Juan McCain'll be there.
Posted on 04/12/2008 6:24:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On May 1, a coalition of organizations will take to the streets in what has now become an annual march for the rights of undocumented immigrants. Many of the groups participating in the march say they will demand an end to the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids and the legalization of millions of undocumented residents.
The March 25th Coalition, the Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights (CHIRLA) and Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, and several other groups are organizing the event and are calling on the immigrant community and all workers to come together in unity and participate in the “Super Thursday May 1st March.”
An invitation has been extended to democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who organizers say has not yet publicly expressed his position on recent local ICE raids.
“It is important to open a dialogue on immigration, it has to be included in the presidential campaign debate,” said Javier Rodriguez of the March 25 Coalition.
The march, which will start at two different locations —one at the corner of Olympic Blvd and Broadway and the other at MacArthur Park — will start at 2:00 p.m. Both marches will merge on Broadway and 5th Street, moving on to 1st Street and Broadway where the speakers’ stage will be set.
In an effort to attract more young people to the march, organizers will hold a music festival on April 20 at La Casa del Mexico, where eight Spanish rock bands will perform.
“We have distributed more than 100 thousand flyers and we have had over six press conferences at the local and national level. We still have three weeks left, we will motivate even more people during this time,” said Rodriguez.
Organizers have also invited Kate del Castillo and the cast of “Bajo la Misma Luna,” a film about a child from Mexico who crosses the border to reunite with his mother in the U.S, and the popular band Los Tigres del Norte, also part of the film, to be at the march, said Rodriguez.
“We’ll be asking for an end to the raids and the mistreatment and abuse of immigrants,” said Gloria Saucedo, Director of Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional in the San Fernando Valley, where the largest number of raids and deportations has occurred. “We want to take advantage of the opportunity to use our civil rights and express ourselves,” she said.
“It’s time to ask legislators to stop persecuting hardworking people,” CHIRLA’s Executive Director Angelica Salas told EGP, referring to recent anti-illegal immigrant legislation propositions like AB 2102, authored by Mimi Walters (R-73), which Salas says requires every state agency to use the E-Verify program to verify an employee’s immigration status and eligibility to work in the U.S. The program has been shown by several government-sponsored commissions to have a high error rate.
Other measures making their way through the legislature which the groups say are anti-immigrant, are AB 1882 introduced by Martin Garrick (R-74) that requires an arresting agency to notify the appropriate federal agency if the arresting agency has a reason to believe that a person arrested for driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and/or drug is an illegal immigrant.
AB 2601 introduced by John J. Benoit (R-64) would prohibit the allocation of vehicle license fee revenues to any city that is declared to be a sanctuary city. Those funds would instead be allocated to cities wanting additional law enforcement training concerning federal immigration law.
“What we are asking for with this march, is the legalization of all workers and a stop to the repression against immigrant workers,” said Carlos Montes of the March 25 Coalition.
Around the world, May 1st is celebrated as International Workers Day. May 1st also honors the “Chicago Martyrs,” labor union members who were sentenced to death for participating in a strike demanding an 8-hour working day. Union members started the strike on May 1,1886; it lasted 4 days and culminated with the Chicago Haymarket Tragedy.
But in the United States, Labor Day, celebrated the first Monday of September, is the day set aside to honor workers. The effort to gain a holiday or day of rest for workers was begun in 1825 by the Central Labor Union. Congress approved Labor Day as a national holiday in 1894.
Last year, during the May 1st march, some demonstrators threw food and water bottles at police, who responded by firing rubber bullets at demonstrators and reporters and struck them with batons, injuring more than 200 people at MacArthur Park.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton recently assured that when marchers gather next month, the LAPD would be “peaceful and professional,” and said the LAPD has been training to avoid a repeat of last year’s incident.
Since last year’s rally, 7,400 officers and 400 police recruits have received training in incident management strategies and tactics, said Cmdr Officer Sandy Jo MacArthur.
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Editorial@egpnews.com
Round ‘em up and throw them out of my country. Who the hell do these people think they are?
May Day = Communist Holiday
RATs can’t wait to crawl on their bellies before them
A war with who, Mexico? Puh-leez.
If I was in any kind of a position to do so, I’d be there with my camera taking pictures of as many “protesters” as I could.
I want America’s laws enforced. America will not be bullied by law-breakers. A war between the US and Mexico—please.
La Coalición 25 de Marzo, la Coalición para los Derechos Humanos de los Inmigrantes (CHIRLA) y la Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, entre otras organizaciones piden a la comunidad inmigrante y trabajadora que se unan en la marcha del “Super Jueves 1 de Mayo”.
Los organizadores han extendido una invitación al candidato presidencial Barack Obama y al alcalde de Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa para participar en la marcha.
Juan McCain'll be there.
It is already a war. Illegals kill more Americans than Al Qaeda does.
What a load of crap!!!
Dialogue your asses back over the southern border. I hope they keep it up with this “in your face” BS. Just in time to piss off more citizens around election time.
How many Americans have died at the hands of illegal aliens? How about that illegal alien drunk driver in MN who killed four children? There isn’t enough space to name all.
Guess I’m one of those bitter Americans as Obama puts it.
YES! Let’s start the war NOW!!! Let the cowards side with the enemy, so we can throw them all out. America for Americans!
Hold it in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona.
Uncle Joe has a surprise for you!
Does that mean they will actually arrest and deport illegals who show up this year?
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