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Immigrants on the warpath

Dan Glaister

New York, Chicago, Los Angeles to witness mass protest

A protest against changes in the United States immigration law at the Gregg County Courthouse on Sunday. — PHOTO: AP

Los Angeles: It is being billed as The Great American Boycott 2006.

On Tuesday, thousands or perhaps millions of people are expected to join in a nationwide boycott to protest against proposals that would toughen existing immigration laws.

Under the slogan ``No work, no school, no sales, no buying'', the boycott will be accompanied by marches and protests across the country. Organisers hope that it will build on the unexpected scale of the anti-immigration reform protest held at the end of March, which saw around half a million people take to the streets of Los Angeles and helped push the immigration debate to the top of the political agenda.

Protesters have been galvanised by the passage of a bill in the House of Representatives in December that focused on tougher restrictions on illegal immigrants without offering any route to legality.

Split in movement

Protests on Monday included events in 72 American cities, 25 of them in California, as well as Mexico, where a boycott of U.S. goods and services was organised.

On Tuesday, the biggest demonstrations are expected to take place in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where two demonstrations are planned, each of which could attract 500,000 people, according to police estimates.

The existence of two marches in Los Angeles is indicative of the divisions that have arisen in the immigrant rights movement since the unexpected success of protests at the end of March.

Organisers of the first march, scheduled to begin at midday, want protesters to leave their work or school and take part in the demonstrations. Supporters of the second march, which begins at 4 p.m., are telling protesters to finish work or do a full day at school before joining in. The first march received the approval of the Democrat-controlled California Senate, with supporters calling the boycott part of a grand tradition going back to the Boston Tea Party. ``These immigrants are fighting to embrace this nation,'' Democratic Senator Richard Alarcon told reporters after the vote. ``What a good time this is when people can express their anger, their frustration, desires, hopes and dreams, all for the purpose of becoming American.''

But Los Angeles' mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged protesters to attend the later demonstration. ``It is very important to keep our kids in school and to make sure they get a good education,'' he told a news conference. —© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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