Immigrant freedom ride makes N.M. stops
9/26/2003. Mercury News
New Mexico's trademark sunshine, blue skies and red chilies - along with its governor - greeted busloads of immigrants and their supporters on Thursday....The cross-country caravan, backed by organized labor, began Saturday in 10 cities and is aimed at drawing attention to immigrant workers' rights....

Voices from the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
9/26/2003. Alternet
History is a powerful witness in the lives of nations that captures success and failure; moments of pride and episodes of shame. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, which kicked off Sept. 20, builds on the noble history of the U.S. civil rights movement and efforts to perfect an imperfect democracy. ...

Residents to take part in immigration reform campaign
9/26/2003. The Stamford Advocate
More than 200 immigrants from the Stamford area are expected to take part in a national campaign to reform U.S. immigration policy.... "We want to show how many immigrants are here, and that we are working here," said Carmen Sargent, a delegate for Local 32BJ of the Service Employee International Union, which supports the Freedom Ride. "And we deserve the same rights as working people here."...

Freedom Ride runs through Nashville
9/26/2003. Nashville City Paper
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride will pass through Nashville Monday during a cross-country effort to bring awareness to issues concerning immigrant worker�s rights. The national issues for both documented and undocumented immigrants, said Leber, are legalization and citizenship, the right to organize and form unions, reunification of the family {allowing family members to come to the U.S.} and civil rights....

Minnesota ride launched with festive celebration
9/26/2003. Workday Minnesota
Eighty immigrants and supporters who will travel on the Minnesota leg of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride celebrated with a large crowd of friends Thursday night at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis....

Labor spearheads push for immigrant rights
9/26/2003. The Capital Times
In a pilgrimage reminiscent of 1960s odysseys through the Jim Crow South, activists are crossing the country in buses to demonstrate for reform of U.S. immigration laws. Organizers of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride want to tap the emotional and political ballast of the movement that brought civil rights gains to African-Americans to bring civil rights to the laborers who toil in some of the nation's least-sought jobs. ...

Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, USA , Supports the Freedom Ride
9/26/2003. World Faith News
The 74th General Convention of our Church, acknowledging the urgency of protecting and enhancing the civil and economic rights of immigrants, called us to "encourage support of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride by educating its members to the importance of immigration law reform, organizing congregations to support the ride." In the spirit of this timely resolution, I urge Episcopalians throughout the country to support through prayer, advocacy and, where possible, participation in this nationwide event occurring from September 20 through October 4, 2003. ...

"Freedom ride" promotes immigrant-worker rights
9/25/2003. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Drawing inspiration from the historic civil rights movement of the 1960s, hundreds of immigrants - many of them undocumented - are making a cross-country road trip to push for changes in U.S. immigration law. ...

Riders spend the night at Caldwell's Farmway Village
9/25/2003. Idaho Statesman
The last time Mako Nakagawa was in Idaho it was 1942. She was 5 years old and living with her family in the Minidoka Internment camp in Hunt. Nakagawa returned to the state Wednesday on a bus traveling from Seattle on the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. ...

Immigrants' Rights Drive Starts
9/25/2003. The New York Times
TUCSON, Sept. 24 � Ninety immigrants and supporters left their buses and marched outside the Roman Catholic cathedral here today, carrying foot-high crosses to commemorate people from south of the border who died in the desert as they sought a better life in the United States. At St. Augustine Cathedral, the immigrants were greeted by more than 400 parishioners, students and others who marched alongside them and joined in singing, "We Shall Overcome." ...