Thread: San Antonio Rally/March a dud so far.

NEW: As expected, immigration rally off to a slow start

Web Posted: 05/01/2007 02:22 PM CDT

Guillermo Contreras and Hernan Rozemberg
Express-News Staff Writers

Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants began forming in downtown San Antonio today for a march they hope will help bolster an overhaul of the country's immigration system.


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Their message remained similar to last year's unprecedented marches and demonstrations in which 1 million people flexed their economic muscle across several cities in the United States. Marches, rallies and voter registration drives were planned today from California to Illinois to New York.

“This is about unity,” San Antonio march organizer Ché López said at a news conference at Milam Park. “We are here recognizing migrant workers. Throughout the history of the United States, migrant workers have built the infrastructure and have made the U.S. economy strong. We want full rights for all migrants. We don't walls on the border. We want reunification of families.”

With Fox News Channel ready to film the rally and march, participants began chanting slogans like:

“No somos ilegales! No somos criminales! Somos trabajadores internacionales!” We are not illegals. We are not criminals. We are international workers.

López and Jaime Martinez, another organizer, said they expected thousands of people to partake in the march, which was to wind its way through at least four downtown streets and end at Travis Park.

Last year's march drew an estimated 18,000 people, according to media accounts — march organizers put the number at 30,000 and said they expected a similar crowd this year — but some speculated that this year's turnout would be lower.

“I don't think it will be as aggressive as last year,” said Alfonso Flores, program director for KLEY-FM and KSAH-AM, known as “la estacion de la raza.” (The people's station.)

“I think that last year, there was a lot of uneasiness with the (immigration) proposals being discussed,” Flores said. “Last year, the youth also contributed a lot. I think this year — hopefully I'm wrong — there will be fewer people.”

Despite this, organizers say immigrants feel a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections. Organizers said that high school students across the city had planned to walk out of their classrooms Tuesday at noon to support the effort.

But planned walk-outs at least two high schools where protests had been planned never materialized.

At Brackenridge High School in the King William district, all was tranquil at noon. A couple of students leaving campus for lunch said they had heard rumors about the walk-out, but no specifics.

One student who walked out of Brackenridge last year, who only identified himself as Juan, said that he had also heard some people talking Tuesday, but that there was no apparent organized walk-out movement this time around.

He and some buddies still planned to attend the rally and march later in the afternoon, Juan said.

Similar rumors circulated about walk-outs at other high schools, including at Fox Tech High School. Some students leaving the school, which is a few blocks from Milam Park, said they had not heard of a walk-out but planned to attend the rally and march.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 1bf14.html

Due to my schedule today and this week, I had to do my grocery shopping last night. I would have prefered to do it today.

However, last night I noticed that the tortillas and low-quality meat were very depleted. lol