Thread: Immigration march planned for St. Helena

Immigration march planned for St. Helena
By CARLOS VILLATORO
Register Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
While immigrants throughout the nation prepare to stage a second “Day Without An Immigrant” protest May 1 — in which millions are expected to stay away from work, school, driving or even shopping — hundreds of Latinos are expected to take to the streets of St. Helena Saturday in protest of immigration raids and attempts at immigration reform that many see as botched.

“We are asking for an immigration reform, we are asking that the government stops the raids, that’s pretty much our point,” said Marisa Loza, a Napa immigration consultant and member of Latinos Unidos del Valle de Napa y Solano — the group that’s organizing the St. Helena March. “We are marching because we want other options.”

Last year was particularly turbulent on the immigration front. Clashing bills in the U.S. House and Senate — designed to address border security, the flow of undocumented people into the United States and the impact of immigrants in the job force — failed to provide meaningful progress. The issue remains one of the most controversial in the country as the political parties gear up for the presidential primaries early next year.

A House of Representatives proposal that would have made entering the country illegally a felony offense, imposed penalties on employers of undocumented immigrants and erected a fence across most of the U.S.-Mexico border sparked massive protests in Napa, St. Helena and across the nation last year. The bill also set the stage for the first “Day Without An Immigrant” protest held May 1, 2006.

Meanwhile, a massive effort on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has successfully detained and deported 2 million or more individuals who were in the country illegally. Dubbed “Operation Return to Sender, ” the effort began on May 26, 2006, and was designed to round up criminals, fugitives and gang members who were in the country illegally, though not all of the people that ICE has deported have been violent criminals.

Ongoing raids at homes and factories across the nation have had many immigrants on edge.

No raids have been reported in Napa County, but stories of the nation-wide raids have circulated though Hispanic neighborhoods in Napa, St. Helena and Calistoga and caused concern, Loza said.

“A lot of people have been here for years and they have their homes, their children here,” Loza said. “They have already adopted the culture here.”

Loza said the march is Saturday beginning at Crane Park in St. Helena at 10:30 a.m.

She also said that demonstrators are being encouraged to hold American flags in support of the United States.

“The march we are doing is pacifist,” she said. “We are giving the message in both Spanish and English. We don’t want the community to be against us. We want them to know that we are here, we are human and we deserve the opportunities that the grandfathers (of this nation) wanted us to have.”
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/artic ... 403894.txt

we are asking that the government stops the raids, that’s pretty much our point,”

In other words, we are asking the government to allow us to continue stealing from Americans and breaking the laws.

Marisa Loza, member of Latinos Unidos del Valle de Napa y Salano ( ), let's just presume that you just might be from Mexico .....I have a simple question for you.

Give me one good reason why the entire country of Mexico should not enter the United States ILLEGALLY.

Get it?!