CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The crowd that had massed near East Ninth Street and Lakeside Avenue Tuesday morning edged up to the curb, took a collective breath, and shouted farmworker chants toward the Federal Building towering across the street.
Their battle cry, "Si, se puede"--Yes, it can be done--seemed to be all they had to fight with.
More than 100 people, overwhelmingly working class Hispanics, rallied in downtown Cleveland to protest government inaction on immigration reform and deportations they say are tearing apart their families.
Tellingly, a cause that once attracted at least some public interest in Greater Cleveland generated narrow support on a bright fall day.
There were no elected officials, business leaders nor even Hispanic Cleveland establishment figures circulating among the dishwashers, nursery workers and hotel housekeepers on the green lawn surrounding the Free Stamp sculpture.
Veronica Dahlberg, the immigrant rights activist who organized the rally, acknowledged the growing desperation of the cause.
"We're not going to put up with this anymore!" she yelled into a microphone, adding, in a softer voice, "I'm running out of solutions."
After a pause, she regained her stride.
"We're going to keep coming back here until they leave the families alone," Dahlberg declared, starting a new chant. "Leave-the-families-alone!"
The backdrop for the rally was another detour in the nation's long, loud scrape toward modernizing a 1960-era immigration system.
Earlier this month, President Obama said he would delay taking executive action on immigration reform until after the November elections, much to the dismay of immigrant advocates and Hispanic leaders.
The president had vowed in June to act on immigration after Congressional Republicans told him they would not. His promise hinted at relief on deportations that afflict the Hispanic community especially.
New realities, however, changed the discussion. Over the summer, unaccompanied children from Central America surged across the Mexican border, riveting public attention on border control and raising the temperature of an already heated debate.
In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama said an election season was not the time to hold a national discussion on common-sense, sustainable changes to the immigration system.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner added another twist to the plot last week. The Ohio Republican said he believed that immigration reform would help boost the economy and that Congress needed to act.
Boehner made his remarks after a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"Our legal system is broken, our border isn't secure, and we've got the problem of those who are here without documents," he was quoted as saying. "It needs to be fixed. We're a nation of immigrants, the sooner we do it, the better off the country would be."
Some found the Speaker's comments hopeful. Others heard another empty promise. The U.S. House, which Boehner leads, has yet to consider a reform bill passed by the U.S. Senate more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, the deportations continue at unprecedented levels. On average, more than 1,000 immigrants have been deported daily during Obama's presidency, according to The Washington Post.
Tuesday's rally focused upon people and families feeling the impact in Ohio.
Dahlberg introduced the crowd to Pedro Hernandez-Ramirez, a Mexican father facing deportation that would separate him from his American-born wife and children.
Seleste Wisniewski-Hernandez made an emotional plea for support that brought tears to many. She explained that her husband is the primary caregiver to her 25-year-old son, Juan, who has severe cerebral palsy. Groups as diverse as St. Casmir Church, a traditionally Polish immigrant parish, have taken up the family's cause.
The rally also introduced Marinela Martinez-Magana, a Columbus mother of three U.S. citizens facing deportation. A busload of people came up from Columbus to support her.
Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, brought supporters from the Toledo area. He stood just outside the rally in his familiar white field hat and talked calmly of a long struggle well known to farmworkers.
"For years we've been fighting for immigration reform, partly because of these situations--to keep these families together," he said in an interview. "So many of these deportations make no sense."
Dahlberg and other rally organizers accuse the regional office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, of being overzealous in its pursuit of undocumented immigrants. They say administrative orders allow ICE agents to use discretion and leave alone law-abiding, hard-working people while the law is revised.
In a statement, the Detroit office of ICE, which covers Ohio, defended its practices as fair and professional.
"While we continue to work with Congress to enact common-sense immigration reform, ICE, in this region and throughout the country, remains committed to sensible, effective immigration enforcement that focuses on its priorities, including convicted criminals and other public-safety threats," the statement said.
Hernandez-Ramirez is no criminal, said David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration lawyer who has represented him.
"There's no reason on earth why ICE Detroit needs to spend our tax dollars deporting Pedro Hernandez," he said. "This is not the only case that defies common sense."
ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said he couldn't comment on specific cases.
As the noon hour approached, a small group broke away from the rally and walked across Lakeside Avenue to ICE offices in the federal building. They aimed to lobby on behalf of several moms and dads who face imminent deportation.
At the rally site, the people who know the families and fear their plight chanted anew: "Si se puede! Si se puede!"