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500,000 rally in LA to protest legislation |
LOS ANGELES: In one of the biggest US demonstrations ever, hundreds of thousands of Latin American immigrants protested in Los Angeles against legislation that would crack down on immigration by making it a crime to stay in the United States illegally.
Demonstrators waved American flags and held up signs in Spanish in Saturday’s crowd, estimated by police at more than 500,000, The Los Angeles Times said.
The protest came as President George W Bush touted his proposed guest-worker programme as an alternative to tough draft legislation in Congress that reflects public concern about immigration to the US, notably from Mexico.
The legislation would make it a crime to be in the US illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along much of the US-Mexican border. It has been passed by the House of Representatives and will be debated in the Senate next week.
Bush, meanwhile, is proposing a “temporary worker programme” that would allow workers to enter the US legally for a time and perform jobs that Americans refuse to do.
The emotional debate has split Bush’s Republican party, where most lawmakers believe his programme is too lenient.
Bush stresses that he would not offer an amnesty to the country’s 11mn illegal immigrants and points to the key role of migrant labour in US economic growth.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, addressing Saturday’s huge rally, lashed out against the immigration bill because it would “demonise and criminalise 11mn people.”
“We come together to say, ‘We are workers, not criminals,’” he told the crowd, drawing a big cheer.
Los Angeles is a powerful magnet for immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American nations. Villaraigosa, born in Los Angeles to parents of Mexican descent, praised the “immigrants who built this city.”
The protest followed similar demonstrations on Friday in the streets of Los Angeles, Phoenix and other US cities as the fierce debate over immigration heats up. – DPA |
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