Mass
Struggle for Immigrant Rights Spreads and Deepens
by George
Saunders
A new wave of mass protests in
defense of immigrants’ rights surfaced two weeks ago, with big marches in Washington, D.C., and
especially in Chicago,
on Friday, March 10. Organizers in Chicago
estimated that more than half a million came out to demonstrate, many leaving
work and walking out of school. See our earlier article “Chicago Mass March of
Half a Million Defends Immigrant Rights.”
Now, as of March 24, protests have spread
to Atlanta, Milwaukee,
Phoenix, and Los Angeles. And on March 25, organizers are
expecting another half a million to
demonstrate in LA.
The radio and TV news program
“Democracy Now” carried the following report on its web site for March 24:
Los
Angeles Prepares For Massive Protest Against Immigration Bill
In Los Angeles protest organizers are predicting
as many as 500,000 people will demonstrate on Saturday against a new anti-immigrant
law being considered by Congress. The House of
Representatives has approved legislation that would criminalize 11 million
undocumented immigrants and make it a crime for priests, nuns, health care
workers, and other social workers to offer them help. The Senate is considering
similar legislation. The National Immigration Forum has described the bill as
the most restrictive immigration legislation in 70 years. The bill has
generated mass opposition from immigrant communities around the country. On Thursday
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as many as 30,000 people took
part in a march titled “A Day Without Latinos.” It was
the city’s biggest protest in years. Dozens of Latino businesses shut down for
the protest.
We agree with the following
comments by Andrew Pollack, a Labor Standard Editorial Board member: “Tens of
thousands walk out of work and hundreds (by media count—in reality, probably
many more) walk out of school, in LA, Phoenix, Atlanta, Milwaukee. In the following
Associate Press report, even where it isn’t stated explicitly that workers
walked off the job, you know any rally with tens of thousands in the middle of
the day had to involve people walking out. In any case, several of the rally
calls explicitly encouraged striking. Get set for tomorrow’s huge LA rally!”
Immigration
Rallies Draw Thousands Nationwide
LOS ANGELES—Thousands of people across
the country protested Friday against legislation cracking down on illegal
immigrants, with demonstrators in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches, and
work stoppages.
Congress is considering bills that
would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties
on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of
the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.
The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights
between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were
largely peaceful, authorities said.
Chantal Mason, a sophomore at George
Washington Preparatory High, said black students jumped Hispanic students as
they left classes to protest a bill passed the House in December that would
make it a felony to be in the U.S.
illegally.
“It was horrible, horrible,” Mason
said. “It's ridiculous that a bunch of black students would jump on Latinos
like that, knowing they’re trying to get their freedom.”
[It should be noted that many
leading figures in the Black community, including trade union leaders and Louis
Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, have been campaigning for Black-Latino
unity in the fight for equal rights in the U.S.—G.S.]
In Phoenix, police said 10,000 demonstrators
marched to the office of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl,
co-sponsor of a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to five years to
leave the country. The turnout clogged a major thoroughfare.
“They're here for the American Dream,”
said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated
by police to be at least 10,000 strong. “God created all of us. He’s not a God
of the United States;
he’s a God of the world.”
Kyl had no
immediate comment on the rally [or on the god of all the
world].
At least 500 students at Huntington Park High School
near Los Angeles
walked out of classes in the morning. Hundreds of the students, some carrying
Mexican flags, walked down the middle of Los
Angeles streets, police cruisers behind them.
The students visited two other area
high schools, trying to encourage students to join their protest, but the
schools were locked down to keep students from leaving, said Los Angeles district spokeswoman Monica Carazo.
In Georgia, activists said tens of
thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs Friday after calls for a
work stoppage to protest a bill passed by the Georgia House on Thursday.
That bill, which has yet to gain
Senate approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S.
illegally and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal
immigrants.
Supporters say the Georgia measure is vital to
homeland security and frees up limited state services for people legally
entitled to them. Opponents say it unfairly targets workers meeting the demands
of some of the state’s largest industries.
Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many
as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work. About 200 converged on the steps
of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs
reading: “Don’t panic, we’re Hispanic” and “We have a dream, too.”
Jennifer Garcia worried what would the
proposal would do to her family. She said her husband is an illegal Mexican
immigrant.
“If they send him
back to Mexico,
who’s going to take care of them and me?” Garcia said of herself and her
four children. “This is the United
States. We need to come together and be a
whole.”
On Thursday, thousands of people
filled the streets of Milwaukee
for what was billed as “A Day Without Latinos” to
protest efforts in Congress to target undocumented workers. Police estimated
more than 10,000 people joined the demonstrations and march
to downtown Milwaukee.
Organizers put the number at 30,000.