http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 24-ON.html

Click Here for Video



Thousands march to protest immigration legislation

The Arizona Republic
Mar. 24, 2006 12:45 PM


Upwards of 12,000 people marched this afternoon through central Phoenix to Sen. Jon Kyl's office to protest immigration legislation that they say is inhumane and punitive.

Authorities have blocked off sections of 24th Street as the demonstrators walked from St. Agnes Catholic Church near McDowell Road and 24th Street to Kyl's office on Camelback Road.

The marchers are protesting a congressional proposal to make illegal immigration a felony. Similar demonstrations are taking place today in Tucson, Los Angeles, Atlanta and elsewhere.

Kyl, along with fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, introduced a bill that in part would require workers to leave the U.S. to apply for temporary work permits.

The measure, approved by the House, would also impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal migrants and build a fence along about a third of the U.S. border with Mexico.

The bill is to be voted on Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The rally is the largest in a string of grass-roots protests, marches and boycotts by Hispanics since 2004, when voters passed Proposition 200, a law that prohibits undocumented immigrants from voting or receiving certain public benefits.

Across the country, pro-immigration supporters took to marching. More than 10,000 people filled the streets of Milwaukee in what was billed as “A Day Without Latinos” to protest efforts in Congress to target undocumented workers.

Hundreds of Los Angeles students walked out Friday morning to call attention to immigration issues.

In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers didn’t show up at their jobs on Friday after calls for a work stoppage to protest a bill passed by the Georgia House on Thursday. That bill, which has yet to gain Senate approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S. illegally and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegals.

Teodoro Maus, one of the organizers of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work Friday.

About 200 people converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs reading: “Don’t panic, we’re Hispanic” and “We have a dream, too.”

Return for updates later.