10,000 marchers, 5 arrests at immigration protest

An otherwise festive protest march against the immigration methods of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpio turned ugly Saturday afternoon when a small group brawled with police and hit a mounted officer and her horse with sticks.

Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and arrested five people.

Sarah Grace Daniels, 23, Jeremiah M. Henry, 18, and Issa A. Emadi, 26, were booked aggravated assault on a police officer charges, Phoenix police said.

Garyn Klasek, 30, is facing aggravated assault on a police officer and disorderly conduct charges. Claire E. Brock, 23, was booked for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

The group was dressed entirely in black with bandanas over their faces and signs read "Assassinate Arpaio" and other anarchist messages.

They had been jawing with police for most of the afternoon, chanting profanities at officers and throwing bottles at them near the beginning of the march. Officers on bikes and horses and more in patrol cars escorted the group the rest of the way until they reached 35th Avenue and Durango, blocks from the jail.

Salvador Reza, one of the organizers of the protest, described the people who created the disturbance as an outside faction.

"There was provocation by some groups who came here for their own purpose to disrupt a peaceful march," Reza said.

The marchers began to cut off a utility cart that had been riding alongside the demonstration and police brought in a mounted officer to separate the protestors from the officer. The crowd surrounded the horse and a few protestors hit the animal with sticks that had black flags on them.

Two other police officers were assaulted by the suspects who threw water bottles, possibly containing rocks, police said. The bottles missed.

Some protestors not affiliated with the outside group were sprayed, some of them were children.

Alexandra Alvarez said her six-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter were hit with the spray. Her son has asthma and was quickly using his prescription inhaler. Both were crying from the sting of the spray.

"We were walking when all of a sudden there was a strong smell that started to sting," Alvarez said.

The march began peacefully, with protesters gathering at Falcon Park in west Phoenix. It had something of a festival feel as people spread blankets, listened to music and speakers and bought ice cream and popcorn from vendors.

By 11:45 a.m., the group took to the streets for the more than 4-mile march that took them south on 35th Avenue toward Tent City, which is south of Buckeye Road. Several marchers started chanting in Spanish, urging Arpaio to stop his tactics. Many others hoisted signs that read "We Are Human."

There was no opposition to the marchers throughout the day as they proceeded to head towards Tent City. Protest participants started arriving at Falcon Park before 9 a.m., joining fellow immigrants-rights advocates in urging the Obama administration to end an agreement that lets the Sheriff's Office check the immigration status of people booked into its jails.

Organizers believe some Valley police officers are engaging in racial profiling by arresting Latinos for minor crimes in order to check their immigration status. In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security took away Sheriff Joe Arpaio's power to arrest illegal immigrants under a revised agreement that still lets jail officials enforce immigration laws.

As she mingled among others at the protest, Sarahi Uribe, a representative from the National Day Labor Organizing Network, said the hope was to stir the Obama administration into action, specifically Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"We want to tell her to stop the deportation and abuses of civil rights," Uribe said. "We're very inspired by the civil-rights struggle in this country, and we see this as a continued fight."

The Rev. Liana Rowe of Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix said she came to the protest as a show of solidarity.

"Babies are being separated from their mamas, and families are being split up in the process, all in the name of anti-immigration," Rowe said.

Several elementary and high school teachers were among the marchers.

Tim Broyles, a social-justice teacher at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, said a few students from the school came out to support their peers.

"There are kids in this group who deal with this (immigration) on a daily basis," Broyles said. "Their buddies are here because they know what's going on."

Ruben Rivas, 29, a fourth-grade teacher in Mesa, also came to show his support.

"I don't know who is documented or undocumented in my classroom," he said, "but a lot of my kids talk a lot about not being able to visit grandparents. It's an injustice."

After the morning rally at Falcon Park, the group marched to Tent City, the outdoor jail facility run by the Sheriff's Office on Durango Street. Singer Linda Ronstadt walked the march and was to perform later in the day, but was not able to because she was tired from the march.

By 2:45 p.m., some marchers left.

Reza said the march was overall successful in sending out a message against the tactics of Arpaio and the policies of immigration that divide families and communities.

A group of at least 10 meat packers from San Francisco made the 12-hour drive overnight in order protest what one described as policies that threaten laborers all over the country.

"If we weren't here it'd be 3,000 (protestors) minus 10," Geravo Sanez said. "We wanted to make sure it was 3,000 plus 10."

Protesters crowd into Falcon Park in west Phoenix on Saturday before for the immigration protest march.