Posted on 02/13/2006 8:31:45 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Hundreds of people gathered along 40 miles of state Highway 111 in the Coachella Valley Sunday to protest a proposed federal law that would heighten enforcement targeting undocumented immigrants.
In groups ranging from a few dozen to more than 150, the mostly Latino crowds of demonstrators cheered honking autos in Coachella and Indio; waved farmworker union, American and Mexican flags at a ritzy resort in Indian Wells; and held hands before a strip mall in Cathedral City.
About 75 picketed the street in front of the office Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, to protest her vote in December for HR 4437, a bill by James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
In a statement on her congressional Web site, Bono said current immigration laws are insufficient and not well enforced in the nation's interior. The bill increases accountability in enforcement and is part of a comprehensive effort to restore the integrity of the nation's borders, she said. A Bono representative did not return calls Friday or Sunday requesting comment on her support of the bill.
The bill is pending in the Senate, where debate is expected on whether to remove some of its many enforcement provisions and add a guest-worker program advocated by President Bush.
The Republican Party is split over the issue, with law-and-order conservatives angry at the prospect of undocumented immigrants getting permission to work when legal immigration can take years and thousands of dollars in legal fees. Meanwhile moderates and business interests want the low-cost labor that immigrants provide.
The demonstration, organized by the Comite Latino of Coachella Valley, immigrant rights advocates, was billed as "Manos Unidos en Contra el Racismo," or Hands United Against Racism. The group is also collecting petition signatures against the bill.
Many of the demonstrators were like Christina Vargas, 30, a native-born American citizen who answered the call of a Spanish radio station KUNA-FM 96.7 to protest the bill in person on sidewalks along Highway 111 from noon to 3 p.m.
She said she was most bothered by the bill's provision that would make it a crime to help a person who is illegally in the country.
"It would be against the law for me to help them -- like, we couldn't give them housing," she said. That is an impractical demand to place on Americans and legal permanent residents who have friends and family who are undocumented, she said.
So she stood with about 150 others along the highway in her hometown, Cathedral City, holding hands with her Mexican-born parents, who obtained legal residency 20 years ago.
Her mother, Augustina Jaramillo, 57, said she was in the United States for several years before obtaining permission to live and work here. Those years were difficult, but the political climate now is worse, she said, because immigrants seem to be hated.
"I don't feel welcome," said Jaramillo, whose children and grandchildren are citizens.
In Indian Wells, about 150 people affiliated with the United Farm Workers gathered on the curving sidewalk along a grassy, flowering parkway fronting the Indian Wells Resort, cheering drivers who honked. Some passengers waved from windows in support; a few made rude gestures.
"We're messing with the aesthetics of the area," said UFW Regional Director Joe Mota. "We want them to know that we as farm workers provide the bounty for America."
Coachella City Councilman Eduardo Garcia, who mingled with demonstrators, said he wants his city to declare itself a pro-immigrant city to counterbalance a recent vote by the city of Costa Mesa to pursue an agreement for its police force to aid federal immigration law enforcement.
Stupid socialist man that Mota. It's farmers that provide the bounty for America. And believe me they will find one way or another to get it picked and hauled to market, even if it takes dreaming up new technology and plant varieties. It's his type of thinking that keeps Mexico a third world poster country.
If they offered large amounts of "mordida" (cash bribe) they would escape alive.
Fantastic article! And it proves what many of us have long said. The belief Americans are serious about reform and enforcement is enough to send many Illegals packing.
Bummer.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Simple solution no one enters this country if they hold the belief that America stole the southwest from Mexico.
That about covers it NRT ... concise as ever!
I told you my sanity was returning ;^ )
Hope you're having some luck relocating. Don't be a statistic.
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