Ramon Jacob did brisk business Tuesday selling $5 American flags at downtown
Portland's May Day march. His customers, mostly Mexican immigrants, waved
them, wrapped them around themselves and draped them over baby strollers.

"I thought it was important given last year's backlash against workers,"
said Jacob, a U.S. citizen who emigrated 19 years ago from Mexico.

The prevalence of U.S. instead of Mexican flags, the absence of a walkout
from jobs, and crowds less than half the size marked a distinctly different
mood than last year's events in Portland and Salem. Rallies in both cities,
attended by about 3,000 people each, were more conciliatory, less fueled by
outrage.

Last year, people railed against proposed legislation -- known as the
Sensenbrenner Bill after its sponsor, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. --
that would have criminalized illegal immigrants and people who helped them,
said Ramon Mejia of Gresham. This year, with a Democratic Congress and
multiple reform proposals, "there's not a single issue."

Guest worker and earned legalization programs, the militarization of the
border, and an increase in deportations are all on protesters' minds, Mejia
said.

"There is not one single slogan to shout. It's harder to organize people.
But we have to still try."

May Day, traditionally a labor and workers-rights event, went awry in
Portland in 2000 when police and protesters clashed, which led to arrests
and property damage. Last year, at the height of the immigration debate, the
day was transformed into one of massive nationwide protests in which
immigrant workers left their jobs and took to the streets. More than 8,000
filled Portland downtown.

In a tribute to May Days past, Tuesday's mostly immigrant crowd was joined
by a mix of union leaders, anti-sweatshop activists, Amnesty International
representatives, bakery workers giving away vegan carrot muffins and
black-clad anarchists holding aloft a sign that read "Fire the Boss."

Portland police reported two arrests for minor offenses.

Organizers acknowledged that this year's rally was more subdued, saying many
were disheartened by Congress' inability to produce the kind of immigration
reform they had hoped for.

"People are becoming impatient. People are starting to despair," Camilo
Valdez of Portland said in Spanish. "We are starting to feel desperation
because time is passing and people are not getting their rights."

Protesters focused on family this year, as many undocumented immigrants
brought their U.S.-born children to illustrate how increased deportations
are separating families.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the year ending
last September, a total of 186,641 illegal immigrants were deported in
Oregon, Washington and Alaska. That's more than 10 percent higher than the
previous year.

Second-grader Dianna Garnica held a sign in multicolored marker that read,
"My family are not criminals. They are hard workers."

Kathy Reyes, a seventh-grader from Gresham, said she knows families who have
been deported and many of her American-born friends are bracing for the day
their own parents might be taken away.

"They are afraid that they will have to find other people to live with," she
said.

There was no formal counterprotest, but a handful of people who oppose
illegal immigration appeared with signs. Jon Forkner of Portland held one
that read, "No Amnesty."

"I came out to protest illegals protesting in my country," said Forkner, a
construction worker who says he is tired of competing with illegal
immigrants. "They're driving wages down, not to mention all the social
services that they tap into."

In Salem, marchers crowded the front steps of the state Capitol and spilled
across the street into the Capitol Mall. They wore white T-shirts and waved
red, white and blue signs, urging lawmakers to reject the federal driver's
license law known as the Real ID Act and to grant in-state college tuition
to Oregon high school graduates regardless of immigration status.

Francisco Espericuete, a 23-year-old Willamette University senior and a
member of the youth group Latinos Unidos Siempre, said organizers
deliberately told rally-goers to emphasize their U.S. heritage.

"We told people if you bring a Mexican flag, make sure you bring an American
flag, too, because that's the country we're in," he said. "Unity with
America, not just immigrants."

Miguel Diaz, a landscaper from Roseburg, pushed his 2-year-old son in a
stroller and held a handmade sign that read: "We are Americans, like it or
not." Nearby, his wife, Carmela Diaz, a U.S. citizen, pushed their
3-year-old son. They are in the process of getting legal residency for
Miguel, she said.

"I'm here because I don't know what I'm going to do if he's forced to go
back to Mexico," Diaz said. "I might have to go back with him, which isn't
fair."