Protesters build mock wall outside U.S. Embassy in Mexico to
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Protesters build mock wall outside U.S. Embassy in Mexico to protest immigration bill
By Marco Ugarte
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:06 p.m. March 26, 2006
MEXICO CITY – About 50 students used cardboard boxes to build a small wall in front of the gates of the U.S. Embassy here Sunday, protesting a proposed law that would extend fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The students, some waving Communist Party flags, covered their makeshift wall with anti-American graffiti and likenesses of Latin American leftist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. One poster showed a manipulated picture of U.S. President George W. Bush doing a Nazi salute under a swastika insignia.
The embassy is located along the Mexican capital's stylish Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Senate begins discussing the proposals this week.
At least 10 million Mexican citizens are believed to be living in the United States. U.S. authorities believe about half of them are there illegally.
The small protest in Mexico City came a day after more than half a million people marched in downtown Los Angeles to protest crackdowns on illegal immigration.
That protest was the largest of similar marches that drew 50,000 people in Denver and several thousand in the California capital of Sacramento and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bush on Saturday called for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one. He sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time.
Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.
