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Capitol employees received some helpful advice last week from the Joint Rules Committee: Bring your lunch today. One Capitol cafeteria will be closed and another will have limited service in anticipation of today's nationwide one-day boycott of work and school as a protest against federal legislation to increase penalties on illegal immigrants. The state Senate last week passed a resolution backing the protests, though the Assembly did not vote on it. Some members won't have to pack lunches for the Capitol. Both houses usually have a floor session on Mondays, but leaders instead scheduled a "check-in session" today. That allows...

Senator Alarcon’s talk about the views of the Founding Fathers on immigration caught my attention and interest. I am quite familiar with the writings of Benjamin Franklin on the subject and Senator Alarcon may be very surprised to learn that there was no more ardent or vigorous critic of illegal immigration than Benjamin Franklin. He wrote about it extensively during the mass immigration of Germans into Pennsylvania, in the 1750s. His solution however was not to ban immigration, but rather to insist upon legal immigration. And that is the problem I have with this resolution: it blurs that vital distinction...

(AP) SACRAMENTO California's state senators on Thursday endorsed Monday's boycott of schools, jobs and stores by illegal immigrants and their allies as supporters equated the protest with great social movements in American history. By a 24-13 vote that split along party lines, the California Senate approved a resolution that calls the one-day protest the Great American Boycott 2006 and describes it as an attempt to educate Americans "about the tremendous contribution immigrants make on a daily basis to our society and economy." snip America wouldn't have been created without illegal action, said Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys. "They dumped a...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Some Democratic state lawmakers are planning to walk off the job Monday - just as millions of others around the country are expected to - in support of immigrants' rights. The Democratic-controlled Senate, on a party-line vote, approved a resolution supporting the May 1 "Great American Boycott 2006," which supporters say will serve as a warning to Congress to avoid punitive immigration reform. Organizers believe the boycott, in which large numbers of students also are expected to participate, will show just how vital immigrants are to America's major cities and the nation's economy. "These immigrants are fighting...

Organizers gear up for rally Employers urged not to punish workers who take part in May 1 protest Readying for a massive national rally on May 1, organizers are calling on employers not to punish employees who skip work to protest, while state legislators are expected to vote this week on a resolution that would formally recognize a boycott. For weeks, organizers have been calling for a massive mobilization on May 1, Labor Day in the United States or International Workers Day abroad, to show the force of the undocumented immigrant community across the U.S. - an estimated 5 percent...