Many of us in CA are looking forward to this because it will be so easy to get things done, the roads will be wide open like last year. Some are making special plans for that day.
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Immigrant Rights Activists Plan May Day Boycott
By Payton Hoegh
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 16, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Immigrant and worker rights groups called Thursday for an end to raids and deportations of illegal aliens and are planning a May Day boycott to press home their demands.

In recent months, federal authorities have arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants in raids on businesses that employ them.

Critics of the crackdown say lawmakers must "approve fair and pro-immigrant, pro-workers immigration reform and end the terror launched by the Bush administration on immigrant communities nationwide."

Participants in the "Great American Boycott" say they will not shop, work, go to school or participate in any economic activity on May 1, but will instead hold rallies.

The movement's website encourages supporters to join with them "against a common enemy: the U.S. government." Similar campaigns last spring called for pro-immigrant reform.

At a press conference Thursday, speakers from organizations including labor and anti-war groups spoke out against the crackdown.

Bishop Felipe C. Teixeira of the Immigration Pastoral Center in Massachusetts said that the recent raids had shown "the face of racism and discrimination."

"No human being is illegal," Teixeira said. "Together, united, we can defeat the imperialism of the U.S.A."

Emma Lozano of the Chicago immigration-rights group Centro Sin Fronteras suggested that the best way to gain recognition from the government was to use economic power.

"We need to stand up and show them that we will hurt them in their pockets," Lozano said.

"This country has exploited the undocumented labor for over a century and grown rich off of it," she said, adding that "we are not asking for anything, we are demanding our rights."

Other speakers echoed her call, citing instances of abuse in the workplace or describing the effects of the immigration raids.

Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told Cybercast News Service it's laughable that illegal immigrants expect to be handed legalization.

"We don't crack down on immigrants. We crack down on illegal immigrants," she said. "They've broken the law in coming here, and now they are protesting our enforcing those laws."

Tully said she supports the legalization of immigrants, but only through the necessary immigration channels.

"To do anything less would be a slap in the face to those who have come here legally," Tully said.