http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_3756012

Immigrants' rights groups ask El Paso to join Boycott for reform
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times


Debra Gulbas / El PasoTimes Socorro Borja Gardea picketed on Wednesday in Downtown El Paso.

Some groups are trying to rally El Pasoans to join the May 1 boycott for immigration reform, but the larger organizations that helped swell earlier rallies have been mum.
Several groups announced Wed nesday that they would organize a rally at the Chamizal National Memorial at 10 a.m. Monday, with educational talks on immigrants' rights and the history of May Day starting at 8 a.m. Organizers recommended that participants bring sandwiches so they could avoid buying food that day.

Margarita Medina, a displaced factory worker and a legal immigrant, said she would join in the boycott in solidarity with all immigrants and because she feared an anti-immigrant backlash would affect her as well.

"We are all here to do our job with dignity," she said.

Several small businesses in the Segundo Barrio reported plans to close up shop Monday to avoid attracting the wrath of those who support the boycott.

The groups behind the boycott in El Paso are the Sin Fronteras farmworker center, the Asociaci n de Trabajadores Fronterizos, the MEChA student activist group at El Paso Community College , the Paso Del Norte Civil Rights Project and the Congreso Regional de Colonias.

Absent are the Catholic Church and the Border Network for Human Rights.

"I know some organizations are questioning whether to participate, but we can't abandon the immigrants now," Guillermo Glenn, coordinator of Asociaci n de Trabajadores Fronterizos, said Wednesday during a news conference.

Proponents of the boycott, dubbed "A Day Without Immigrants," say that by staying home from work and school and not buying anything

on May 1, immigrants will demonstrate the crucial role they play in the U.S. economy.

But activists around the country are split, some saying that it would be better to wait and see what immigration legislation the Senate comes up with and others saying that the boycott will only serve to alienate the business community -- a powerful ally pushing for a guest-worker program.

Officials with the Catholic Diocese in El Paso could not be reached for comment, but in Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony urged immigrants and their supporters not to join in.

The groups advocating for the boycott in El Paso also urged high-school students to walk out.

Students from Austin High School who were on a field trip to the County Courthouse, where the news conference took place, cheered the groups but said they wouldn't walk out again.

"We got in trouble last time," said one student who didn't want to give her name.

LULAC officials also said Wed nesday they asked students to stay in school and workers who fear losing their jobs to continue working, but they asked Latinos to refrain from shopping on that day.

Activists in Mexico are also planning a boycott of all things American on Monday in support of the U.S. boycott.