The San Bernardino Sun reports that a group of Latino activists will travel together to Los Angeles Thursday for a May Day rally for immigration rights. The article, by Stephen Wall, said that the Claremont Colleges should be well represented there as well:
Students and faculty from the Claremont Colleges are planning to travel separately to Los Angeles.
Organizers of the May Day "Gran Marcha" expect to attract between 20,000 and 100,000 people, who will urge Congress and President Bush to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
Protesters are also demanding legalization of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States and other measures to ensure their fair and humane treatment.
"This march is meant to raise consciousness of how the immigration population is being targeted in this time of economic crisis," said Jose Zapata Calderon, a professor of sociology and Chicano Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get some type of legislation passed that will allow the immigrants to work as human beings here and not just be exploited."
A coalition of students from Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Pitzer colleges are expected to go to the rallies.
This is the third straight year protesters have converged to press for immigration reform.
The article went on to note that last year's rally was marred by violence as police clashed with rally goers in MacArthur Park. You may recall that just a couple weeks ago KTTV-11 reporter Christina Gonzalez filed a lawsuit against the LAPD and the city of Los Angeles claiming that police used excessive force against her as she was covering the event. Gonzalez's camerawoman filed a similar suit last year.
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