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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Sat Mar 25, 2006 11:44 pm 500,000 Protest in L.A. Against Immigration Reform |
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Half-million protesters peacefully clog L.A. streets
Proposed legislation targets immigrants, employers, Samaritans
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- They surprised the police, and maybe themselves, their T-shirts turning block after block of downtown Los Angeles streets white in a demonstration so massive that few causes in recent U.S. history have matched it.
Police said more than 500,000 people marched Saturday to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration.
Wearing white as a sign of peace, and waving flags from the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala and other countries, they came to show that illegal immigrants already are part of the American fabric, and want the chance to be legal, law-abiding citizens.
Police used helicopters to come up with the crowd estimate. "I've been on the force 38 years and I've never seen a rally this big," said Cmdr. Louis Gray Jr., incident commander for the rally.
In Denver, Colorado, more than 50,000 people protested downtown Saturday, according to police who had expected only a few thousand. Phoenix was similarly surprised Friday when an estimated 20,000 people gathered for one of the biggest demonstrations in city history, and more than 10,000 marched in Milwaukee on Thursday.
The demonstrators oppose legislation passed by the U.S. House that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. It also would impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of parishioners before helping them and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.
"I think it's just inhumane," said Elger Aloy of Riverside, a 26-year-old premed student who was pushing his 8-month-old son in a stroller at the Los Angeles march. "Everybody deserves the right to a better life."
Many demonstrators said they had immigrant relatives or had crossed the border themselves.
"My mom came from Mexico. She had to cross the river, and thank God she did," said David Gonzalez, 22, who held a sign saying, "I'm in my homeland."'
Gonzalez rejected claims by advocates of the legislation that it would help protect the nation from terrorism, noting that it would hurt Hispanics the most.
"When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Center?" he said. "Who do you think built the World Trade Center?"
The Senate was to begin debating immigration proposals Tuesday.
President Bush is pushing for a guest worker program that could provide temporary legal status for some of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, but many of his fellow Republicans are taking a more restrictive stance.
"As we debate the immigration issue, we must remember there are hardworking individuals, doing jobs that Americans will not do, who are contributing to the economic vitality of our country," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.
Some immigrant-rights advocates, however, are also against Bush's proposed guest worker program, saying it would create an underclass of foreign workers.
Illegal immigrants want legislation that would protect them, unify their families and address future flows of immigrants, Lisa Duran, of the group Rights for All People, said at the Denver protest.
The rally at Denver's Civic Center Park, like the one in Los Angeles, was peaceful. Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the crowd, mostly made up of families and older people, was respectful.
Arvada resident Elsa Rodriguez, a pilot who came to Colorado in 1999 from Mexico to look for work, said she came to the Denver protest because she just wants to be considered equal.
"We're like the ancestors who started this country. They came from other countries without documents, too," said Rodriguez, 30. "They call us lazy and dirty, but we just want to come to work. If you see, we have families, too."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/25/immigration.rallies.ap/index.html
Article.
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borgslayer
Rear Admiral
Joined: 27 Aug 2003
Posts: 2646
Location: Las Vegas
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| Sun Mar 26, 2006 1:24 am |
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This bill is about making sure the law of immigration is followed. It is not at all racist as claimed by many Illegal Immigration supporters. This bill is a good thing for the U.S. because now we can have more legal immigration and less illegal immigration.
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teya
Commander
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 423
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| Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:58 pm |
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This bill is an ill-thought-out idiocy.
There are no provisions for minors--what happens when a teenage orphan is apprehended? Do you send him back to a place where he has no home or family to live on the streets?
There are no provisions for enforcement. Who is asked to produce ID? Everyone? In that case, maybe we should have a government issued ID. Else, they're going to be picking people based on skin color to prove their legal status.
Edited to add: I was at the demonstration last Saturday. I am a native-born American and I wore a white t-shirt, jeans, and carried a small, plastic American flag--the one given to my late husband when he was sworn in as a US citizen.
-------signature-------
Resume your disorder.
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TrekkieMage
Office Junkie
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 5335
Location: Hiding
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| Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:21 pm |
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From what I have heard I'd agree with teya. It doesn't seem to me that they've thought out what the full consequences of this bill would be.
On my way to school today I saw a large group of students outside the home school, they are all students who more than likely immigrants themselves, or have known someone who has immigrated her (legally or illegaly) just trying to get a good education and find a decent job.
They need to see what the demographics are for who this will hit: the growing hispanic population of America. They need to find a way to strengthen the border control, then help those who've already come accross become lawful, tax-paying, voting citizens rather than become a hard-line xenophobic society.
I hope that wasn't to mangled 
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