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Immigration Protests Planned Nationwide    [

    Months of Work to Prepare for Workers' Day
    By Teresa Watanabe and Tami Abdollah
    The Los Angeles Times

    Monday 30 April 2007

    Los Angeles - As Southern California organizers made final preparations for May Day marches to press for immigrant and labor rights Tuesday, officials warned that the protests would snarl traffic, disrupt mass transit and halt some business in downtown Los Angeles and beyond.

    March organizers say they expected fewer numbers than the 650,000 who took to the streets last year, but the Los Angeles Police Department said Monday it was bracing for 100,000 - and perhaps more - people to descend on the city center and warning the public to avoid downtown.

    Officially organized to celebrate the May 1 International Workers' Day, marches are planned in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Riverside and at least 75 cities nationwide. The largest expected march, organized by the March 25 Coalition, is scheduled to head for Los Angeles City Hall beginning at 10 a.m. The coalition is calling for a boycott of work, school and all consumer activity.

    A second march by the Multiethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network is set to begin at 2 p.m. west of downtown for a 5:30 p.m. rally.

    Law enforcement and transportation officials have spent more than two months planning for Tuesday's marches, saying they were caught off guard by underestimating crowds last year. This year, although most immigrant-rights rallies have fallen far short of last year's numbers, local officials were taking no chances.

    Los Angeles police will be on maximum deployment, with at least 1,000 officers set to check in at 6 a.m.

    "Everyone who can work will be working. Everyone who can be in uniform will be in uniform," LAPD Capt. Andy Smith said. "All our detectives and sworn support personnel will be available to go out."

    California Highway Patrol officers will be stationed on ramps near the march areas to ensure that students do not take their protests to freeways, as occurred last year, and police said those who do would be arrested.

    Organizers downplayed expectations for massive crowds, but student activists were delivering a more optimistic message. Thanks to word of mouth, fliers, message boards and profiles on MySpace, student activists said their numbers could surpass the estimated 51,000 who walked out of classes last year.

    Youth organizers said walkouts were planned in at least 20 Los Angeles middle and high schools. They said they hoped to reinspire what they see as a flagging immigrants-rights movement.

    "We feel we can bring hope back to the adults of our community," said Alma Soriano, 17, a junior at Bravo Medical Magnet at a news conference with student organizers Monday. "We're going to show them that we're not going to give up so easily."

    Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer III urged students not to walk out of classes. School officials planned to offer alternative activities, such as school forums on immigration.

    "The emphasis is to stay in school, get your education and participate in any demonstration you want to after school," said Dan Isaacs, Los Angeles Unified School District chief operating officer. "... To the degree that we can cause students to remain on campus and discuss the issues, that's our primary goal."

    Many downtown businesses were debating Monday whether to shut down Tuesday. In a 10-block radius in downtown Los Angeles, about half of 20 businesses surveyed planned to stay open.

    Meanwhile, volunteers with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles fanned out throughout the central city from 7 a.m. Monday to drum up support for the marches. Andrea Perez, a 48-year-old housekeeper from Mexico, said many workers today are paid less than minimum wage and routinely abused. One friend, she said, had coffee thrown in her face by an employer who disliked the way it was made.

    On Monday, she teamed up with Samantha Contreras, a 21-year-old college student and youth organizer, to pass out march fliers to immigrants from Mexico, Belize and elsewhere.

    "I just want people to recognize immigrants as humans," Perez said.

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    Times staff writers Richard Winton and Francisco Vara-Orta also contributed to this report.

 

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    Immigration Protests Planned Nationwide
    By Peter Prengaman
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 01 May 2007

    Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants hope that nationwide marches will spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape.

    Marches, meetings and voter registration drives were planned Tuesday from California to New York, a year after 1 million flexed their economic muscle in a nationwide boycott during last year's May 1 activities.

    Though this year's turnout will likely be lower, organizers say immigrants feel a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections.

    "If we don't act, then both the Democratic and Republican parties can go back to their comfort zones and do nothing," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "They won't have the courage to resolve a major situation for millions of people."

    In Miami, Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean was scheduled to speak to a coalition of immigrant groups, while Ricardo Chavez, the brother of famed agricultural labor leader Cesar Chavez, was expected address crowds in Milwaukee.

    In Washington, D.C., about 400 members of Asian groups from across the country were set to make a lobbying push with lawmakers. Students planned to march in Chicago.

    In New York, groups are planning an "American Family Tree" rally, where immigrants will pin paper leaves on a large painting of a tree to symbolize the separation of families because of strict immigration laws.

    The event is a response to a White House immigration reform proposal in March, said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

    The plan would grant illegal immigrants three-year work visas for $3,500 but also require them to return home to apply for U.S. residency and pay a $10,000 fine. It has been roundly criticized by immigrant groups.

    Two large demonstrations were planned in Los Angeles County - home to an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants. Some groups in the area have called for an economic boycott and hoped for a repeat of last year, when thousands of immigrants and students stayed away from work and school in a sign of solidarity.

    Other groups have rejected the boycott, arguing it puts immigrants' livelihoods at risk and deprives children of valuable classroom time.

    Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, both strong immigrant supporters, urged students to stay in school.

    Despite divisions over tactics and other issues, immigration groups and supporters said the diverse events will show the movement is stronger than ever.

    "Just because the 12 million people who don't have legal residency don't attend a march doesn't mean they don't want it," said Eduardo "Piolin" Sotelo, a popular Spanish-language disc jockey. "I tell my listeners that no matter what they do, just don't stop doing something."

    After last year's protests, reform legislation stalled in Congress and bipartisan proposals for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship have gotten more conservative.

    Organizers said Tuesday's turnout will be lower because stepped-up raids in recent months have left many immigrants afraid to speak out in public - a major change over rallies in 2006 when some illegal immigrants wore T-shirts saying "I'm illegal. So what?"

    "These raids have torn apart families," said John Crockford, a member of the Central California Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

    In Fresno, organizers planned a rally focusing on children whose parents had been deported. The San Joaquin Valley is home to thousands of seasonal workers who work illegally each year in the fields and construction industry.

    In Los Angeles, marches were set to include demands for a legalization program, a stop to the raids and an anti-Iraq war message. City and transportation officials were planning for as many as 500,000 people in downtown, believing it could be the largest in the city so far this year.

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    Associated Press writers Garance Burke in Fresno and Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this story.