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 News from Around the Americas | May 2007 
Immigration Rallies, Marches Kick Off in SoCal
 CNS
Los Angeles, CA - Police and transit officials are bracing for what may be thousands of immigration rights protestors in the Civic Center and MacArthur Park areas.
Beginning at 8 a.m., protestors are expected to gather at Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. At noon, the crowd will march north to City Hall, likely snarling access to the courts buildings and other government offices.
The Stanley Mosk Courthouse and Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center will both remain open, although the Phil Spector trial will be suspended for the day.
A second march will start at 2 p.m. at the intersection of West Third Street and Vermont Avenue in Koreatown, and head east and south along the sidewalks to MacArthur Park for a 5:30 p.m. rally.
Sixty bus routes will be rerouted and parts of 17 downtown streets will be closed for much of the day as a result of the marches.
"LADOT will be working closely with LAPD to keep traffic moving in the downtown area and to keep our DASH Downtown and Commuter Express buses running as efficiently as possible under the circumstances," said Los Angeles Department of Transportation General Manager Gloria J. Jeff.
In Orange County, several thousand marchers are expected to gather at 3 p.m. at the Plaza of Flags in Santa Ana, and then march to 17th and Bristol streets and then back to the plaza.
The goal of the rallies, according to organizers with the March 25th Coalition, is to gain full legalization for the estimated 13 million illegal immigrants in America.
An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 people skipped work and school last year on May 1, demanding rights for undocumented immigrants. Protestors carried signs calling for immigration legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, and they denounced a bill that would have made illegal immigration a felony.
Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District reported 71,942 absences among students in grades 6 through 12.
LAUSD Superintendent David L. Brewer III and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are urging students to stay in school today and learn how to debate the issue in classrooms - not in the streets.
"The bottom line is we firmly believe in freedom of speech, but for young people we need to teach you how to exercise that right," Brewer said yesterday. "The best way for you to do that is inside of your school."
In the event students do participate in the downtown rallies, the district is prepared to send buses to pick up the children and bring them back to school. District officials did not say how much those buses would cost.
Cardinal Roger Mahony, a vocal supporter of undocumented immigrants, urged students to voice their opinions by writing to their representatives in Washington, D.C.
"Wouldn't it be fantastic if tomorrow 100,000 letters got mailed across this city from young people to our legislators in the Congress and Senate saying we desperately need immigration reform," Mahony said.
City officials do not know how many people will show up for today's rallies. Organizers have estimated 100,000 people, but Villaraigosa said he expects only about 20,000 protestors to turn up in downtown.
"I'm not at this point expecting great numbers like last time," Villaraigosa said. "I don't see the same level of organization around this."
Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit that seeks to improve border security and stop illegal immigration, said last year's demonstration did not build the kind of support organizers had anticipated.
"Certainly it seems that the momentum has dissipated. It doesn't quite have the draw that it had last year," Mehlman said. "Number one, I think people last year thought that (the organizers) were in control and this was going to be a slam dunk and it turned out to not be so easy."
"The American public also felt like they were being extorted." |
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