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A Debate on the Senate's Proposed Overhaul of Immigration
Laws
Thousands of Students Defy School Lockdowns and Continue
Walkouts to Protest Anti-Immigrant Bill
Walkout: The True Story of the Historic 1968 Chicano Student
Walkout in East L.A.
A Debate on the Senate's Proposed Overhaul of Immigration
Laws
The Senate is debating an overhaul of the nation's immigration
laws this week. We host a debate on various aspects of the
bill with Aarti Shahani of Families for Freedom and Tamar
Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute.
Protests are continuing across the country against proposed
changes to the nation's immigration laws. In the Los Angeles
area at least 11,000 students took part Tuesday in a second
day of walkouts despite school lockdowns and threats from
administrators. On Monday 40,000 took part in what may have
been the largest student walkout in the country's history.
Later in the show we will head to Los Angeles to hear from
student protesters and we will look back to the historic 1968
student walkouts in Los Angeles. But first we will examine
the immigration legislation being considered in Washington.
The Senate is preparing to begin debate this week on overhauling
the nation's immigration laws. On Monday the Senate Judiciary
Committee approved a bill that would allow the 11 million
undocumented immigrants living in this country a chance to
work here legally and eventually become U.S. citizens.
Written by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and Republican
John McCain, the bill would give undocumented immigrants a
chance to earn green cards and eventually obtain citizenship.
In order to do this the immigrants would have to agree to
spend six years as temporary workers; pay $2,000 in fines
and all back taxes; undergo criminal background checks, and
show proficiency in English and civics. The committee agreed
to the bill by a vote of 12 to 6 with all six votes against
coming from Republicans.
Immigration reform is proving to be an issue that deeply
divides not only the country but the Republican Party. The
House has already approved legislation written by Republican
James Sensenbrenner that has been described as the most repressive
immigration bill in 70 years. House bill 4437 would, among
other things, make every undocumented immigrant a felon and
make it a crime for priests, nuns, health care workers and
other social workers to offer help to undocumented immigrants.
Today we are joined by two guests who have been following
the legislation closely:
- Tamar Jacoby, senior fellow at the Manhattan
Institute. She has written extensively on immigration
and citizenship. Her most recent book is "Reinventing
the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means To
Be American."
Thousands of Students Defy School Lockdowns and Continue
Walkouts to Protest Anti-Immigrant Bill
Tens of thousands of high school students have staged walkouts
in protest over a House bill that proposes a sweeping crackdown
on undocumented immigrants. We go to Los Angeles to speak
with Jasmine Chavez, a 17-year old student at Montabello High
School and Luis Rodriguez, a community activist, poet and
writer. [includes rush
transcript]
Protests are continuing across the country against proposed
changes to the nation's immigration laws. In the Los Angeles
area, at least 11,000 students took part Tuesday in a second
day of walkouts despite school lockdowns and threats from
administrators. As we continue to look at the issue of immigration,
widespread protests continued across the country on Tuesday
against the anti-immigrant House bill. Thousands of students
walked out of classes for the second day in a row. The majority
of walkouts took place in California where some 8,000 students
from the Los Angeles Unified School District took to the streets.
Over 3,000 students walked out of schools in other cities
across California as well as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Texas,
where a crowd of demonstrators converged on City Hall in Dallas
and Houston.
Scores of schools were put under a strict lockdown to avoid
the mass walkouts, but students defied the ban and marched
in the streets waving flags and holding banners, many of them
in the rain. A small numbers of arrests were reported as authorities
began cracking down on the protests, rounding up demonstrators
as truants and issuing citations. The widespread demonstrations
appeared to be loosely organized, with students learning about
them through mass e-mails, fliers, instant messages, cellphone
calls and postings on myspace.com Web pages.
On Monday, as many as 40,000 students walked out of classes
in Los Angeles alone. The walkouts followed a weekend of enormous
rallies, including one Saturday that drew upwards of one million
people in LA.
Yesterday we reached some of the students in California who
were staging walkouts. They spoke out about immigration reform
and why they were taking to the streets.
- Fermin Vazquez, Bauman High School
- Katie Delgado, Rennaissance Academy
- Leno Silva, Woodrow Wilson High School
- Sarah, Montebello High School
- Christopher Aldrear, Wilson High School
We go to Los Angeles to speak with two guests:
- Jasmine Chavez, a 17-year old student at Montabello High
School.
- Luis Rodriguez, community activist, poet and writer.
He is author of the award-winning memoir "Always Running:
La VidaLoca: Gang Days in L.A." and, most recently,
"Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Dangerous
Times." He founded the Tia
Chucha Press, which publishes young socially-engaged
poets, and is also a founder of Youth
Struggling for Survival, a Chicago-based youth community
organization. Rodriguez walked out of his middle school
in Los Angeles during the walkouts of 1968.
Luisjrodriguez.com
Walkout: The True Story of the Historic 1968 Chicano
Student Walkout in East L.A.
"Walkout" - a new HBO film tells the story of
the 1968 walkout by high school Chicano students in East Los
Angeles to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions.
We speak with the executive director of the film, Moctesuma
Esparza. An award-winning film producer and community activist,
Esparza helped organize the 1968 walkout and was arrested
and jailed along with 12 others for conspiracy to disturb
the peace.
The mass student walkouts this week across California and
other states are not the first of their kind. In 1968, Chicano
students in East Los Angeles staged a historic walkout in
their high schools to protest academic prejudice and dire
school conditions.
Students were forbidden from speaking Spanish in class or
from using the restrooms during lunchtime. Schools taught
a curriculum that largely ignored or denied Mexican-American
history and Chicano students were steered toward menial labor
and away from college by counselors and school officials.
In March 1968, the students decided to take a stand against
the injustice and staged walkouts in schools across L.A. Many
date the modern Chicano movement to the walkouts when some
20,000 teenagers took to the streets
Many of the students who participated in the walkouts went
on to successful careers in politics, academia and the arts.
One of them was Antonio Villaraigosa - he's now the mayor
of Los Angeles. Another was award-winning filmmaker Moctesuma
Esparza, who was indicted for his role in organizing the walkouts.
He is now executive producer of a new HBO film about the 1968
protests simply titled "Walkout."
We are joined on the line by now by award-winning film producer
and community activist, Moctesuma Esparza. He is the executive
producer of "Walkout," based on the historic 1968
student walkout in Los Angeles which he helped organize. Esparza
and 12 others were arrested and jailed for conspiracy to disturb
the peace. They became known as the East LA 13. Esparza is
portrayed in the film by Bodie Olmos, son of the movie's director,
Edward James Olmos" son. And Esparza's real-life daughter,
Tonantzin Esparza, plays Vickie Castro, a protester who went
on to become a principal and a school board member.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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