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.
LOL! The 10:00 AM time had me fooled;>)
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think you and your friends could get away with shutting down freeways and city streets on a whim? Yesterday those kids got away with it for hours.
I can't speak for the rest of the USA, but I will tell you that the hard working folks I see picking oarnges in the orchards, climbing Date Trees to pick dates, the people in the strawberry fields are all MEXICAN.
Why isn't the welfare office or the unemployment office sending people out to these jobs to do a honest days work?
because they won't that is why.
My best girlfriends husband is a Executive Chef in a swanky country club, and he says his best workers in the kitchen are the mexicans because they work and are not lazy.
They are grateful to have a job.
Where the problems come in, and make the "cheap labor" not so cheap is when the taxpayers have to foot the bill for their entire families schooling, medical care etc.
Or better yet, withhold our taxes!!
Standing there waving MEXICAN FLAGS is REALLLLY going to help win support with the American people! (/SARCASM)
Under their law, non citizens arnt allowed to speak out about politics. go figure.
"My best girlfriends husband is a Executive Chef in a swanky country club, and he says his best workers in the kitchen are the mexicans because they work and are not lazy.
They are grateful to have a job."
And when they are here legally we are all glad to see them. It's insulting to many who come here the legal way to be lumped in with the illegals.
Let me guess, if the kids make their first couple of classes they count for the student funding for the day. Anyone know how that works?
I don't doubt that illegals are hard workers...
So why can't they work hard at following the laws of this nation?
Or maybe the up and coming couch potatos in your gated community will have to pony up a couple more bucks in home owner dues.
Walking out on an education that neither them nor their parents payed for. Lemmings.
And thier lies the rub....Do we know who is legal or illegal doing these jobs?
Well maybe if the people that are well bodied collecting welfare sitting on thier tukas's (sp) were made to do the jobs the mexicans are doing then those jobs would not be so plentiful for the illegals.
We should, don't you think?? If our laws were even partly enforced we would have a much better chance on knowing. Those who are not legal should have to go home to begin legal proceedings to come here.
Obviously, there are no crimes in La-La land. Don't you know --"we're not criminals".
I'll never step foot again in SoCal.
Do you really think these "kids" care about grades? They will all pass at the end of the year regardless.
Let me say this..If the illegal mexicans have been working a stable job, have not been in trouble with the law they should be able to be granted a legal work visa, pass and stay in this country. Yes stop the continuing problems with illegals crossing the border, but for the ones that are here working a stable job and being productive they should be able to stay legally.
Thanks for the update, Karl. Why is the Mayor encouraging them?
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