http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/..._013_31_06.txt

Immigration demonstrations continue across North County

By: ADRIENNE A. AGUIRRE, DAVID FRIED and SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writers

NORTH COUNTY ---- Demonstrators gathered Saturday in Escondido, Oceanside and Vista to protest proposed changes in immigration law, capping a week of school walkouts and sometimes tense confrontations.

The number of participants peaked Tuesday, when more than 1,700 people ---- mostly high school students skipping school ---- marched on streets throughout North County communities. About two dozen arrests were reported at Monday's demonstrations.

Oceanside Unified School District cancelled all middle and high school classes Thursday and Friday because of concerns about student safety, and Vista Unified closed all its schools Friday for similar reasons.


In Escondido on Saturday, a demonstration began in Grape Day Park around 8 a.m. and slowly grew, as families trickled into the park. The gathering topped out at about 60 demonstrators, far fewer than the hundreds of students that packed the park Monday and Friday evening during demonstrations against the proposed legislation.

Community leaders and student organizers from this past week's walkouts addressed the small, peaceful crowd, which dispersed shortly after 10 a.m., as a light rain began to fall.

Part of the protest was dedicated to explaining HR 4437, the controversial bill the House of Representatives passed in December that would make it a federal felony to remain in the country illegally. Currently, living in the U.S. without proper documentation is a violation of civil immigration law, and not a criminal offense.

Demonstrators said such a change would penalize undocumented workers and their families.

"All we want Congress to do is hear what we have to say," said Maria Fernandez, 16, a student who helped organize walkouts last week at Orange Glen High. "We have illegal parents. Some of us are here illegally. And all we want is an education and to succeed in the United States, because we're already here."

But for as much as the messages were about political engagement, they were also about restraint and respect for the families' adopted communities.

Nearly every speaker urged demonstrators to waive U.S. flags along with, or instead of, the Mexican banners that have characterized recent demonstrations across North County.

"We love Mexico," Monica Aguilar, a student from Escondido High who helped organize demonstrations this week. "But we also want to show (people) that we are Mexicans, we are good people, and we want to be here legally."

Students urged to stay in class


The student leaders also encouraged their peers to stay in class this week and harness their activism into a mass demonstration planned for April 9 in Balboa Park.

"We felt that one day (of school walkouts) was enough to get noticed," said Joel Rivera, 17, who organized a demonstration of some 200 students from Valley Center High on Wednesday. "And now that we've got momentum, there's other ways of getting noticed and our point across."

Many of the youngsters at the demonstration said they had participated in at least one day of demonstrations during the week, but wanted to come out with their families again to continue a call to abandon the proposed law.

Standing toward the back of the pack was Nahu Alba, 17, and his mother, Leonor Ruiz.

It was the second time this past week Alba came to demonstrate in Grape Day Park. On Monday, the Escondido High School student joined hundreds of his colleagues to march through the streets. But the 17-year-old said he hadn't participated in the subsequent protests because he "didn't want to miss (any) more days of school."

He and his mother, however, said the matter for them is very personal, since they have many family members who are undocumented and Ruiz ---- now a documented resident ---- came across the border illegally more than a decade ago.

"I've been through this," Ruiz, 37, said in Spanish.

On the pier in Oceanside


Carrying Mexican and American flags and yelling "The people united can never be divided" and "Si, se puede," Spanish for "Yes, we can," roughly 200 people attended a student-organized rally and march Saturday at the Oceanside Municipal Pier.

A group of students from Vista's Rancho Buena Vista High School planned the event amid demonstrations throughout last week in which hundreds of students in Vista and across North County left school and marched for miles to protest the proposed legislation.

Speakers at the rally urged peaceful protests and working within the system to make changes.

"We are gathered here today to show our dislike for the legislation that is being passed in the United States," said Arthur Alvarez, 18, a Rancho Buena Vista High School senior who helped organize Saturday's rally and march. "We're here to do it in a peaceful manner. We're here to show our congressmen and our senators that we're here to stay, we have a voice, and we're going to use it."

Some students wore white T-shirts with the words "If it's a crime to dream, then we are guilty" on the back.

Elizabeth Salazar, 17, a junior at Rancho Buena Vista, spoke at the rally about coming from a Mexican family and her father's dreams of owning a home and a business in the United States.

Salazar said if HR 4437 becomes law, it would dash the only hope some immigrants have.

"I stand in front of you here today to say all of the dreams my father had have come true," Salazar said. "He is an immigrant, and all his dreams came true in this country."

Salazar also urged immigrants to "be proud of where you come from, but also be proud of the country you live in."

