Immigrants Plan to Protest Today

Today is "Day Without An Immigrant" day, as immigrants across the county will choose various ways to protest the country's possible immigration policy shift. While some are not going to work at all, in New York, workers are going to link their arms at 12:16PM for about 20 minutes. From the New York Immigration Coalition:

At exactly 12:16pm on May 1st, immigrant workers, business owners, and community members at several locations can take a few minutes out from their workday to join together in solidarity with immigrants across the nation, by lining up along major immigrant commercial thoroughfares and holding signs that read, “We Are America!” and “I Love Immigrant New York!” Immigrant workers and business owners will be available for interviews.

...(12:16 is chosen in symbolic protest of December 16, 2005 – the day that the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4437, the Sensenbrenner/King immigration bill, which is the harshest and most punitive immigration bill in nearly a century.)

You can see where the eight human chain sites are via this PDF. They include Sunset Park at Fifth Avenue between 46th and 60th Streets, Jackson Heights at 37th Avenue between 72nd and 82nd Streets, and Chinatown on East Broadway between Chatham Square and Allen Street. There will also be a rally at 4PM in Union Square, and then marchers will go down Broadway for another rally at 7PM in Foley Square.

There have been rallies from April 1 and April 10.

Update: Photographs are starting to come in of the rally. Here are some tags on Flickr - day without an immigrant + nyc and may 1 2006. We could hear marchers earlier. Did you go to the rally?

Update: Jesse Chan Norris tells us that Broadway is completely blocked off (below 14th). The line of marchers is a couple blocks long and they have formed a human chain around them. And they chanting "U.S.A."!

Update: Broadway is totally blocked off, lots of police presence. Right now at 5:44PM, they are crossing Houston, on their way to Foley Square. Here's a photo we snapped from a distance of the march.

Top photograph of the April 1 immigrants' rally from j*go on Flickr; middle photograph from today's rally at Union Square from webchango on Flickr

JCN snapped a couple of great crowd shots from his apartment high above Broadway:

UPDATE: we got some shots as the march crossed Houston, and followed it down to Spring Street.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on May 1, 2006 5:12 PM

Comments [rss]

Sten41167

I haven't been up to anything these days. So it goes. I can't be bothered with anything these days.

Sten41167

I haven't been up to anything these days. So it goes. I can't be bothered with anything these days.

Sten99218

I haven't been up to anything recently, but so it goes. Such is life. What can I say? Pretty much not much exciting going on to speak of. I haven't gotten much done lately, but I don't care.

Sten49023

I haven't gotten anything done today. I feel like a fog, but what can I say? I've just been letting everything wash over me lately, not that it matters. Shrug.

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TramadoL93154

My life's been basically bland today. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. My mind is like an empty room. I've more or less been doing nothing to speak of. Not much on my mind recently.

pooh

Hell, everyone has a price. If you pay someone enough and give them benefits, they'll spend all day scraping gum off of a subway platform. Hurray for the MTA!

But seriously, if we didn't have an influx of cheap labor, people would start doing things for themselves because services would become more expensive. And if labor becomes more expensive, investments in innovation would yield labor saving devices. But it doesn't pay to invent a labor saving device and try to sell it when you can get black market labor so cheaply.

Drew

I actually heard a decent solution to this problem would be to fix mexico so that theres no reason for people to risk their lives to get a better life here in the US when they can get the same thing in Mexico.

If they made Mexico better off, they'd screw up the illegal immigrant flows to the US a little. Less people would be coming over thats for sure.

Vman

#63, Defend the rights of illegals staying in the USA and receiving benefits all you want, but your racist stereotypes towards people from the middle east or anywhere else are not appreciated here.

Maybe we should exclude ALL Jamaicans from coming over when some of them held up a bodega in the Bronx, according to your logic.

