Students walk out in protest over US immigration law

Students began walking out of high schools and middle schools across the southwest on Mar. 24, joining hundreds of thousands of protesters representing all ages in the US who have taken to the streets in opposition to various immigration reform proposals working their way through Congress. The widespread student protests escalated throughout the following week. On Mar. 31, over 100 students walked out of Newburgh Free Academy in New York. Meanwhile, in Lynnwood, WA, several dozen students walked out of high school and went to city hall, demanding to meet the mayor. In Watsonville, CA, about 50 Rolling Hills students gathered at the edge of the City Plaza, waving Mexican flags and shouting "Mexico" and "Si se puede (Yes, we can)." Over in San Diego, a 6,000-strong march of mostly students culminated a week of student walkouts while in Bakersfield about 1,000 students marched. In Fresno, about 50 middle school students walked out but were rounded up and taken to a truancy center. In Mountain View, more than 60 students from Los Altos High School left the campus at lunch time and marched to City Hall carrying banners against immigration bill HR 4437. Oceanside middle and high schools were ordered closed for the rest of the week after 250 student protesters faced off with police officers in a melee two days before. Some students hurled food, milk cartons and plastic bottles at police officers, who shot pellets filled with pepper spray at the crowd. Three boys threw chunks of concrete at officers and were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Hundreds of students were reported to have also left several schools in the Visalia, Exeter and Porterville districts. And despite a district-wide lockdown, up to 11,000 students walked out in Los Angeles County alone on Mar. 28 while thousands more joined walk-outs in neighboring Riverside, Orange and San Diego Counties. The day before, more than 36,000 students stormed out of class and marched on streets and freeways across the Los Angeles area. In Tucson, AZ, 900 to 1,000 middle school students and another 300 high school students walked out of classes as demonstrations opposing tougher legislation against illegal immigrants continued for a third straight day. Earlier in the week, up to 1,000 students in Phoenix left school and rallied outside the Arizona Capitol. San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso, TX, filled with about 2,500 protesters that morning, about half of whom were students. Several schools throughout El Paso resorted to lockdowns as a way of preventing students from participating in the third straight day of protests. In Tyler, about 100 students walked out of high school classes to protest the proposed congressional crackdown on illegal immigrants. Hundreds of high school students in Lufkin walked out of class. For the second day in a row, Austin-area high school students walked out of class and marched to the state capitol while up to 100 in Round Rock did the same. About 100 students in Bastrop also walked out of class to protest, but not before school leaders did what they could to keep students from leaving. The students refused. Other student walk-outs were reported in Haltom City, San Antonio, Houston and Converse. Earlier on Mar. 27, school officials estimated that 4,000 students–most from Skyline, North Dallas, Townview and Molina high schools–participated in the walkouts and demonstrations. The most liberal immigration bill in Congress was submitted in the House by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX). That bill would have allowed for legal permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the US for the past five years, would have doubled the cap for family visas, and would increase the number of work visas. Jackson-Lee's bill has been stalled in the Immigration Subcommittee since mid-2005. Toward the opposite end of the spectrum, H.R. 4437(The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005), introduced by James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Peter King (R-NY) would make it even harder to ever attain residency status, and would criminalize undocumented immigrants as well as individuals and organizations that aid them. The reforms target the more than 11 million undocumented workers living in the US. Protest organizers are planning a massive nationwide strike on May 1 that will be dubbed "A day without immigrants." "We are asking people not to go to school, or work, or shopping and instead to go out and protest against the racist and inhumane measures in this bill," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association. On Apr. 3, thousands of people formed a line more than a mile long as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City in protest, carrying banners saying "We are not criminals." Other banners included slogans such as "If you hurt immigrants you are hurting America," "We are your economy" and "I cleaned up Ground Zero."