Thread: Civil disobedience rises in New York City, across the nation

Civil disobedience rises in New York City, across the nation over Arizona immigration law

Juan Gonzalez - News

Wednesday, June 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM


Do you want an Arizona-like anti-illegal immigration law in New York?
Yes
No


A little after noon Tuesday, a red double-decker bus packed with tourists came to a stop in front of the Federal Building in Manhattan. Its astonished passengers rushed to take photos of the scene.

There, stretching across Broadway in three neat lines, was a crowd of protesters blocking traffic and singing, "We Shall Overcome."

"This is not Arizona," read one of the protest placards.

For the third straight Tuesday, cops arrested several dozen religious and community leaders who engaged in civil disobedience aimed at pressuring Congress to fix the nation's broken immigration laws.

Fifty-six were arrested this time, on top of the 53 in the previous two weeks.

Tuesday's group included Mayor Bloomberg's former commissioner of immigrant affairs, Guillermo Linares; City Council members Julissa Ferreras, Brad Lander and Daniel Dromm, and the former head of the Bronx Democratic Party, Roberto Ramirez.

Joining them in jail were several South Korean, Chinese, Cambodian and Irish-American leaders.

Similar incidents have occurred across the country during the past month, ever since Arizona passed its "show me your papers" law.

It began on May Day in front of the White House, when Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) was jailed with 35 others. Gutierrez wanted to remind his fellow Chicagoan, President Obama, that candidate Obama had promised to complete immigration reform in his first year in office.

Instead, deportations of illegal immigrants are at higher numbers than under George W. Bush, and Obama is dispatching 1,200 additional National Guard troops to the Mexican border.

Since his arrest, Gutierrez has called for a wave of nationwide acts of civil disobedience around immigration reform.

He hopes to emulate the civil rights sit-ins of the 1960s, which forced Congress to outlaw segregation, or the campaign a decade ago in Puerto Rico, where thousands were arrested trying to prevent the Navy's bombing practice on the island of Vieques. That campaign finally persuaded Bush and the Pentagon to abandon Vieques in 2003.

Here in New York, the protests are being spearheaded by Bishop Orlando Findlaytar, the head of Churches United to Save and Heal, a coalition of Brooklyn denominations with largely Caribbean members.

"We've already marched, we've sent letters and petitions, and Congress still hasn't acted," Findlaytar said. "It's time to go in a new direction."

Findlaytar is especially critical of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer.

"I met with Schumer in Washington and he promised me he'd introduce a new immigration bill by now," Findlaytar said.

Even though Schumer has trumpeted general principles for his plan, he has yet to introduce an actual bill.

Democrats keep giving lip service to immigration reform. Now is not the right time, they keep telling immigrant advocates. The issue is too hot to handle.

It has been four years since more than 3 million people marched in some 160 cities and towns for immigration reform. The politicians in Washington seem to have forgotten those were perhaps the largest street protests in the nation's history.

"It's one thing to delay your promise," Chung-Wha Hong, of the New York Immigration Coalition, said about Obama. "It's another thing to move in the other direction."

Arizona's new law has reawakened Latino and immigrant communities. They're not about to let Congress and Obama dodge the question any longer.

If they do, watch the number of people arrested for civil disobedience climb from a just few hundred into the tens of thousands.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... z0piREAOac

So much for Jian Gonzalez' propaganda.

Poll Results
Thank you for voting.

Do you want an Arizona-like anti-illegal immigration law in New York?

Yes 78%
No 22%

"It's one thing to delay your promise," Chung-Wha Hong, of the New York Immigration Coalition, said about Obama. "It's another thing to move in the other direction."

We've been waiting for the promised enforcement for 24 years Hong and we want it NOW!

Gutierrez is a disgrace to this nation and should be removed from his seat. He does not do anything that even resembles being a servant of the American people and working for the betterment of this country. Every thing he does is Anti-American and he has no business being in the position he's in.

How do we go about getting him removed?

Originally Posted by JBParrothead

Gutierrez is a disgrace to this nation and should be removed from his seat. He does not do anything that even resembles being a servant of the American people and working for the betterment of this country. Every thing he does is Anti-American and he has no business being in the position he's in.

How do we go about getting him removed?

Remove all the voting illegals from his district.

lock his rabble rousing commie behind up till at least 2011. let him out on restricted bond to see all the elected republicans in office, jamming 1070 copycat laws down democrat gullets.

Remember how Guiterrez district is made though. its disgusting and over 90 percent of people in this messed up district are latino. so the chances of him getting back in, is better than average, even though he does not live in the district anymoer