The New Pilgrims.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Immigrants social aspects - Editorial

On April 10, a gorgeous spring day, I marched for immigrant rights with about 25,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin. Latina moms were strolling their babies, fathers had their kids on their shoulders.

One little girl held up a sign that said, "I am the future."

Another sign said, "We can die for this country but our families can't live here?"

"Did the Pilgrims have papers?" read a third.

But the signs that hit home the hardest were aimed at James Sensenbrenner, the Congressman from the Milwaukee area who sponsored the bill that would turn undocumented immigrants into felons.

"Sense not Sensenbrenner," read one sign.

"Wisconsin is ashamed of Sensenbrenner," read another.

I was standing by an old union guy, Ed Sadlowski, and he said, "The worst bosses make the best organizers."

Sensenbrenner is quite an organizer.

We're pleased to offer you two articles on the subject of immigration this month. One is by Tram Nguyen, author of a fantastic book, We Are All Suspects Now, who shows us the difficulties of getting asylum in America today. The other is by Edwidge Danticat, the great fiction writer, who lauds the immigrant protesters, newly visible, newly vocal.

It falls to me now to bid farewell to our ace investigative reporter, Anne-Marie Cusac, who is leaving us to become a professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

In her first year here, she won a George Polk award for her investigative piece "Stunning Technology: Corrections Cowboys Get a Charge out of Their New Sci-Fi Weapons." Over time, she specialized in other inhumane practices and devices, such as the restraint chair, now in use at Guantanamo. And she even went on Nightline to discuss some of her findings.

Beyond her reporting on these and other topics, Anne-Marie brought us vital interviews with people who belonged in The Progressive, like Urvashi Vaid, Harry Hay, Harold Pinter, Tillie Olsen, and Sam...