Thread: another article about march to Haserts

Immigration reform advocates to march on Hastert's office
BATAVIA — Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert's office here once again is being targeted by immigration reform advocates Monday, with thousands of demonstrators planning to walk all the way to the office from Aurora, Joliet and Chicago.

Thousands of pro-immigrant marchers plan to set out today from Chicago, although only a smaller core group will complete the entire four-day walk to Batavia.

The bulk of the marchers are expected to come from communities along the route. They will go home each night to avoid the logistical problem of housing so many people.

Aurora organizers are scrambling to tackle that problem, however, because much of the Joliet group plans to spend Sunday night in Aurora.

Marchers from Joliet plan to walk up Route 30 through Plainfield until they reach Hill Avenue in Aurora, where thousands of Aurorans are set to join them Sunday afternoon.

The combined group will then continue walking along Galena Boulevard and East New York Street before heading north on Route 31, said Jesus Saenz, a march organizer from Aurora.

The marchers plan to halt for the night at the Prisco Community Center, where they will disperse to local homes and businesses to spend the night in spare beds or makeshift cots.

They plan to reassemble at the Prisco Center again Monday morning before starting the final leg of their walk around 9 a.m. They should converge with the column marching out of Chicago at Hastert's Batavia office sometime after noon.

Organizers said they had no way of predicting the final turnout, given the vastly larger-than-expected crowds of immigrants that formed at previous demonstrations.

The Labor Day march to Batavia is organized by a coalition of Chicago and Aurora groups that began to work together to organize street demonstrations in March and May.

Although those demonstrations paralleled events in other cities across the country, the pro-immigrant reform movement has almost no centralized leadership, with most planning being done on a local level by committees of relatively unknown leaders.

Opponents of illegal immigration also plan to rally at Hastert's office Monday as a counter-demonstration, although likely a smaller one.

That protest is organized by the Minutemen Midwest, a local branch of a national group that advocates strict border control and enforcement of existing immigration laws.

For more information about the pro-immigrant march, call (877) 762-7242. For more information about the Minutemen, call (815) 334-7740 .


09/01/06
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beac ... S10901.htm

The one from Joliet to Aurora on rt. 30 is going about 1/4 mile from my house. If theres alot ,it is going to be mass chaos. By the mall and to Plainfield is under construction on part of it and it's bumper to bumper all day. Plus it's an entrance to the interstate going to Chicago. I'm going to try and find out more as to when they'll be going by my place.

Immigration activists begin 50-mile march

By Sara Olkon
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 1, 2006, 3:10 PM CDT

Some 400 immigration rights marchers gathered in Chinatown this morning to begin a four-day, 50-mile walk to the home office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert in Batavia.

The demonstrators waved American flags and bright yellow signs stating, "Today we march, tomorrow we vote" as they gathered about 10 a.m., and then began marching about two hours later to the city's Little Village neighborhood.

David "Dino" Martino, political director of the Service Employees International Union, said, "This is going to be a symbolic pilgrimage calling attention to hard-working, tax-paying people who deserve the opportunity to achieve the American dream."

Organizers said the group is marching to Hastert's office in the hopes of persuading the House Speaker, a Republican, to help push immigration reform legislation that they say is stalled in Congress. Hastert hasn't agreed to meet with the marchers when they arrive at his office Monday.

Chicago police were in front and behind the marchers as they made their way to Little Village. Police squad cars, vans and a chartered city bus were also on hand.

The marchers headed west on Cermak Road to Little Village, where they were greeted by Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, executive director of the Little Village Community Development Corp.

Garcia played ranchera music and encouraged bystanders to join the rally. "In order to achieve immigration reform we need everyone's cooperation," he said.

Accompanying the marchers is a rented, 24-foot truck carrying luggage, sleeping bags and bottled water.

Catherine Salgado of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said she expects 400 to 500 people to walk the entire distance. But she says she expects thousands to show up at various rallies along the route.

solkon@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cust ... i-news-hed

WGN News said they only had about 200 people show up, not the thousands they expected.

The demonstrators waved American flags and bright yellow signs stating, "Today we march, tomorrow we vote" as they gathered about 10 a.m., and then began marching about two hours later to the city's Little Village neighborhood.

David "Dino" Martino, political director of the Service Employees International Union, said, "This is going to be a symbolic pilgrimage calling attention to hard-working, tax-paying people "

Well, I saw those illegal supporters marching in Houston on May 1, with that stupid saying, and their chanting of "Si se puede!" They are sponsored by A.C.O.R.N. which is the umbrella organization of Service Employees Int'l.

I found the information on the website call the Employment Policies Institute. Go to this link for the press release regarding ACORN's link to voter fraud in several states. I encourage you to go to the link www.rottenacorn.com as well. It is very insightful.

http://www.epionline.org/news_detail.cfm?rid=84

“Once again ACORN is using any means necessary to fool the public into supporting its radical political agenda,” said Mike Flynn, EPI’s director of legislative affairs. “ACORN’s decades of questionable elections practices and outright deceit extending throughout a dozen states prove this group is more about advancing its political agenda than about helping the community.”

To see an example of the fraudulent signatures ACORN submitted for their ballot initiative to raise Albuquerque’s minimum wage or to read the report “Rotten ACORN: America’s Bad Seed,” go to www.RottenACORN.com.