In scores of grassroots protest activities in 2006, immigrants and immigrant-rights supporters effectively derailed anti-immigrant legislation before Congress, as they meaningfully engaged with “the immigration debate.” Evaluating these events as moments of immigrant participation in the political sphere, as well as in the broader social one, this article analyzes the symbolic speech contained within these protests, in particular as communicated by “illegal immigrants.” I contend their mass participation provided a symbolic interjection of humanity, actively voicing disobedience to the current and proposed laws as well as the civic and social expectations informing immigrants' public interactions within the larger society. Locating this symbolic speech within contemporary and historic implementations of immigration policy, I argue, subverts the rationales of these structures, frames immigrant participation as a conscious and collective act of “disobedience” to the ideological and material systems constituting modern U.S. immigration, and acts to expose the longstanding tensions between the racial and economic concerns of the nation.
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