Posted on 03/25/2006 8:03:27 PM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at pe.com ...
The rally has drawn somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000-plus participants. The latter estimate contained in a pro-rally article filed this afternoon in the Los Angeles Times, which describes the participants thus: "The marchers included both longtime residents and the newly arrived, bound by a desire for a better life and a love for this country."
That is a very romantic view. This rally, like others around the country, is to oppose a U.S. House bill that would crack down on illegal immigration. The purpose of the rally is to enable people who have already broken the law in their coming to California and America to stay here. People came here illegally out of self-interest. They seek to stay here illegally out of self-interest.
The rally seems definitely larger than the famous event in the fall of 1994, in which some 100,000 marched in L.A. in opposition to Proposition 187, the ballot measure backed by then Governor Pete Wilson. As a senior advisor to the Democratic Party, along with others, I advised that the party's candidates, from gubernatorial nominee Kathleen Brown on down but especially Kathleen, actively oppose Prop 187, for several reasons; in short form, because the initiative was mean-spirited (tossing children out of school is always a bad idea) and because of long-range politics.
Will today's massive pro-illegal immigrant rally in L.A., like others elsewhere in the country, sow the seeds for future victory? And what would that victory be? Or will it reap a backlash from the still far larger numbers of Americans who oppose illegal immigration and worry about its economic and cultural effects?
We can use a real debate in this country about illegal immigration. As it is now, the Border Patrol is more a regulatory agency than a real law enforcement agency, making an effort to moderate the number of people coming here and staying here illegally, not to actually end the practice.
The dirty little secret is that California and America both benefit from and are hurt by illegal immigration. Having a large and growing pool of low-paid workers is good from an economic efficiency standpoint. It is bad from the standpoint of propping up wages in an era of globalized competition. (Among other things, it has played a huge role in the decline of the United Farm Workers.) Illegal immigrants both pay taxes, in many though hardly all cases, and are large consumers of public services. There are also major cultural impacts. I'd like to see an informed discussion about this. I don't see it.
I don't know a single long term former Mexican national that thinks illegal immigration is a good thing today. Zip!
And we don't need any "debate", there's nothing to debate, if you're here ILLEGALLY then back you go. Simple concept, it's called LAW but who's listening?
Evidently no one of consequence. I told my son tonight, don't expect the bill passed by the House to look much like it did before hitting the Senate, when it exits.
I have wanted to throw up all day seeing these rallies.
the irony of it all....My tax dollars paying for police to keep the peace so a bunch of criminals--illegal aliens-- can protest OUR laws in OUR country.
I say, crack down on this NOW!And I can say this VERY easily and NO one can argue with me...cause I literally came off the boat as a LEGAL alien! So go to H@ll you illegal criminals.
What a great mood I'm in today. ha.
Examples of this kind of "love":
- The love a wolf feels for a sheep just before that lunge for the throat
- The love a rapist feels just before he grabs his victim
- The love that the Spaniard Inquisitors felt just before ripping out the tongues of the Jews or Protestants
- The love...oh, you get the idea...
And speaking of Spaniards, isn't it interesting that we have the descendants of the vicious, rapacious Conquistadors now terrorizing our streets, while claiming that we should bow to their will and let them rule us? Sigh...isn't it great the way some things never change? So nostalgic...
Agreed.
These people are logic impaired, and the press is complicit in the scam they are trying to pull....
susie
But they will win this battle.
California used to be a Republican state until Gov. Wilson nd the legislature introduces anti-immigrant measures.
Now it's one of the most reliable states in the Democrat column.
That is a lot of folks in one place. It makes that famous Martin Luther King speech on the Washington mall seem small. Color me skeptical about the numbers. If I am too skeptical, the pics must be awesome. The folks must be spilling into the streets for blocks around, since LA City Hall does not have a large commodious mall.
NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!
You know what, prop 187 would pass by an amazing percentage if floated today. If anything we're too timid.
Long time hispanic residents DO NOT favor what is taking place any more than you and I do.
I fear you're right.
susie
Woman, you are proof for why we need to make it harder to immigrate into this country.
Those pesky little facts:
Prop 187 was an initiative that was going nowhere until the California Republican Party took it as their own in the 11th hour, added their organization and good name and qualified it for the ballot. Governor Wilson, who had been promoting relief from the costs of illegal immigration, latched onto the measure, after his party leaders had insured it's success, and ran with it to victory over a weak, Democrat candidate.
The TV news said 25,000
Yeah- we had a similar protest in Atlanta. Half my kids didn't show up for classes on Friday. One of those who did had the temerity to suggest that the American economy would fail without illegal workers. Once I stopped laughing, I told him it just wasn't so and that any- ANY- country had the right to protect its borders. I asked him and the rest of the class how THEY would feel if some, overstaying their visas in whatever country they were from, killed 3000 of THEIR countrymen, HOW would THEY feel. It was funny to watch their faces...
The Southwest is going to be Kosovo writ large in about 10-15 years.
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