Free Republic

LOS ANGELES Two national Mexican-American organizations are launching a "popular referendum" to collect the opinions of hundreds of thousands of Spanish-speaking immigrants both legal and illegal on immigration reform legislation pending in Congress. Starting late next week, the Mexican Brotherhood Latin America and the Mexican-American Political Association will begin distributing questionnaires in Spanish at churches, work sites and activist organizations in over 20 states with high concentrations of immigrants. "This will reveal what immigrants think, what they are willing to accept, fight for and reject," said MAPA President Nativo Lopez. The nonscientific surveys come on the heels of massive national...

Group opposed to city's immigration policy announces boycott, which local leaders call futile. A Santa Ana-based immigrant rights group that opposes Costa Mesa's immigration enforcement decision today planned to repeat its call for a boycott of Costa Mesa businesses and for civil disobedience. Local leaders disparaged the boycott plan as divisive and unproductive. Nativo Lopez, a spokesman for Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, first called for the boycott in late January. On Wednesday he announced he'll take the issue to Costa Mesa City Hall, where he planned a press conference for today. Lopez, along with several local labor unions and Latino advocacy...