Million marchers expected at May Day rallies across nation to protest Arizona immigration laws

[EFerrari]

Source: NY Daily News

BY Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, May 1st 2010, 11:44 AM

A national outpouring of opposition to Arizona's new immigration law was expected to draw more than a million people at May Day rallies from coast to coast.

The Saturday demonstrations include a pair in Manhattan at Foley Square and Union Square.

Attendance is expected to surge at the annual rallies because of the controversial immigration law in Arizona.

Protests were planned in more than 70 cities, with Los Angeles expected to host 100,000 demonstrators in the biggest rally.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/01/2010-05-01_million_marchers_expected_at_may_day_rallies_across_nation_to_protest_arizona_im.html

[activa8tr]

1. This will NOT be covered on Fox News, for sure.

And a brief mention on CNN. MSNBC shuts down news for the weekend, after 10 AM, I think

[EFerrari]

3. No kidding. Amy will have it on Monday.

None of those indy shows broadcast over the weekend.

[Flaneur]

2. Good.

[tishaLA]

4. I'm in LA and the march is going right past my apartment

I'm going to join up at City Hall....it's a HUGE rally, but sadly only getting live coverage on Spanish-language TV

Oh and there were a few nuts who had Impeach Obama signs, complete with Hitler mustache. They got jeers from everyone I could see.

[EFerrari]

5. I hope you take some pictures, tisha!

:hi:

[tishaLA]

14. Here you go--

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8253736

[SoapBox]

6. You are right...no coverage

Yayayay!

March for me...I'm in the South Bay and don't see anything going on here.

I sure hope it gets some kind of attention...but I'm not too hopeful.

The channels are more interested in covering 2 or 3 white supremist types.

[EFerrari]

8. Arizona illegal immigrant law expected to boost May Day crowds in Bay Area

By Linda Goldston and Vinnee Tong

Bay Area News Group
Posted: 04/29/2010 06:12:22 PM PDT
Updated: 04/29/2010 09:31:09 PM PDT


Arizona's controversial new law that allows police to question people about their immigration status has ignited Bay Area efforts to overhaul national immigration laws and promises to draw the largest crowds to traditional May Day rallies in years.

People who haven't attended such events before are expected to join activists and families in San Jose on Saturday in a march from King and Story roads on the East Side to a rally at San Jose City Hall. Crowds also are expected to march through San Francisco's Mission District and Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood.

May 1 has become an annual day of protest and activism around immigration, but activists and some of the people who plan to attend said there is a new urgency in their cause after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation's toughest anti-illegal immigrant law April 23. Arizona's SB 1070 allows police to stop and ask about a person's immigration status when they suspect the person could be in the U.S. illegally. The law also requires immigrants to provide proof they are in the country legally.

Many immigrants say they fear that similar laws and sentiments will spread, but some activists said passage of the law may be the push that was needed to get Congress to act on national immigration changes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14987036?source=rss&nclick_check=1

I'm still on crutches and can't risk a relapse but that's what I find for us here. :hi:

[Joanne98]

7. Thousands Protest Arizona Immigration Law

CHICAGO—Activists said outrage over Arizona's controversial immigration law "awakened a sleeping giant" Saturday as rallies demanding federal immigration reform kicked off in cities across the country.

In New York, labor organizer John Delgado said anger over the law—which requires local law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they're in the country illegally—drew more than 5,000 people to a rally.

"She's awakened a sleeping giant," Mr. Delgado said, referring to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer who signed the law.

In Los Angeles, singer Gloria Estefan kicked off a massive march through downtown streets to demand immigration reform and protest the Arizona law.

Ms. Estefan spoke in Spanish and English atop a flatbed truck, proclaiming the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. She said immigrants are good, hardworking people, not criminals.

Cardinal Roger Mahony stood on the truck chanting in Spanish, "Si, se puede," or "Yes we can."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608104575218340011898812.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

[SoapBox]

9. Just checked TV...nada, except for Univision

...you folks were correct. I checked CNN, Headline News, MSNBC...nothing. It's all oil spill, all the time.

But, Univision is showing marches. I wish I wasn't such the "gringo"...my spanish is zip.

Anyone know of any websites that would list all the marches and where they were?

[EFerrari]

10. See my #8. There's one from Story & King to City Hall.

It's listed at the very bottom of the article at the link.

