Posted on 03/28/2006 10:10:51 AM PST by BurbankKarl
Edited on 03/28/2006 10:15:04 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Police herded students off an access road leading to the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro on Tuesday as demonstrations continued against possible immigration reforms. Student marches were also staged Tuesday morning in Bellflower and Compton.
Despite rain and a lockdown in the Los Angeles Unified School District, a group of about 200 students massed near 223rd Street in the Harbor Gateway area in San Pedro and started walking south on Avalon Boulevard shortly after 8 a.m. A separate group of students in San Pedro tried to get onto the Vincent Thomas Bridge, but police stopped them and turned them around, detaining a few.
In the San Fernando Valley, students reportedly walked out of Birmingham High School.
Los Angeles Unified campuses are locked down Tuesday, but the immigration bill that sparked two days of protests will be a topic of classroom discussion, officials said.
More than 36,000 students from 26 school districts throughout Los Angeles County skipped classes on Monday and marched through streets and on freeways to protest the immigration bill being debated by the U.S. Senate.
About 1,000 students rallied for much of the day at Los Angeles City Hall, with several representatives meeting privately with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The mayor later spoke to the students, saying their voices were being heard, but urging them to return to class.
Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton said Monday's rainy forecast would also likely prevent any more mass walkouts by students.
LAUSD officials said middle and high school classes throughout the district would have classroom discussions on Tuesday about a bill introduced by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., which would crack down on employers hiring illegal workers and people smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.
"We will have in-class teachings for students so that they can have conversations to deal with this issue in a very productive way," said Rowena Lagrosa, executive officer of educational services for the district. "We are being proactive so that those students will show up for school tomorrow."
The class discussions will also address freedom of speech, civil protests and events in U.S. history that have involved public protests, according to a district statement.
In addition to the lockdown, police presence will be beefed up on LAUSD campuses, district officials said.
Students who took part in the mass demonstration on Monday and last Friday could face discipline ranging from suspension to exclusion from cebtain school-sponsored functions, Lagrosa said.
The LAPD was placed on citywide tactical alert during Monday's protest, which led to five arrests during a demonstration at Van Nuys City Hall, LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said.
Some students also snarled traffic when they marched on the Harbor (110) and Hollywood (101) freeways in downtown Los Angeles. Other students were reported marching on freeways in San Pedro and Orange County.
"We may be illegal immigrants, but we are human," Metropolitan High School senior Melania Preciado said at City Hall as she waved a Mexican flag. "We deserve the same rights as everyone else, not be treated like criminals."
The Sensenbrenner bill, HR 4437, would require employers to verify Social Security numbers with the Department of Homeland Security, increase penalities for immigrant smuggling and stiffen penalities for undocumented immigrants who reenter the United States after having been removed.
Under the bill, approved last December by the House of Representatives, local law enforcement agencies would be reimbursed for detaining illegal immigrants. Refugees with aggravated felony convictions would also be barred from receiving green cards.
The U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee softened the immigration reform bill on Monday by voting to create a path for some of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens without first leaving the country.
Under the version voted on by the committee, additional foreign workers would be allowed to enter the United States temporarily under a program that also could lead to citizenship.
Additionally, the committee adopted an amendment by Sen Richard Durbin, D- Ill., that would protect charitable organizations and churches from criminal charges for providing aid to illegal immigrants.
The bill will now move to the Senate floor, where an intensive debate likely to find Republicans fighting each other is expected to begin this week.
BK- How many of those protesters are illegals? L.A has a gang problem no doubt about that.
During the Los Angeles riots were the illegals doing the rioting? were they the ones running out of Target and Fedco with T.V's and Couches in hand?
Any illegal that is here causing trouble or gangbanging should be deported in a New York minute.
Lovely pictures. The students look like they are having great fun.
If they stay out long enough to impact LAUSD permanently, LAUSD will go begging for more money from the State and the Feds.
Who said I wanted to "help the problem"?
I won't spend any money there to "support" that economy. Obviously, about 500,000 residents there don't want me there anyway.
That's the only thing they really care about. Follow the money.
But knowing LA schools, they'll probably all be moved into "Independent study".
But McCain is giving them all amnesty....
Unfortunately the parts most people see are the area around the Cruise Terminal and the ports. There are some very nice places near by in the Marina, but then when you go up to Gaffey and Pacific it's a bit sketchy. Some gentrification is going on on 5th and 6th Streets, but it's moving quite slowly. I remember when we first brought our daughter down there for school, there were shops selling shirts that proclaimed "San Pedro, where the Ghetto meets the Sea". Made us a bit nervous! LOL As you up the hill, and get near or cross Western, it's quite a nice place.
They're screwing themselves. Their best friend was a quiet, teeming anonymity. Now that diminishes every time they go on a public rampage.
Let 'em do it. Everytime they throw a public entitlement tantrum, the muddle headed middle wakes up a little bit.
Temp Work Visa Program is a good deal.
I hope that passes.
Haven't been down in a few years, but anything along Paseo del Mar was always pleasant and I visited friends many times in South Shores and husband kept boat in the Marina. I wonder how much the houses go for now.
And that's the issue right there.
There is a clear pattern repeated in the media - for whatever reason (and we talked some about this yesterday) they always seem to want to sugarcoat the destructive rampages of these various "protesters", whether they be illegal Mexicans in the USA or "hooded youths" (i.e. Muslims) in France. This pattern appears to arise from an exasperating blend of the media's bias, ignorance and lack of resources. They just can't seem to deliver the real story.
My daughter bought her first house in San Pedro for $400,000.00 and sold it last year for $675,000.00. It was a few blocks above Western, and a couple of blocks below Miraleste. RPV & Rolling Hills are in the millions. Lower in San Pedro you can still get for $400,000-$500,000 I believe.
We usually stay in the hotel at the Marina, and love it.
The post you responded to was talking about the LEGAL immigrants being prevented by ILLEGALS to earn their living by taking over the area with their protests.
That's the most unusual way of saying "we need you in so you count for our federal funds and then you may go."
It has nothing to do with eating. It's just when they get counted for roll and get counted for their school funds. All the school admin cares about is that money.
Used to live right off of Miraleste Drive, had a great eastern view. That house was sold in 1996 for $600,000. Maybe I'll check zillow.com and see what's it's worth now.
Is a La Raza board meeting being called into session?
LikeLight wrote: "There is a clear pattern repeated in the media - for whatever reason (and we talked some about this yesterday) they always seem to want to sugarcoat the destructive rampages of these various "protesters", whether they be illegal Mexicans in the USA or "hooded youths" (i.e. Muslims) in France.
This pattern appears to arise from an exasperating blend of the media's bias, ignorance and lack of resources. They just can't seem to deliver the real story."
Ya know, I meant to ping you as I was posting my frustration about the paucity of news. :-)
Please add political correctness into the exasperating blend.
We have to drive on that freeway they shut down. Those are local law-breakers and now they have a sense of victory under their belts.
Oh, but McCain says that amnesty is not amnesty. It's a way of preventing 84 year old grandmas from being cruelly deported to Guadalajara after 84 year old grandmas worked their fingers to the bone building this country.
McCain is a double-speaking leftist, period.
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