Hundreds of thousands rally in LA for immigrants' rights

The Press - Enterprise ^ | 03-25-06 | Peter Prengaman & Bob Jablon

[Amerigomag]

Angered by what they see as increasing hostility toward immigrants, hundreds of thousands of people converged on City Hall Saturday to demand amnesty for illegal aliens and reject federal legislation that would build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border. Protesters, wearing white T-shirts to symbolize peace, danced, chanted and carried large banners as they filled dozens of streets in downtown.

They chanted "Mexico!" "USA!" and "Si se puede," an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means "Yes, we can." Many protesters said lawmakers were unfairly targeting immigrants who provide a major labor pool for America's economy.

The rally was organized by unions, religious organizations and immigrant rights groups, with disc jockeys on Spanish-language radio stations calling on listeners to attend. Crowd estimates varied widely through the afternoon as protesters came and went and dozens of streets were closed down. Police Cmdr. Louis Gray Jr., incident commander for the Los Angeles rally, said aerial helicopter snapshots and other crowd estimation techniques placed the estimated number of demonstrators at more than 500,000.

"America is a nation of immigrants, and we're also a nation of laws," Bush said in his weekly radio address about the emotional immigration issue that has driven a wedge into his party. Bush sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time.

Many protesters also took issue with the argument that amnesty for immigrants who entered illegally would be unfair to those who entered legally. "You always hear the argument about 'being unfair to the people waiting in line,'" said Perias Pillay, 44, who immigrated legally from Malaysia when he was 18. "But the reality is that most people don't qualify to wait in line. The government needs to make it easier to immigrate."

[MA2]

It is interesting to read some of the replies. There are definetely 2 polar sides to this issue. Concerning your argument about the extra wait in the ER, I agree with Arcadia that other factors may be at play. Triage policy would hopefully prevent something as you describe from happening. But, I believe you bring up a good point about the burden illegal imigration can have on limited resources. I still believe a limited amnesty policy can work. If you legalize/ use guest worker program our government can benefit from their taxes. A penalty/fine, community service can also be used to further aide society. I just do not see how 11 million illegal immigrants are going leave this country.

[lucysmom]

Nonetheless, I think you'd have a pretty hard time finding a single "Mexifornian" whose ancestry in California goes back more than a couple of generations.

You would be hard pressed to find anyone in California with a family history that goes back more than a couple of generations. In 1846 the non-native population of the state was about 10,000; Indians, 150,000.

According to genealogists, descendants of the Spanish/Mexican residents of California before 1849 number about 320,000 today.

Of course, when gold was discovered, people from all over the world poured into California hoping to strike it big.

The Anglo population of California was quite large even when the place was under Mexican control. The "Mexican" nature of the place you see nowadays is for the most part of very recent vintage.

I don't know where you get that idea.

The city where I live was originally part of a land grant made in the 1700s and remained in the same family for generations. After California was admitted to the Union, several challenges to the family's ownership were made and settled in the family's favor, the last challenge being decided by the Supreme Court (many others were not so lucky and lost their land). Our Courthouse occupies land donated for the purpose by the family and the Spanish lawyer who argued the case.

[inquest]

[The Anglo population of California was quite large even when the place was under Mexican control. The "Mexican" nature of the place you see nowadays is for the most part of very recent vintage.]

I don't know where you get that idea.

Well, perhaps I should have said, comparatively quite large, given that the overall population was pretty small, as you pointed out. But anyway, this should shed a little more light on the subject:

The steady stream of American immigration from the east became an unruly torrent once the Mexican Revolution broke the Spanish monopoly on California trade. John C. Fremont's Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 ushered in the 21-day history of the Bear Republic. During the ensuing period, in which California was a territory of neither Mexico nor the United States, the California Constitutional Convention met in the office of Monterey alcalde (mayor) Walter Colton.