Thread: Protesters attempt to shut down border

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Protesters attempt to shut down border


By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

10:11 a.m. May 1, 2006


Associated Press

SAN DIEGO – A nationwide day of pro-immigration protests began locally at the U.S.-Mexico border, where protesters in neighboring Tijuana blocked traffic lanes at the area's largest and busiest border crossing.

The protest was one of many demonstrations and boycotts across the United States meant to show the importance of illegal immigrants – and Mexicans in particular – to the American economy.

In San Diego, many taco stands and other restaurants that typically serve breakfast were closed.

At Buenos Dias on Jackson Drive in La Mesa, yellow caution tape was draped around the periphery of the venerable fast-food Mexican diner. A handwritten sign posted on the menu board outside said employees had gone to a rally in downtown San Diego.

“I'll lose about $5,000 today,” said owner Jose Uribe, noting that his 10 Latino workers had alerted him last week that they would not be coming in today.

Uribe said he couldn't operate the restaurant anyway because his produce and meat suppliers were not making deliveries in deference to the boycott.

However, some mainstream restaurants said they expect to pick up business today as customers are diverted from closed diners to their outlets.

Brian Stout, owner of Brian's on Washington Street, said the 25 Latino employees at the restaurant and another diner he operates downtown were expected to arrive for work today.

“I told them they have a responsibility to do their job and if they want it, they have to work,” Stout said.

The boycott also had an impact in the North County.

Alejandro Gonzalez of Vista Catering, who owns a fleet of 17 lunch vans serving Vista, Carlsbad and Encinitas, had only six of his 32 employees show up for work Monday, despite being promised a full day's pay for even a half day of work.

“There's definitely going to be firings,” Gonzalez said outside the Carlsbad hiring hall on El Camino Real.

At the hall, which coordinates the hiring of day laborers, 11 workers showed up. Last Monday, 26 were there trying to get a job.

One of laborers was a U.S. citizen who turned down a job being offered for $10 an hour. He wanted $14 an hour.

In Tijuana, meanwhile, about 50 protesters, mostly middle-aged women, held signs and banners urging motorists early Monday morning not to cross into San Diego. By 8 a.m., they were blocking seven lanes on the easternmost side of the port of entry.

About 10 minutes later, Tijuana police had cleared one lane for traffic, leaving the protesters to block about five others.

They had few cars to block, however. Border traffic at San Ysidro, normally very heavy in the mornings, had dropped to almost nothing.

Tijuanans traditionally take advantage of their Labor Day holiday to cross into San Diego to shop or for entertainment, lining up by the hundreds to drive or walk across the border.

On Monday, however, even before the demonstrators began blocking lanes, cross-border traffic at San Ysidro was almost non-existent.

As the morning wore on, however, traffic began to pick up somewhat. By 9 a.m., there were an average of 40 vehicles per lane at San Ysidro. Two hours earlier, the lanes had been mostly empty.

A typical Monday morning sees about 200 vehicles per lane.



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