Posted on 03/28/2006 6:35:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Thousands of students took to streets again Tuesday in Western states to protest proposed toughening of immigration laws but law enforcement authorities began cracking down by rounding up demonstrators as truants and issuing citations. Small numbers of arrests were reported.
"We're not going to allow lawbreaking to take on a new dimension," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said after a second day of students roaming streets and attempting to march onto freeways - a dangerous tactic that alarmed officials.
"When kids are walking on freeways, that's not free speech," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Some 11,600 students cut classes in Los Angeles County, and thousands of others demonstrated from Central California to San Diego and elsewhere in the West.
As many as 3,000 students rallied at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix and a similar number left their schools in Texas. More than 1,000 students rallied near the Las Vegas Strip after being directed away from casinos.
In California's agricultural Central Valley, 1,000 students thronged Fresno City Hall, waving Mexican, Salvadoran and U.S. flags, and carrying signs reading "Who will pick your fruits?" and "The economy would collapse without us."
"We're not kids, we're the future. We're the ones that are going to be sitting inside this building one day," said Carlos Zelaya, 18, pointing to City Hall.
The student protests coincided with U.S. Senate debate on a congressional measure to determine the future of millions of immigrants now living in the United States illegally.
Many demonstrators waved Mexican flags and said their cause was protecting Hispanics from discrimination and possible deportation.
"It's not right," said Eddie Rodriguez, 15, of Carson High School, wearing a Mexican flag bandanna on his head. "The United States is nothing without immigrants. The United States is nothing without Mexicans."
In the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, which is nearly 73 percent Hispanic, teens rallied despite rain and campus lockdowns, but the number - about 8,800 - was well down from the tens of thousands who marched freely Monday.
Police were tougher Tuesday. About 100 students were detained, cited for truancy and returned to their schools in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. Police Chief William Bratton said truants could face up to 20 days of community service in addition to costly fines.
Freshman Mercedes Estrada, 15, of San Pedro High School, got a $250 truancy citation.
"I thought it was wrong. I was just trying to support my friends," she said.
Officials suggested that accountability could go much further than individual students.
"It's important for parents to understand that beginning today, we are going to be very strongly behind our truancy laws here in the city," Mayor Villaraigosa told reporters. "We think it's important for parents to understand that they have a responsibility to ensure that their children are in school."
Sheriff Baca said he had a word of warning for leaders of the marches, which he said, "I believe are not students but adults, and people who are not part of the school system."
"When you take a child out of school, for whatever purpose may be, that child is your responsibility," Baca said.
Some students were unhappy with the marchers, complaining they didn't know what they were protesting about.
"I don't think any of them actually read the 40-page proposed bill. They were just jumping the gates to get out of school," said Amanda Ellis, 15, of San Pedro High.
She spent the first three hours of school in lockdown in her French class.
"They wouldn't let us go to the bathroom or anything," she said.
The marchers were mostly peaceful but there were some confrontations.
In the city of Carson, helmeted Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies scuffled with protesters from other schools who tried to encourage a walkout at Carson High School. Plastic water bottles were hurled and a boy was tackled and detained.
Handfuls of arrests were reported in Orange County, and in Central California at Watsonville and Salinas.
Besides lost educational hours, Monday's walkouts cost the Los Angeles Unified School District more than $500,000 in state funding based on student attendance.
At the district's Huntington Park High School, Principal Robert Hinojosa said there would need to be a two-hour make-up exam for the California Standards Test, which requires at least 95 percent of students at a school to participate. The test is taken at year-round schools like Huntington from March 27 to April 1, he said.
Huntington's attendance was well below 95 percent Tuesday because of 10 to 20 students walking out, students staying home because of safety concerns, and rain, he said.
LAUSD spokeswoman Monica Carazo said she didn't know if any other schools would need to retake the test because of walkouts.
What a freakin' idiot. Listen punk and listen good!!! Your sh*thole country Mexico is NOTHING without the U.S., GOT IT!!!
Take your punk ass back to school or get on the internet, I don't care! Do whatever you need to do to buy a clue you punk moron. Same goes for all your stupid friends who think that they actually know something at f*ckin 15 years old.
If you were my son I'd whip your ass!!
From what I saw of the demonstrations, there was no love for the US but hatred and contempt for our laws. The cheers were for Mexico. I saw Mexican flags (or was it also Iranian?).
Guatamala
You familiar with this site?
http://la.indymedia.org/
Of indymedia, Yes.
That site,
No. Thanks!
"I don't think any of them actually read the 40-page proposed bill."
I don't think any of them could if they wanted to.
As usual the press is busy creating a quagmire of their own making.
What is needed regarding the immigration debate is a new set of questions. Polls in Mexico show that most Mexicans would come here given half the chance. So why are we talking IMMIGRATION instead of ANNEXATION?
Americans need to start calling for the ANNEXATION OF MEXICO TO THE UNITED STATES. Talk about getting the entire population down there filling out 1040 forms, selling off all the state assets to the highest American company bidders, but most of all turning liberal Hollywood loose on the elite Mexican ruling families. Suggest grabbing all of their land and dividing it up among the poor of Northern America, including all those poor New Orleans folks who would be willing to relocate south. That's right up Hollywood's alley and should keep them out of trouble for a wee bit.
We need to start threatening Mexico's sovereignty. Demand everyone north of South America be required to speak English and for heaven's sake, get rid of that ugly flag and fly the red, white, and blue. I guarantee you in no time at all they'll be running back across the border to "defend their country".
:(
I guess I owe you dinner.
Anything but Mexican, right?
We need to start thinking about what we will call our Army.
In the final analysis, this is a game. If we are stupid schmucks and accept the mythology of illegal alien victimhood we will be consigned to the realm of the extinct, which is exactly where we will belong.
Vista is near the border... right?
This is what I was telling the LAPD officer today.
They are trying to start something.
Every incident should be reported.
Have cell phone, will travel. Keep the numbers handy.
Draft them all.
Well, you will see and hear how they are going to make it about IMMIGRANTS.
When we are specifically talking about what should be done about unlawful aliens.
Has nothing to do with immigration!
Well said.
There'll be plenty of time to stick the gringos' nose in it after the amnesty passes.
Vista is about 35 miles north of the border, just east of Oceanside.
Know the enemy :-)
Good. It cost the schools a LOT of money to be teaching anti-American activist propaganda.
I hope people go to jail. A lot of them.
I think California may be lost. We may be able to save the northern half.
Same, eventually, for the southern halves of Arizona, New Mexico, and the southwest end of Texas.
That famous map of "Atzlan" isn't as far-fetched as it seems.
What's needed is a latter-day "Trail of Tears" to forcibly identify, brand, and then drive the illegals back across the border.
But it isn't going to happen, at least through normal political channels.
So, what's left?
- John
Well golly, aren't they proud of their fruit-picking selves?
What do you think the first words out of their mouths would be if you said "we need the Mexicans to pick our fruits"....?
That's right.....RACIST.
Someone gave them a list of slogans to use and they're fulfilling the role of useful idiots and they don't even know it.
Do any of these idiots ever stop to ask themselves why, if they are so good and so needed, why is the Mexican economy a backwater? Why does it SUCK so badly?
They can only answer one or two ways, and either way does not reflect well on them.
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