| MARCH TO PROTEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT LEGISLATION | |
| On April 10, thousands of protesters braved rain to march through the streets of downtown Sacramento as part of a national demonstration against H.R. 4437, a House Immigration Bill which would declare illegal immigrants felons and make criminals of anyone who helps them. Though most believe immigration reform is necessary, this draconian bill is more punishment than reform. |
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| Marchers left the Capitol and began a march through the streets of downtown Sacramento. "Being illegal doesn't mean being a criminal!" is a rough translation of one sign, while another says "Some say Mexicans are illegal--if you revisit history, we are in our native land!" |
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| Sacramento High students used the first day of Spring Vacation to participate in the march to protest HR 4437, gathering in Southside Park (T & 7th Street) before marching to the Capitol. According to House Resolution 4437, U.S.-born children of deported illegal immigrants would remain in the U.S. as wards of the state. HR 4437 passed the U.S. House of Representatives in December, with 92% of Republicans supporting the Bill, while 82% of Democrats opposed it. |
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Yannet Rodriguez, (shown with outsourcing sign) researched the problem of job outsourcing for a Yuba College report. She found that immigrants are often blamed by those who lose jobs when their employers outsource. It would be more logical to blame U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants at substandard wages and the corporations who choose to outsource rather than create jobs at home.
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| A worker standing at the window of a J Street building renovation site lifted his broom in a gesture of solidarity as the marchers pass by. |
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| At 5th Street below Macy's: Jaime Efrain Briseno Ochoa of Placerville holding a painting of a worker carrying a symbolic crucifix. "We will continue marching until we are heard!" |
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Guillermo Durgin, labor representive for the State Employee's Union, discussing the march route with an interested police officer. Durgin is also an activist with the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. The LCLAA National and the SEIU International Union endorse the May 1st Day of Action, when 12 million Immigrant workers throughout the United States will demonstrate for comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. Union members in over 130 major cities throughout the U.S. will join workers on May 1st, 2006 in a "Do Not work Day" and a "Boycott of Consumer Products" Day. NOTE: May 1 is internationally recognized as a workers' holiday. On May 1, 1886, workers across the U.S. and Canada declared strikes for an 8 hour day. On May 3 in Chicago, police attacked the striking workers, killing 6. The following day at the Chicago Haymarket as a rally for the murdered workers was concluding a bomb exploded and 7 policemen were killed. Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to round up union activists and anarchists. The police arrested 8 trade unionists, who were then found guilty in a kangaroo court, and four were executed. In June of 1893, the governor of Illinois issued a pardon, in which he made it clear that he believed the men were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried, and that the 8 men had been the victims of hysteria and a biased judge. In 1889, the International Working Men's Association declared May 1 an internationsl workers' holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs.
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10th and L Street: Marchers returned to the Capitol in hard rain. A major march on May 1, International Workers' Day is to follow. |