Immigrant Rights Protests Spread -- New Chapter in Civil Rights Movement

In the last few weeks, more than 50 demonstrations – described by some cities as the largest in their history – have occurred in Milwaukee, Providence, Trenton, Minneapolis, Knoxville, Seattle, St, Louis, Staten Island, Chicago, Washington, Portland, Grand Rapids, Tucson, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets of Los Angeles Saturday, March 25 to legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants in the country, reports Jazmín Ortega in Spanish-language daily La Opinión. Demonstrators flooded the streets in protest of the Sensenbrenner bill (HR4437), which analysts predict will turn undocumented immigrants into criminals, along with those who help them, such as doctors, priests and teachers.

Saturday’s massive protest for immigrant rights had its first "pop quiz" Friday, March 24 when about two thousand students in the Los Angeles area left their classes and took to the streets, reports Jorge Morales Almada in La Opinión.

At 8:10 a.m. on Friday, about 500 students walked out of their classes. Half of them headed for South Gate High School and the other half walked to Bell High School, where hundreds of students were gathered. Guarded by police, they continued marching to Jordan and Southeast High Schools, crossing through streets in the predominantly Latino cities of Huntington Park, South Gate and Bell.

The protest was organized days before through emails and flyers, reports La Opinión.

Police reported no arrests or major difficulties, except for traffic problems in the area.

“I think this is racial,” Bianca Gudiel, a 16-year-old student who participated in Friday’s walk-out, told La Opinión. “Lots of Blacks, Asians and Europeans have come to this country. My mom is an immigrant too and she came here to get ahead. Everyone came here for freedom, to have a good life, so we can have a good education,” she said. “Even the governor is an immigrant.”

José Artemio Arreola, one of the central organizers of the March 10 protest in Chicago, joined organizers in Los Angeles on Saturday, reports Andrea Alegría in the Spanish-language newspaper Hoy.

“They are working in a very similar way to what we did in Chicago,” Arreola told Hoy, adding that, unlike the Chicago protest, the Los Angeles march had the support of unions.

“The most important thing is to try to send a message of unity,” he said, “and not to forget that the eyes of the world are on Los Angeles this weekend.”

Chicago

The Chicago protest drew more than 300,000 demonstrators, according to Spanish-language newspaper La Raza.

Led by pro-immigrant organizations like Centro Sin Fronteras (Center Without Borders) and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Rights, it included protesters from a variety of backgrounds. Although the majority of protestors were Mexican, other groups also participated in the march, including Irish, Salvadoran, Chinese, Vietnamese and Polish immigrants.

Meanwhile, thousands of immigrants protested Friday, March 24 in Atlanta, Phoenix and Tucson.

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