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Immigration bill turned quiet voices into a roar


By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 2, 2006

For the past year, the protesters heard most loudly in the national immigration debate have been anti-illegal immigration activists who have staged civilian patrols, picketed day-labor pickup sites and held rallies calling for tighter border enforcement.

In the past month, however, they have found themselves sharing the protest stage with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators around the country who have rallied against enforcement-only legislation and in support of undocumented immigrants – and immigrants in general.

Until these past few weeks, most opponents of strict border and immigration controls had only grumbled quietly. What made the tide turn?

The tipping point, observers say, came in December in the form of H.R. 4437, a controversial piece of federal legislation approved by the House of Representatives. Among other things, it would make it a felony to be in the country illegally or to help an undocumented person stay here.

The House measure passed without much notice, the impact of its proposals only gradually sinking in with the general public. With the Senate Judiciary Committee preparing to evaluate immigration proposals in March, however, immigrant-rights advocates saw an opportunity to influence the outcome.


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“The House bill passed in December, and it took a while for people to digest what they did,” said Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C. “People got it when it became clear that the Senate was going to be moving in March. It clicked. The Senate was going to be making a choice as to whether they were going to do the same thing or something different.”

Amy Cervantes, 17, said she learned about the House bill at school and on television. On Friday, the Morse High School senior and two younger sisters joined other teens and a few adult chaperones in a downtown San Diego march that drew roughly 4,000 participants.

“It's that law,” she said of her reason for participating, though the House bill has not yet become law. “That 4437, where anyone who helps someone illegal is a criminal.”

According to Muñoz, the momentum has been building since the current immigration debate began, with many Latinos chafing as media attention has focused on civilian patrols, legislative proposals calling for additional border fencing and talk show hosts beating the restriction drum.

Until the House bill was approved shortly before the holidays, the immigration debate had remained at a distance for most, said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an umbrella group of immigrant rights organizations.

“The Minutemen were offensive because they were kind of scary, but no one disagrees with border enforcement, really,” Sharry said. “It angered some people, but it angered activists. But when Congress said 'You hardworking people, we are going to call you felons,' that really broke through. You were no longer talking about policy, you were talking about who they are, that they are bad people.”

There was no immediate outcry in December, he and others say, in part because there was little discussion of the House legislation before it passed. It wasn't until after the holidays that the news started to register, as English-and Spanish-language media reports began to be absorbed. Church leaders also began taking a stand, including Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who on Ash Wednesday stated that he would ask priests and lay Catholics to defy the law if it interfered with their ministry.

By early last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee was drafting its own immigration measure, which it approved last week with provisions for legalization of undocumented immigrants and also a guest worker program. This week, the full Senate may vote on the measure. The Senate and the House will then attempt to reach a compromise.

As the committee was discussing various proposals in Washington, Spanish-language radio hosts in Los Angeles and other cities, who later became instrumental to organizers, were addressing the political debate on air.

Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which helped organize a massive march in Los Angeles last weekend, said that for the past two years, nationwide networks of immigrant-rights organizations, labor unions and other groups in several states have coalesced and begun communicating. That made it easier to organize activities such as the recent demonstrations nationwide.

Two organizing meetings were held in San Bernardino and Riverside earlier this year, at which plans for the L.A. march were discussed. But even the organizers were surprised by the turnout, which police estimated at about 500,000.

“People respond to fear,” said Armando Navarro, an ethnic studies professor at UC Riverside who was involved in the organizing. “They respond when their self-interests are going to be impacted.”

Anti-illegal immigration activists, who began a monthlong series of border watches beginning this weekend, criticized protesters in San Diego and Los Angeles for carrying Mexican flags.

“Basically they are advocating for a separate nation within a nation,” said Tim Donnelly, leader of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of California, which over the weekend had 50 to 60 people conducting patrols in the Jacumba area.

A separate group organized by Minuteman Project co-organizer Jim Gilchrist of Orange County is conducting patrols in Campo throughout April. Both groups are part of a broader effort to stage civilian patrols along the southwest border this month.

In an e-mail sent to gather support for a Temecula counter-rally to the Los Angeles march, Donnelly dismissed teens marching in Los Angeles as “probably part of the anchor baby-boom of the late 1980s and 1990s,” using a pejorative term for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.

Donnelly, like others on the pro-enforcement side, sees the protests as having the potential to draw more members to the border watchers' cause.

Latino community leaders in San Diego and elsewhere have expressed concern about the same thing in the past few days with the ongoing student marches. They worry that if kids get into trouble, the opposition will seize it as a public relations opportunity. Friday's march was peaceful, but a melee between students and police at Oceanside High School earlier in the week prompted the school's closure for two days; students from other schools have also been arrested, including a group of about 150 in the Imperial Beach area.

The National Council of La Raza urged students last week to channel their energy in other ways, such as e-mailing congressional representatives.

“I think we're reaching the point of diminishing returns,” Phil Saenz, a political science professor at San Diego City College, said at a community news conference Thursday in National City. “I'm also worried about there being a backlash. Their responsibility is to finish school, because they are the leaders of tomorrow.”

Saenz said he'd like to see these same teens who are marching learn to get involved in the political process so they can have their say.

Some, however, have already gotten that message. As she and her sisters prepared to leave Friday's protest, Amy Cervantes said she has been learning about the political process and having a voice.

“I'm going to register to vote as soon as I turn 18,” she said.




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Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579; leslie.berestein@uniontrib.com