Protests Over Immigration Bill Continue

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Thousands of California students walked out of class Monday, and crowds in Detroit marched toward downtown as immigrant supporters continued nearly a week of street protests against proposed immigration reforms.

In Washington, where lawmakers were discussing immigration legislation, about 100 demonstrators wore handcuffs to protest a proposal to criminalize aid programs for immigrants.

Protesters organized by immigrant supporters including the Catholic Church have rallied in cities across the country over the past week, loudly objecting to legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and built fences along part of the U.S.-Mexican border.

More than 500,000 gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, and tens of thousands rallied in Phoenix and Milwaukee last week.

On Monday, California's Cesar Chavez Day, at least 800 students walked out from eight Los Angeles-area schools ranging from the San Fernando Valley to the wealthy coastal enclave of Pacific Palisades, said Monica Carazo, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

By midmorning, the protests spread to downtown, where hundreds more students were walking the streets and chanting.

Officials at Huntington Park High School locked the gates after classes started, but the students climbed over a chain-link fence and joined marchers in their heavily immigrant community.

In Detroit, protesters waving Mexican flags marched from the southwest side of the city where many Latinos live toward a federal building downtown.

``We are illegal immigrants if you trace our heritage all the way back, but we are here and we are working and we are living the American dream,'' said Janet Padron, a 22-year-old Allen Park resident who participated in the Detroit rally.

``Do you see the community,'' Padron asked, pointing to the thousands of people surrounding her. ``Do you see how many people didn't go to work today?''
.........................................................................................

And the UK daily Guardian reported yesterday, 3.27, following...

Migrants take protest to LA streets

At least half a million people took to the streets of Los Angeles at the weekend in support of America's illegal immigrants - part of a surge of protests before a week when the future of millions of "undocumented workers" could be decided.
Authorities admitted to being startled by the size of the march, estimated by police at 500,000 and by organisers at a million, in which people waved US flags and chanted "Sí se puede!", Spanish for "Yes we can!". They were opposing legislation due to be discussed by the Senate this week that could render it a crime, rather than a civil offence, to be - or to aid or employ - an illegal immigrant.

Other proposals could see fences erected along a third of the border with Mexico, across which around half a million people are believed to cross into the US annually, despite the efforts of law enforcement officers and vigilante groups.
"As much as we need this country, we love this country," José Alberto Salvador, a 33-year-old Guatemalan who came to the US four months ago, told the Los Angeles Times, which reported that Saturday's march drew more people than any anti-Vietnam protest in the city had done. "This country gives us opportunities we don't get at home."

According to 2005 census figures, 28% of California's population, and a third of its workforce, is made up of immigrants.

One recent poll showed that 62% of Americans favour a crackdown on immigration, but views on the subject do not follow a left/right divide. The Republican party is anxious not to alienate the growing Latino vote, nor those business owners whose firms rely on the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the US. The result is that some rightwingers in Congress favour the criminalisation bill, while others are joining church leaders in supporting a rival plan sponsored by the Republican John McCain and the Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy.

Their proposal would allow illegal immigrants to earn legal status through paying a fine, learning English, and settling back-taxes they would have paid had they been legally working. In fact many already do pay tax; while the immigration service seeks to prevent them entering the country, the Internal Revenue Service has developed a special system for providing them with tax codes once they arrive.

George Bush said in his weekend radio address that he favoured tighter border controls , with a guest worker programme, giving short-term permission for foreigners to work in the US - a system opponents say would create an underclass. Mr Bush is due to discuss the issue with President Vicente Fox of Mexico this week.

"This is a defining period," Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said. "When you have 11 million people outside the legal regime that's a fundamentally dysfunctional system. In the post-9/11 environment immigrants have been feeling on the defensive about speaking out for our rights. But the sentiment now is that our government has gone too far."