Thread: L.A. immigration activists mobilize for Washington

Tue May 9, 2006 5:01 PM ET
http://today.reuters.com/investing/fina ... NGELES.XML

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES, May 9 (Reuters) - Activists in Los Angeles, where massive rallies have galvanized the pro-immigrant rights movement, said on Tuesday they were mobilizing for a new political blitz on Washington.

The campaign seeks to lobby members of Congress and flood their offices with telephone calls and post cards demanding legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. It also plans summer-long citizenship and voter registration drives and possibly more protests.

"We have leverage (from) the millions of people who have been out there demonstrating in the streets," said Antonio Rodriguez, a leader of the pro-immigrant March 25 Coalition. "They want a seat at the dinner table and they want to partake of the benefits."

The postcards, organized by the We Are America Coalition backed by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese, will target Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who has pledged to bring an immigration reform bill back to the floor by the end of May.

The coalition said it would also call on Latinos to bombard California's senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, with phone calls.

Hundreds of thousands of mostly Latino immigrants spilled into the streets across the United States on May 1 as part of a national day of boycotts and protests to demand rights for illegal immigrants.

The issue has split Congress, where some conservatives have called for a crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants and a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.

But others, including President George W. Bush, want a guest-worker program that would provide a "path to citizenship" for most of those here already, acknowledging the huge U.S. demand for workers met by the undocumented work force.

Rodriguez said Latino activists will not be satisfied with measures that give a path to citizenship to some illegal immigrants but not all.

"We want a bill that essentially allows legalization of those who are undocumented here in the United States and establishes an ongoing kind of statute of limitations that would allow people who had been here for three years or longer to be legalized," he said.

Renan Almendarez Coello, a popular Spanish-language radio personality known as "El Cucuy" ("The Boogeyman") who was credited with bringing thousands of Latino students to the cause, said he would work to register over 1 million Latinos to vote over the summer.

Can we get that kind of response or do you think they are just exaggerating the numbers.

Personally, I don't think the numbers are exaggerated. There must be 11 million illegals in California alone. We are overwhelmed by them in this state. The Catholic church is pushing hard for voter registration -- and with no real way to prove who's a citizen, the illegals will undoubtedly be registering to vote in HUGE numbers. As California goes so goes the nation??!!??

I am a kind of conservative Roman Catholic but I disapprove the way my Church has been acting about the illegal aliens in California and in the rest of the country.

The Church is very strict about us following her laws and the same apply for those who wants to convert to Catholicism. However, when comes to the civil laws, our priests, bishops, and cardinals act with complete disregard to these laws and the well-being of the country and its citizens. For them, it is ok to break these laws when they suit their own interests.

I deeply deplore the position of my Church and have cut all my contributions to her charities. And I encourage all other Catholics to do the same and to let them know why they are acting this way. I have already done it. Until now... no answer.

My next step is the Pope.

Roman is the key word here

Sorry, I did not get you.

where is the catholic church run out of?Thats why they do not care about our border issues

I have not heard of the Catholic church providing sanctuary to any other large segment of California society. I believe they are only interested in providing sanctuary to Mexicans, and others from south of the border, because those countries have almost exclusively Catholic citizens. The church is assisting in the invasion because they see $$$. Everyone has an ulterior motive -- with politicians it's votes, with employers it's a bigger profit margin, with the Catholic church it's more parishiners which translates to more money, the anarchists use them to upset our society, the globalists use them to break down our borders, Vincente Fox uses them to prop up his economy. The illegals are being used and manipulated by many factions. We have many "fronts" to fight in this battle. BUT WE ARE WINNING. WE MUST KEEP UP THE PRESSURE.