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.
Are you saying that ILLEGAL immigration is not ILLEGAL? What part of ILLEGAL do you not understand?
Ah, words used to mean something.
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I am in Houston, and we have a lot of kids walking out of school today. My son (15) went to school, knowing there would be a protest today. I don't think he is participating, but I kept my daughter home today because I know she would be right in the middle of it. Ifigured she needed a real civics lesson from mom more than she needed her classes today.
You are right that legal immigrants are a wonderful addition to this country.
Which is why we send you back on buses, as opposed to kicking your sorry asses out of the back of a C-130 at 5,000 feet!
What makes you say LA is readying Mass Arrests?
LAUSD mouthpiece tried unsuccessfully to define "lockdown" earlier this morning on KTTV. The gist is, doors are not locked, people can move in and out of the buildings and the campus, but the kids were ordered to stay in class until "Nutrition Time," (her term), of 10 a.m.
[high-pitched mm-hmm!]
Nutrition time. How institutional.
Speechless. I shouldn't be, but I am.
Nutrition time.....
Because all the units were reporting to the station....and there are fights breaking out with citizens in the Van Nuys Civic Center....
I-5 at Sheldon has been lost too
Would that be what those of us over 50 call recess??????
Unfrigginbelievable!!
No..I think it's what the rest of the world calls "lunchtime."
The Battle for Van Nuys! Has a ring to it!
LOL!!!!!
My niece's grade school calls it "Your Nourishment Period".
As in Nourish the body and the spirit.
The kiddies eat, learn "healthy and sustainable food choices" while learning "global values" with meals that celebrate global diversity.
When I was in fourth grade we just got salisbury steak and noodles..hehe.
As a native Californian and Angelino, I need to express my opinion on this topic, even though illegal immigration is totally out of hand, most Mexicans coming over here to work are doing Jobs no other ethnic group will do.
Picking fruit
Being busboys and dishwashers
house cleaners
gardeners
As well as the day labors standing on the corners waiting for contractors to give them a days work.
I am not sure of the other illegal aliens that are here and if they have any contribution to California, but I can look out my front window and see I am sure 10 Mexicans proably illegals doing manual labor, mowing lawns, trimming trees, making sure all the legal americans in my complex live in the comforts of a well manicured gated community.
Maybe the lazy, government dependent, entitlement group will do all the work the Mexicans have been doing after they all have been deported?
100 protestors inside the State Building on Van Nuys Blvd.
I 110% disagree. If you go to areas of the country where these ..... folk ... have not infiltrated, I can GUARANTEE you, that the dishes are being washed, the yards mowed, the beds made...
Americans have been doing this for years all by themselves.
AND, think of the LEGALS IMMIGRANTS and how THEY must feel! Seriously...THEY'RE in the same boat we are...!!!
We need a "Day without Law-Abiding Taxpayers".
Let's just shrug for a day...hehe.
Businessmen, cops, lawyers, powerplant workers, sanitation guys, road crews, prison guards, public transport drivers...Walk Out!
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