East LA + Riverside Students WALK OUT to Protest HR 4377
by Jaime G. Saturday, Mar. 25, 2006 at 12:17 AM
Students Set a Bold Tone for Saturday's Gran Marcha
Hundreds of youth from roughly half a dozen different schools in East Los, Southgate, Bell, and Montello walked out today to protest vicious anti-immigrant legislation now before the US Senate that would make all migrants without papers into felons - and make anyone who aids them felons as well.
After a month of planning they hit the streets with Mexican flags and red, white and green balloons chanting "Que Viva Mexico!" and causing small traffic gridlocks. Students at Bell High School climbed fences there by the hundreds after school administrators declared the school on "lockdown."
About 500 students walked out of Huntington Park High.
Students said they organized the demonstration or heard about the demonstrations from friends. School officials tried to blame the walkout on outside agitators, activists and community groups.
Minutemen are demanding that all the students be expelled - claiming they have no rights, and that the students are not citizens of the US.
One youth said ""We're not criminals. We're in this country to work." There was a widespread sense among the protestors that they were standing up to a dire and racist piece of legislation.
In Riverside County over 400 students held on campus rallies denouncing the anti-migrant legislation.
Elsewhere, over 15,000 people marched against the anti-migrant legislation in Phoenix. Organizers had expected a crowd of 2,000.
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Melvin Rios and Baldemar Velasquez at Columbus Rally for Undocumented Immigrants' Rights, 2006-03-26
On March 26, thousands rallied outside the Columbus, Ohio statehouse, advocating rights for undocumented immigrants.  This was one of a series of rallies following one in Los Angeles, which was reported to have drawn over 500,000 attendees.

The sponsoring coalition included the Immigrant Worker Project, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), UFCW Local 880, MIGUATE (of Dover, Ohio), and the Red network de Inmigrantes de Ohio. Organizers wanted to raise awareness of bill pending in the US Senate, HR 4437, which would make it a felony to be an illegal alien, or to assist aliens in entering or staying the country illegally. Organizers also called for "true" immigration reform plan that would provide a path to citizenship for all immigrant workers.