Sons and Daughters Connect With Message of the March

It was the first day of spring break, and normally 18-year-old Jose Cortez would be anyplace except at Albert Einstein High School.

Yet there he was, accompanied by his dad no less, waiting to cram into a school bus leaving the Kensington campus. He could have been bowling with friends or listening to his favorite reggaeton tunes. Yesterday, however, was not just about him.

"I really want to support immigrants," said Cortez, an Einstein senior who was born in El Salvador and immigrated to Montgomery County at 4 to join his father, Mario. "Without them, this country wouldn't be anything. Immigrants aren't here to fight; they're here to work.''

The elder Cortez, who had the day off from his job at Whole Foods, smiled at his son's words.

Father and son were among dozens of people who rode a caravan of buses, which also left Montgomery Blair and Watkins Mill high schools, en route to the Mall for yesterday's immigrant rights rally. Large contingents of students from the District and Virginia joined their Maryland counterparts for the mass demonstration.

For most, it was their first taste of political activism. Until now, several students said, they hadn't connected with a cause that felt so personal.

Heading to the Mall, 10-year-old Stephanie Lemus-Ortiz marched confidently down 16th Street NW, hand in hand with her uncle, who said he is an illegal immigrant. Stephanie, on spring break from a Fairfax County elementary school, said she couldn't wait for school to start again so she could tell her classmates what she did on vacation.

"I'm not sure they'll know about this," she said of her classmates who are not immigrants, "but I'm going tell them that I made a difference. They know me and expect that from me."

Stephanie Archila 15, a sophomore at Einstein, rode in one of the school buses with her father, mother, aunt and little sister. Her father, Frank, a roofer, took a half day off from work.

"I've never really done anything like this," Stephanie said, "but this issue is an attention-grabber."

The Montgomery school system came under fire in recent days for allowing students to earn community service credit for participating in the rally. Many students interviewed yesterday weren't aware of that controversy -- or even that they could earn school credit.

Instead, they were focused on designing posters ("Immigrants are not criminals," one read) and trying to get their voices heard.