May Day rally may attract 100,000

A coalition of immigrant rights, women’s and religious groups, labor unions and LGBTQ advocates will take to the streets of Los Angeles on Monday for a series of May Day marches with a message aimed squarely at President Trump.

“The message we want to send him is that we are united,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “When he thinks that immigrants are isolated and that others will not stand up for our immigrant communities, he’s wrong.”

More than 100 groups will be part of this year’s rally organized by the May Day Coalition of Los Angeles. In past years, about 30 or 40 groups were represented, CHIRLA spokesman JorgeMario Cabrera said.

The march, one of dozens of May Day demonstrations scheduled nationwide, will start with an 11 a.m. rally at MacArthur Park followed by a march to L.A. City Hall.

Organizers expect about 100,000 marchers and have been coordinating with police to ensure that the event is peaceful, he added.

About 300 people will act as monitors, some to ensure that the crowd moves smoothly through the streets and others as legal monitors to document any incidents, Cabrera said.

Los Angeles police spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said police expect large crowds downtown and are encouraging marchers to prepare for a warm day. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 70s, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s going to be a hot day,” Eisenman said. “Use sunscreen, bring plenty of water and, if possible, take public transportation.”

May 1, which has long been a day of protest for the labor movement, has in recent years also come to represent a day of protest for immigrant rights.

Ashley Yu, a spokeswoman for the Korean Resource Center, a nonprofit community group, said this year’s march has taken on a special importance because of Trump’s executive orders on immigration and his efforts to ramp up deportations.

“This year specifically, a lot of our communities — immigrants, working people, Muslims — we feel like the current administration’s policies have been attacking us,” she said. “We felt it was really important for us to show up at this year’s march.”