New felons, more prisons


A smattering of applause from opponents of illegal immigration could be heard as Rancho Buena Vista teacher Tay Cooper said during the rally that the proposed federal legislation would create 10 million to 12 million new felons and would require spending $115 million each for two new prisons and $400 million for inspectors.

"We're here today to empower ourselves and to go out and participate," said Cooper, who urged people to contact their congressmen, to register to vote and to vote.

An opponent of illegal immigration, Jeff Chapman, 41, of Oceanside, approached a reporter before Saturday's rally began and introduced himself as "Jeff Chapman, American."

"We need to have an orderly inflow of immigrants, and everybody's welcome if they wait in line," Chapman said, holding an American flag.

Chapman said he attended the rally to show his patriotism.

"All I'm seeing lately is Mexican flags," Chapman said. "This is America. People need to stand up for their country."

Before Saturday's rally began, Alvarez said students had created a banner showing flags of many nations and had Mexican and American flags in hand to emphasize that the federal bill affects more than just immigrants from Mexico.

"If we are going to create change, it has to be done through the American way," Alvarez said.

Rally organizers led a march on the Oceanside Municipal Pier on Saturday afternoon before returning to the Band Shell near the pier to inform people of the Balboa Park rally to be held next week and a nationwide boycott planned May 19 to show what life would be like without immigrants if the federal bill passes.

During the march on the pier, Severiano Martinez, 29, of Oceanside said he attended the rally and march to show people that immigrants are "not criminals."

"We're hard-working," Martinez said. "We want a good life for our families."

Reyna Hernandez, 20, of Oceanside said during the pier march that she believed the federal legislation was unfair.

"All the immigrants who come here come because they want a better life," Hernandez said.

After the march and rally concluded, a smaller group of people who had attended decided to continue to march in protest, carrying flags and yelling "Si, se puede" as they marched from the pier along Mission Avenue through Oceanside.

The marchers were greeted with honking horns by some cars passing by on Mission Avenue and by cars on Interstate 5 as the marchers walked along Mission Avenue over the freeway.

Angie Alvarado, 20, of Vista said she decided to keep marching Saturday because even though the rally was over, the fight is not.

"Racism is still here, and we have to keep fighting it," Alvarado said.

Ericka Garcia, 12, of Oceanside, who attends Lincoln Middle School, said marchers believe the proposed federal bill is racist.

"We believe that this law is racist, and if they don't hear our words, they'll never listen to us," Garcia said.

Vista rally draws 100 people


In Vista about 100 Latinos, from toddlers to seniors, lined up along East Vista Way waving American and Mexican flags and chanting in Spanish and English.

A traffic-light outage had cars crawling at less than 1 mph past demonstrators with signs that read "Who's the illegal alien pilgrim?" "You say go home. We say we are home," and "We didn't cross the borders, the borders crossed us."

While some people drove by with their windows up and little reaction, others drove by with their windows down blasting Mexican music and honking their horns.

Before the crowd took to the streets, the group gathered in Wildwood Park, on the corner of East Vista Way and Escondido Avenue, for a rally dubbed "Students for Justice."

Students spoke passionately about everything from negative media coverage and treatment by police to lack of school support and the fears of having their Mexican-born parents taken away.

"If these laws (prevail), what's going to happen to all of the kids here," said Carolina Salinas, 17, of Fallbrook. "We can't support ourselves."

Carolina added that the press has painted a false picture of unruly teenagers ditching school without understanding the politics. When in reality, she said, they know all about the issues first hand.

Carolina recalled a time when she saw a father get deported while his frightened 5- and 6-year-old children watched.

"They were screaming and crying," she said. "And then the (authorities) put the kids in another car."

Carolina said it's the people on the outside who are ignorant.

"For you to know and understand, I think you have to sit down and talk to the people that have lived it," she said.

Protesters say the law pits American-born children against their Mexican-born parents.

"They are expecting us (citizens) to turn our backs on our own family members," said Miguel Nunez, 18, of Fallbrook. "It's not right."

Miguel added that the immigration laws not only rob undocumented immigrants of their American dreams but citizens as well. He said when the parents of his American-born cousin were deported, in effect, his cousin had to be deported, too.

"He was getting a good education here," Miguel said. "But since his parents were taken away, he had to go too."

Robert Freeman, a Luiseno Indian from the Rincon Indian Reservation, came to protest with Latinos and remind others about California history. He said long before the white people arrived, American Indians were here with Mexican Indians.

"We are all basically Indian," he said. "They have the same right to be on this land as I do. This is our land."

Contact Adrienne Aguirre at (760) 740-3526 or a.aguirre@nctimes.com.