including the one in Hyrum, Utah -- and two of its three pork processing plants.
Greg Schirf, owner of Wasatch Beers, said a few of his Latino employees approached him and shyly asked if they could take the day off because of the national boycott.
Schirf's response:
"How about this? We'll just take a company holiday. We'll call it 'Latino Appreciation Day,"' Schirf said.
Schirf estimates about half of his employees are Hispanic. He's closing Monday.
Schirf, whose brewery has tickled tourists and rankled the local Mormon culture with brews such as "Polygamy Porter," said immigration reform has been needed for years and the topic has finally surfaced.
He wasn't about to punish any of his workers for saying so.
"We thought it was the right thing to do," Schirf said. "We're not trying to grandstand. We hope other businesses will take notice and show their appreciation for their Latino employees."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