And you don't need to speak Spanish, lol.

[pinto]

11. Kick

:kick:

[nolabear]

12. Really? I've seen quite a bit of coverage on CNN.

The LA rally is just amazing!

[EFerrari]

15. More now.

It is amazing. :)

[chill_wind]

13. K & R.

Lots of powerful pics also posted from the LAtimes, too.

Smoke that, tea-baggers.

[totodeinhere]

16. Opinion polls show broad support for tough Arizona immigration law

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0430/Opinion-polls-show-broad-support-for-tough-Arizona-immigration-law

A Gallup poll concludes that more than three-quarters of Americans have heard about Arizona's new immigration law, and of these, 51 percent say they favor it and 39 percent oppose it.

An online Angus Global Monitor poll found 71 percent of respondents in favor of requiring state and local police to determine a person's residency status if there is "reasonable suspicion" that the person is an illegal immigrant, as well as arresting people who are unable to provide documentation to prove they are in the US legally. Also, 53 percent of respondents would make it a crime to hire day laborers off the street.

These polls say otherwise. This "national outpouring of opposition to Arizona's new immigration law" is coming from a minority if these polls are accurate.

Now having said that, I agree that minority rights should be protected from the whims of the majority. My only point is that the opposition to this law is not as widespread as your article might suggest.

[EFerrari]

17. It's all over the country, from New York to California.

Yes, it is precisely as widespread as the article suggests.

[totodeinhere]

18. What about these polls then? n/t

[EFerrari]

19. What about them? Do an image search and see for yourself.

You know, all these people aren't out there only to protest "immigration" law. They're out there protesting racial profiling of our fastest growing citizen demographic.

[totodeinhere]

20. I don't deny that they are out there protesting. My point is that a majority of Americans...

support the Arizona law in spite of these protests. The protesters are a vocal minority.

[EFerrari]

21. What does that even mean to you?

Are you supporting racial profiling that disenfranchises American citizens?

[totodeinhere]

22. I oppose the Arizona law and I have said so in other DU threads.

However, when we are discussing protests to this law, I feel it is intellectually dishonest not to point out that the protesters are a minority and a majority of Americans support the law.

Personally, I am pro immigrant, but that's not the point here.

Check out what I said in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4363362&mesg_id=4363502

[EFerrari]

23. Still, what does that mean to you?

Abolitionists were also a vocal minority.

This law has nothing to do with immigration. It is carte blanche to harass brown people, citizens, residents and others.

[skepticscott]

24. For a law that has nothing to do with immigration

it sure refers to it a lot. And if there were no illegal immigrants in Arizona, or people protecting and abetting them, the law could never have been justified, even by the people who passed it.

[EFerrari]

25. You mean, like if there were no black people in America

there would never been the KKK? Like that?

:)

This law is not a solution to illegal immigration. It's red meat for the Republican racist base and that's all it is.

[totodeinhere]

26. And it could very well carry the GOP to victory in November

It's an especially scary scenario. This law has energized the GOP base and at the same time the Democrats' lack of action on immigration reform might very well discourage Latino and other progressive voters and cause them to sit on their hands in November.

Obama risks alienating Latinos with lack of immigration reform

[EFerrari]

28. The Republicans went too far. Now the focus will be on this law

and not on reform in general. If the Democrats oppose this law, Latinos will turn out. If they don't, they risk losing that block for another generation which would be a shame.

[skepticscott]

27. Nice try, but a flawed analogy

There ARE legitimate reasons for having laws restricting immigration and there ARE people violating those laws, in Arizona and elsewhere in this country. No equivalent situation existed in the analogy you proposed.

And you said nothing about whether the law was a solution to illegal immigration (it almost certainly won't be). You said it had NOTHING to do with immigration whatsoever, and I suspect even you know that's ridiculous.

Try thinking rationally instead of emotionally and you might get a better handle on this issue.

[EFerrari]

29. Do you always issue orders to people you disagree with?

This law has nothing to do with immigration. Immigration is trending down in Arizona, people are leaving. As another poster points out this morning, crime is trending down. There is not evidence that Latino immigrants commit more crime than anyone else. ICE activity in the Southwest is up. There is no objective reason or need for this law at this moment. And, harassing brown people is not an immigration policy even if it were legal for a state to try to supersede the Federal Government on this issue which it is not.

