Saturday, March 25, 2006

Immigration Stories

This weekend, there are protests against H.R. 4437 all over the state. I would like to collect stories and reports from people who were there, who marched, who stood up for basic human rights and a rational immigration policy. If you were there, please add your story as a comment.

I was not there, but I will pass on a tale that I heard from Stockton California. The organizer of the rally, Angel Picon, President of the Stockton Chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) had told to police that he expected up to 300 in the march. The number was estimated as nearly 10 times that, stretching out about a mile. The weather had been very rainy. As the time to march approached, the clouds parted and the sun came out. It stayed that way until after the march was over and the last speech given and then the sky opened up again.

One of the things remarkable is that Republican Pete McCloskey marched at the head of the rally. At the conclusion, I am told that Picon told the assembled Latino's that they should re-register as DTS and support McCloskey. If that is true, it is clear that years of taking the Latino vote for granted is finally coming to back home for the Democrats. Nativo Lopez reregistered Green. Picon is asking his chapter of LULAC to leave the Democratic Party, at least for now.

I hope that Greens are in every march, as Kalmran Alavi (one that I know of) was part of this one in Stockton. If you have pictures of the march, email them to me and I will get them posted. I prefer jpegs, but can deal with just about any format other than RAW from a digial camera.

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