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 News from Around the Americas | April 2006 
US Gears Up for New Immigrant Protests
 AFP
| | Ruiz Sanchez protests immigration policy in the fountain in front of the Dallas City Hall, March 2006 in Dallas, Texas. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across the United States at the start of a new wave of protests to demand an amnesty for for an estimated 11.5 million illegal workers. (AFP/Jensen Walker) |
Thousands of people will take to the streets in a new wave of demonstrations across the United States demanding amnesty for an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants.
Giant crowds are expected in Los Angeles, Washington and dozens of other cities across the country.
The new protests have "incredible importance," said Eliseo Medina, head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and one of the organisers of a march to be held in New York.
"We march in the streets, but we will also march to the voting booth in November," when mid-term elections will be held, said Medina, who emphasised that not all immigrants were undocumented and that many will vote.
On Sunday, an estimated between 350,000 and 500,000 people took part in a march in Dallas, Texas, local media reported.
The rallies intend to keep pressure on Congress to reach a compromise on proposed immigration reforms.
The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make illegal entry a crime and step up the building of a barrier on the US-Mexico border. Efforts in the Senate to agree a compromise bill, which would open the way for undocumented workers to be legalised, collapsed last week.
A majority of the illegal workers in the United States are from Mexico and other Latin American countries and many Hispanic families with small children joined the Dallas protest.
The demonstrators waved US flags and banners saying "United We Stand. We pray for legal status." or "We are not terrorists".
Several hundred police were on duty but the event was peaceful even though a group of counter-protesters were also out in support of the hardline legislation that passed through the House in December.
Other demonstrations were held in the Texas city of Fort Worth and in Miami, Florida, where about 1,500 people staged a rally to call for a "total amnesty" for undocumented workers who authorities admit do most of the "dirty jobs" that Americans refuse.
The Roman Catholic Church has supported the illegal workers and Archbishop John Favalora addressed the crowd before a march through central Miami.
On Friday the US Senate failed to approve compromise legislation that would have allowed millions of undocumented workers to normalise their status. The chamber has now gone into a two-week April recess.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, said Sunday that the setback was temporary, and vowed to try again later this month to break the impasse.
"I think when we come back from recess, we'll get a bill," Senator Specter said on Fox News Channel television.
"Everybody agrees there's an enormous problem, and everybody agrees with the border security lines," he said.
"There's general agreement that we have to craft a compromise, and we were very close on Thursday."
Organizers hope to top the late March protests in 44 US cities, in which they said 1.5 million people took to the streets.
At least half a million protested on March 25 in Los Angeles, according to police figures, though protesters and Spanish-language media put the number at one million.
President George W. Bush has proposed a plan that would start a "guest worker" programme but this has failed to overcome a major split in his Republican Party over immigration reform.
The Senate bill that was shot down would help illegal workers who arrived in the United States at least five years ago, so long as they meet set requirements. Those in the country for more than two years could obtain a temporary work visa after first leaving the country. |
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