The title of this article alone is enough to make your blood boil. The comments on this article and the one about the President talking about immigration reform are almost all the same send them back.
This just proves that my statistics professor was correct. You can rig the survey or to get the results you desire. She also does gang research and could tell you all you want to know about gangs and illegals.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines

Series of pro-immigration rallies to demand overhaul of laws on Tuesday

By Ruth Morris & Tal Abbady
Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted April 30 2007, 2:45 PM EDT


South Florida immigrants and their supporters will attend marches and rallies Tuesday to demand that Congress approve an overhaul of immigration laws that includes leads to legal status for millions of undocumented families.

Scheduled events include a 10 a.m. pro-immigrant rally at Pioneer Park in Belle Glade and a 3 p.m. rally with local clergy and commissioners in West Palm Beach. Immigrants and their advocates will gather at the corner of Okeechobee Blvd. and Sapodilla Ave. before marching to the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building at 701 Clematis Street.

Immigrants in Broward County plan to leave Weston at 2 p.m. Tuesday to attend a 3 p.m. rally at Government Center in Miami.

The South Florida rallies are part of a nationwide drive for an immigration overhaul. Organizers hope to recreate some of the urgency and awe from last year's immigration marches, when hundreds of thousands turned out in major U.S. cities to demand change.

"Poll after poll continue to show that a majority of Americans favor a realistic immigration policy solution that offers undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship," the Florida Immigrant Coalition said in a statement.

Opponents of legalization for undocumented immigrants have staged their own rallies, including a four-day event in Washington last week calling for much tighter controls on immigration. They also want authorities to punish employers who hire those without work authorization.

Many immigrant groups applauded a House bill introduced in March that would crack down on illegal crossings into the United States while offering a path to citizenship for those immigrants willing to pay hefty penalties, learn English and re-enter the country. Others groups said those requirements were too harsh and too costly, and would take more than 10 years to complete.

The Senate has yet to produce its own immigration bill this year, although immigrant advocates say they are hopeful it will come soon.

In a commencement address at Miami Dade College on Saturday, President Bush called for tighter border controls, a temporary worker program and some kind of legalization provision. He said the estimated 12 million people residing in the Unites States illegally must be dealt with "without amnesty and without animosity."

The ramped up political pressure aims to influence federal lawmakers, much as advocates on both sides of the issue did last year, when disparate immigration bills stalled in Congress. Those pressing for legalization see a greater chance of success in a Democratically controlled Congress before its August recess and the start of the presidential campaigns.

Activists also hope to stress how current policies are affecting families.

Sonia Barajas, 19, a Florida-born activist who organized rallies in Belle Glade last year, said fear consumes people in her family and among sugarcane workers. An uncle who is undocumented recently wrestled with the decision of whether to take his sick child to the hospital and risk getting pulled over by authorities or watch his child get worse, she said. He took the risk and made it back home.

Meanwhile, an aunt is caring for the baby of a deported family.

"Representatives in Congress need to sit down and come up with a reform that's humane and won't separate families," said Barajas, who studies criminal justice at Palm Beach Community College. "People are afraid. Children are left behind and have to fend for themselves."

The first in her family to attend college, she put down her books to distribute flyers in Belle Glade, Pahokee, Canal Point and Okeechobee. She says 5,000 people are expected to attend the Belle Glade event.

Ruth Morris can be reached at rmorris@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.

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