This POS is red meat for the base and that is all it is.

[skepticscott]

31. No, but I do give them advice

And you might take note of the fact (not racist opinion) that there are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Arizona, and they are illegal under legitimate federal law.

The fact that there may not be a good reason or justification for this law doesn't mean that it has nothing to do with immigration....it does, even if irrationally.

BTW, states ARE allowed to go after employers who use illegal immigrants...or do you not consider that "harassing brown people"?

[EFerrari]

32. Under Federal administrative law, not criminal law.

And you know, the last time I looked, "law and order" was the old racist code George Wallace use to run against integration.

Law and Order:

IR: Did Wallace teach the Republicans how to code their appeals to racism and nativism?

GILLESPIE: There's no doubt they learned that at Wallace's knee. There was an example this summer of that old coded appeal, when George W. Bush would not go to speak to the NAACP. He then spoke to the Urban League, as though he were some brave president appearing at a hostile outpost of power.

This is much more respectable than Wallace at his worst. But it is saying, "We're a party of white people, and if black people want to take us on our own terms, that's fine. But if they can't, so be it. We'll be the party of white people in this country."

IR: How coded — or overt — was Wallace's racial message?

GILLESPIE: A lot of it was couched in what he said about protesters, and about law and order. He would talk about how Washington, D.C. — which everybody knew had a large black population — would be made safe by President Wallace, even if he had to "station troops every 20 feet."

His platform condemned the "so-called civil rights acts," railed against "minority group rebellions," and it talked about a "frightening increase in the crime rate" and in the welfare rolls. It was that kind of thing, clearly designed to appeal to the Archie Bunkers of America. He was careful not to make it more overt.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/fall/crashing-the-parties?page=0,1

At least know what you're participating in.

[Lagomorph]

33. I'd argue that...

...this law is about four counties on the Arizona/Mexico border where all the shooting, intimidation and "gotcha" confrontations, by people on both sides of the issue, are happening.

Once the migrants get past the border, things chill out substantially. We've towns in Washington where Spanish speaking Hispanics are the large majority. The whites and Hispanics get along rather well, with both traditional American style shops and Hispanic oriented shops sit next to each other. The crime rates are not remarkably higher or lower than any other small town in the state.

I'm not calling ICE on our landscaping contractors (I live in a condo), even though maybe one of the entire crew speaks broken English. From me, they get a case of Sam Adams and a $100.00 tip at Christmas, when they come around for winter maintenance. It's not much, but they are appreciative, all the same.

Once they are in the country and settled in, they're just neighbors and co-workers. They dutifully step up to march for their rights, when the call goes out, but go back to being just folks when it comes to their daily lives.

edit: Forgot a comma.

[EFerrari]

36. Why would anyone who comes here to work engage in border violence?

They're not even in the same universe.

My mom came back from the march on Saturday about as angry as I'd ever seen her. She said a lot of working guys in their dirty, frayed clothes joined their wives and kids at the march at the end of the day. And I bet for every one who came out, ten stayed home out of fear.

[Lagomorph]

38. I don't think honest workers are the ones...

...making the trouble. If our government was any good at immigration, the paper work would have been done and everybody would be settled in and happily "living the dream".

Some people like to think of themselves as players. They like to leave their mark on the world and not always in a good way.

Others would "Rather rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven", to misuse some old Shakespeare. It's that 1% of everybody who keep the newspapers full of stories.

[No Elephants]

34. The universe of Americans does not split into protesters and those who support the law.

Many who support the law were not on the street protesting. Hell, even Karl Rove and Jeb Bush don't support the law. Or, so they say.

[totodeinhere]

35. They oppose it because they don't want to lose Latino voters.

But every poll I have seen shows majority support for the law in the country as a whole and overwhelming support for it in Arizona. Of course all opponents of the law are not demonstrating, just like most supporters are not. And of course majority support does not necessarily make it a good law.

[LanternWaste]

37. A majority position can not in and of itself indicate...

A majority position can not in and of itself indicate that a minority position is not widespread...

[blaze]

30. 10,000 marched in Denver

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15000378

"Thousands of people swamped Denver streets Saturday in protest of Arizona's tough immigration law, chanting slogans in Spanish and English, waving signs and American flags, and walking hand in hand with family."