[Marxism] MASSIVE immigration rights protest in Phoenix

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11996757/

Thousands march for immigration rights
Thousands call for more humane reform in latest rally against new bills
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:44 p.m. ET March 24, 2006

PHOENIX - Thousands of immigrant rights supporters filled a major Phoenix
thoroughfare Friday as they marched toward the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl
in a rally call for a more humane reform of immigration laws.

"They're here for the American Dream," said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined
the crowd estimate by police to be at least 10,000 strong. "God created all
of us. He's not a God of the United States, he's a God of the world."

Lawmakers have been considering bills that, among other things, would make
it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on
employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of
the U.S.-Mexican border.

The proposals have angered many in the Hispanic community.

On Thursday, more than 10,000 people filled the streets of Milwaukee in
what was billed as "A Day Without Latinos" to protest efforts in Congress
to target undocumented workers.

Hundreds of Los Angeles students walked out of their schools Friday morning
to call attention to immigration issues.

Tens of thousands protest Georgia bill
In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers didn't show up at
their jobs Friday after calls for a work stoppage to protest a bill passed
by the Georgia House on Thursday. That bill, which has yet to gain Senate
approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S. illegally
and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.

Supporters say the Georgia measure is vital to homeland security and frees
up limited state services for people legally entitled to them.

Opponents say it unfairly targets workers who are merely responding to the
demands of some of the state's largest industries.

"We oppose legislation that marginalizes the population," said Josh
Hopkins, spokesman for the Latin American Association in Atlanta. He said
his office has been inundated with calls about the bill.

Teodoro Maus, one of the organizers of the Georgia protest, estimated as
many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work Friday.

About 200 converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in
Mexican flags and holding signs reading: "Don't panic, we're Hispanic" and
"We have a dream, too."

Jennifer Garcia worried what the proposal would do to her family. She said
her husband is an illegal Mexican immigrant.

"If they send him back to Mexico, who's going to take care of them and me?"
Garcia said of herself and her four children. "This is the United States.
We need to come together and be a whole."


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