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Memo to the President: Tell them to stop marching with MEXICAN flags!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-032406protest_lat,0,1662563.story?coll=la-home-headlines
From the Los Angeles Times
School Walkouts Protest Immigration Proposals
By Anna Gorman and Michelle Keller
Times Staff Writers
2:15 PM PST, March 24, 2006
A day before organizers planned to rally downtown against U.S. border restrictions, hundreds of students walked out of four high schools in Los Angeles this morning to march for immigrant rights.
The atmosphere was festive as 500 Huntington Park High School students waved Mexican flags, held balloons colored green, white and red, and periodically broke into cheers of "Mexico! Mexico!"
"Without immigrants, this country wouldn't be anything," said Anna Benitez, 15, a ninth-grade student who moved to Los Angeles at age 5 with her mother from Mexico. "We're people. We're human beings. We're not criminals. We're in this country to work."
In a separate demonstration, another 1,500 students converged on Evergreen Park in Boyle Heights after walking out of classes at Garfield High School, Montebello High School and Roosevelt High School, according to Rafael Escobar, a Los Angeles Unified School District official.
The demonstration lasted about an hour, Escobar said.
"They are saying that we are terrorists, when the economy is based on immigrants," said William Pasillas, 14, of Garfield High School. He said his parents came from Mexico 30 years ago and are now citizens of the United States.
"They do good now, but why shouldn't other people get that opportunity?" said Pasillas.
A Montebello High School student, Jeannette Garcia, 15, said she participated to "make sure the Mexicans get their freedom, their rights."
The march Saturday is being organized to protest proposed federal legislation criminalizing illegal immigrants and erecting a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. The issue has prompted protests throughout the country, with thousands massing today in Phoenix and in Milwaukee on Thursday, according to wire service accounts.
Locally, students walked out of Huntington Park High School about 8:10 a.m. Some 200 marched to nearby Bell High School, and another 200 went to South Gate High School, according to Ellen Morgan, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
"It's not fair what they're doing to the Mexicans," said Lizette Hernandez, 16. "They only want them to get visas, and then they want to kick them out."
Sauly Tinoco, 17, one of the protesters, said, "It's been very peaceful, so far. No one has been arrested. There haven't been any fights."
Bell and South Gate high schools were locked down before the Huntington Park marchers arrived.
Morgan said all the protesters were headed back to Huntington Park High School as of 11:30 a.m.
"We welcome freedom of speech and schools are encouraged to provide a forum for discussion on campus. But the district does not condone students trying to enter other campuses and disrupting the educational process," Morgan said.
Some 73% of the 877,010 LAUSD students this year are Latino, Morgan said. Huntington Park High School has about 2,850 students.
Saturday's march is being organized by several organizations, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-032406protest_lat,0,1662563.story?coll=la-home-headlines
From the Los Angeles Times
School Walkouts Protest Immigration Proposals
By Anna Gorman and Michelle Keller
Times Staff Writers
2:15 PM PST, March 24, 2006
A day before organizers planned to rally downtown against U.S. border restrictions, hundreds of students walked out of four high schools in Los Angeles this morning to march for immigrant rights.
The atmosphere was festive as 500 Huntington Park High School students waved Mexican flags, held balloons colored green, white and red, and periodically broke into cheers of "Mexico! Mexico!"
"Without immigrants, this country wouldn't be anything," said Anna Benitez, 15, a ninth-grade student who moved to Los Angeles at age 5 with her mother from Mexico. "We're people. We're human beings. We're not criminals. We're in this country to work."
In a separate demonstration, another 1,500 students converged on Evergreen Park in Boyle Heights after walking out of classes at Garfield High School, Montebello High School and Roosevelt High School, according to Rafael Escobar, a Los Angeles Unified School District official.
The demonstration lasted about an hour, Escobar said.
"They are saying that we are terrorists, when the economy is based on immigrants," said William Pasillas, 14, of Garfield High School. He said his parents came from Mexico 30 years ago and are now citizens of the United States.
"They do good now, but why shouldn't other people get that opportunity?" said Pasillas.
A Montebello High School student, Jeannette Garcia, 15, said she participated to "make sure the Mexicans get their freedom, their rights."
The march Saturday is being organized to protest proposed federal legislation criminalizing illegal immigrants and erecting a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. The issue has prompted protests throughout the country, with thousands massing today in Phoenix and in Milwaukee on Thursday, according to wire service accounts.
Locally, students walked out of Huntington Park High School about 8:10 a.m. Some 200 marched to nearby Bell High School, and another 200 went to South Gate High School, according to Ellen Morgan, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
"It's not fair what they're doing to the Mexicans," said Lizette Hernandez, 16. "They only want them to get visas, and then they want to kick them out."
Sauly Tinoco, 17, one of the protesters, said, "It's been very peaceful, so far. No one has been arrested. There haven't been any fights."
Bell and South Gate high schools were locked down before the Huntington Park marchers arrived.
Morgan said all the protesters were headed back to Huntington Park High School as of 11:30 a.m.
"We welcome freedom of speech and schools are encouraged to provide a forum for discussion on campus. But the district does not condone students trying to enter other campuses and disrupting the educational process," Morgan said.
Some 73% of the 877,010 LAUSD students this year are Latino, Morgan said. Huntington Park High School has about 2,850 students.
Saturday's march is being organized by several organizations, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.