Lisa

I think everyone is missing the boat.These people are not here for the fun of it, they are here to survive.If you were in a 3rd world country suffering and a land flowing with milk and honey was a mile or two up the road what would you do? The governments in these underdeveloped countries such as S.America,Central America,and the Carribean are corrupted, often if you are poor you will not get a visa to go any where. So what would you do? Its all about survival,only the strongest survive. These people have not been fed with silver spoons all their lives,like many people from the U.S.MY family is from Jamaica and if you were to go into the real country and not a tourist resort your heart will be compelled to bring every one back with you. These people from the western hemisphere are not terrorist. Lets bann middle easterners, not are neighbors!

those great $15/hr jobs with b

Right on, if we got rid of the immigrants everyone would be rich! Never mind that most white rural areas are impoverished, and I love the 15/hr with benefits dream. Have you heard of Walmart? Have you heard that people have to become Miners in places like west virginia because it's the only way to make money there. Is there a coincidence that all the white guys in the military come from impoverished areas like southern illinois and mississippi? . And to be honest, delivery guys make pretty good money, from tips, but wage wise they get nothing, like waiters do, so doesn't matter who is delivering your sashimi, the dude is not getting paid much by the employer, it's up to you at the door to show some love.

ellisfullocrap

What people don't know is these illegal immigrants eventually become legal citizens.

What's economics 101? I hear this a lot lately?

Another PC/Fox news buzzword?

Don't forget, it was the conservative radio set that invented this word for whatever that didn't agree with them. So, they put a spin on everything.

Wake up, kraka!

K

#56 Corey Kanterman, if we had to pay the delivery guy 10 bucks an hour, how much do you think that will end up costing us the consumers?

S.D.

ABC Girl, You mean BS like this?

ABC Girl

I hope & pray that this doesn't become hunting season on anyone who looks Hispanic or speaks Spanish -- like the reports after 9/11 of racists who started attacking anyone who looked or sounded remotely Middle Eastern/Islamic...

Vman

Agree with #55, Putting economics and jobs aside for now and just talk about what's fair. As a naturalized citizen who went through the hassle and spent the time to immigrate to this country, I would feel totally cheated if these illegals are going to be standing in the same line as or ahead of me to vote and to get govt benefits and social security. Why didn't I just hoped a plane to Canada (they let ANYONE in up there) and sneak across the borders, get my fake Social Security Card and I can become a full fledge citizen of the US.

I am not advocating deporting the illegals back home, but they better be behind us legal immigrants when the government is passing out benefits.

One more thing, the National Anthem is and should always be in English, not Spanish, French nor Chinese. English is not my first language but if I had to learn it then every else should.

Corey Kanterman

Why don't you assholes understand that these immigrants are doing jobs that no US citizen are willing to do at the wages they get paid at. Who will delivery your precious takeout, who will bus your tables, who will handle your dry cleaning if not for the illegal immigrant worker? I don't think any of you understand the real issue here. dumbass transplants.

Moron, I guess you weren't paying attention in economics class. Therte's a little thing called supply and demand. Those jobs would pay $10-$15/hr with benefits if illegals weren't around willing to take $5/hr without benefits. LEGAL CITIZENS would gladly do those jobs at that wage.

Go to Maine, North Dakota or Idaho, I guarantee you that there are legal citizens doing "dirty work" jobs there because thats their only option.

Companies hire illegals because they're cheap labor, legal citizens would never do these jobs.

eric wei

I've come into this country legally and after years of waiting. These protestors do not speak for me and should not be able to cut infront of all the rest that have abided by the laws of this wonderful country and waited their turn.

using samuel's logic

"We live in democracy and congress has the power to make laws. If you don't like this, maybe you should move to Mexico"

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you our Republican nominee for 2008.

So, with that logic of if we don't blindly agree with everything our goverment does (so very trendy, so very Red China) then I guess...

If you don't support the war in Iraq, maybe you should join the insurgency.

If you don't support faith-based initiatives, maybe you're a athiest pig (who will go to hell, but will still believe in a little thing called separation of church and state)

If you don't believe that all laws our Congress has made are 100% correct and represent America, maybe you should...oh wait you already said this one.

I'd argue more but my Chinese Food is here now. Here's one immigrant who is getting a very nice tip today. Because I am a rich NYC liberal, who happened to grow up poor in a housing project here but now lives very nicely as a liberal elite media fuckstick. All because this country does, God Bless it, give people chances to reach their dreams. Any person that wishes to do that, and is willing to work for that as hard as most immigrants do, has my support 100%. But have fun with your facist separatism. Good night.