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Demonstrators Rally For Immigration reform

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Many hundreds of people marched yesterday to push immigration reform into the election year spotlight. With rallies being held in other cities in the country and world, the marchers gathered at Union Square and then headed down Broadway to the the Jacob Javits Federal Office Building, where immigrations officials have offices.

One demonstrator explained to NY1, "[May 1] is international workers’ day and in this country, as you may know, there are more than 280,000 working persons – men, women and children – that are in immigrant prisons. Honest families who have not done any crime, who are in prison and we’re marching in solidarity with them.”

Other demonstrators were touting other causes: Some calling for affordable housing, others for police justice after the Sean Bell shooting, while other wanted reforms in all areas.

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Comments [rss]

  • sonyactivision

    Let them demonstrate back home in Guatemala. I pay them to mop my floors, not to listen to their stupid bullshit.

  • The Edge

    Or Arizona. Or Texas.

    MS-13, anyone?

  • jaja007

    babyhitler, you've never been to California, obviously. Or you would never say such things about Mexicans.

  • thefacts

    Yakatori:

    Unrepentant Fenian got you right:

    get your head out of your ass, then welcome to the real world.

    Get the facts right, the facts, an alien concept for an alien.

    Anyway, as I was prepared originally to write:

    If they want acceptance, why all those Mex flags?

    And, right, why signs in Spanish, if they are sendig a message to the Anglo politicians

    Who does the PR for these characters?

  • babyhitler

    I actually like mexicans. They are really hard workers who work in menial jobs and they don't backtalk. they love to steal bikes but that's the extent of their criminality. Puerto ricans on the other hand are just light skinned africans criminal wise.

  • Muscley Armed Paper Boy

    Why are some of the signs in Spanish? I thought they were protesting against evil white people; we can't read that gibberish.

  • Polemicist

    So many are squat, fat creatures.

    Why do they rally? They look well fed to me.

  • yakatori

    go put your head back in the sand and let the adults deal with it UnrepentantFenian, okay?

  • UnrepentantFenian

    What color is the sky on your planet, Yakatori?

  • yakatori

    The reason they are all lumped together is because cities will only give out so many permits to such marches. It's done on purpose so as to make the protesters look silly and take away from the real messages they are trying get across. God forbid the people might be able to accomplish getting their message across to the masses. Then the moneyed politicians would have nothing to do.

  • UnrepentantFenian

    Shouldn't they all be at work?

  • bxbrian

    Balderdash! I want some more organized, organizational rallies.

  • Outter Burrougher

    jaja, can I assume you realize that those places you listed are not countries? Asia, Africa and Europe are continents, and Latin America is a region.

  • berniegoetz

    Brian,

    People protesting Gay Right, Palestinian Occupation and the War all in one march/rally is pretty much standard operating procedure these days. Never mind that it makes protesters look amateurish, disorganized and unfocused; it's all political theater anyway.

  • jaja007

    Red is a commie color. Send ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS back to their countries, whether it's Latin America, Asia, Africa, or Europe.

  • bxbrian

    Other demonstrators were touting other causes

    Now I'm no protesting professional here, but I feel like rallies should all be about one thing, at least per day. May 1--go for worker's rights. What's this grab bag rallying business? It's like going to an Iraq war rally and trying to promote reproductive rights. Everyone just say the same thing at the same time! Otherwise people get confused.

    So: Monday, worker's rights; Tuesday, environmental activism; Wednesday, lack of fresh towels in the shower. You got that, upholders of our democratic society?

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