By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer
11:59 AM PDT, March 25, 2007

Hundreds of immigrants and their supporters rallied today at the Los Angeles Sports Arena to push for immigration reform and an end to work site raids and deportations.

"The government has to listen to us," said Raymundo Aguilar, 40, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. "We aren't just a few, we are millions."

The event, which featured mariachi music and speeches by politicians, marks the one-year anniversary of the massive march in the streets of Los Angeles. It also comes just a week after legislation was proposed that would offer illegal immigrants a pass to citizenship.

Participants carried American flags and waved banners saying "We want immigration reform now." They chanted "Si, se pueda," or "Yes, we can."

Though the mood was hopeful, several said the rally lacked the same energy and numbers as last year's protests. They expressed frustration that immigration reform had still not occurred.

"We marched, we voted, and nothing," said Lida Vidal, 34, who came here illegally 17 years ago from Mexico. "I still don't have papers."

Another group was gathering at La Placita, the historic adobe church across from Olvera Street, before heading to the downtown federal building to protest immigration raids.

The planned speakers at the Sports Arena event include Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Representative Hilda Solis (D-El Monte). A separate group of anti-illegal immigration advocates is scheduled to hold a counter protest downtown today.

If this doesn't make upset you nothing will. I'm wondering who did they vote for? How did that happen? Our law says that one must be a citizen in order to vote.  This needs to be investigated to find out who is allowing them to vote. I wonder if it was the event speakers, hummm!

I wrote a letter to Gov, (posture on the border) Perry. In that letter I let him know that since those working to register voters apparently do not know  the requirements for voting in Texas and allow illegals to register to vote, what measures were being taken to correct this corruption.

I received a letter telling me my request was being forwarded to the state Attorney Generals Office. We'll see what I get next. 

The upseting side to this is that it is happening all over. I feel our government at all levels know but don't want to stop it. They are aware the American people are wising up to their rhetoric and are demanding answers. We are a liability to them so the only way to try to insure their political future is to get votes from another source.

For me this is why it is imperative we stop the new immigration bill. LaRaza has already said a defeat of this bill will set them back 20 yrs. Maybe by then we can get politicians in that will enforce our USC codes and bring groups such as theirs up on charges of sedition/treason.

Well the LA times did not disappoint me..here is their slanted view of the march and the racist anti-illegals. Notice the American Flag and the sad faces. As I read the article I became angrier. The other march where the anti-illegal's were became a little roudy and the pro-illegals burned the Americn Flag......

Turnout low, but immigrant rallies hopeful

Human chain

click to enlarge

LOS ANGELES -- Immigrant-rights rallies staged today to commemorate the anniversary of last year's Los Angeles march and to call for reform legislation were marked by low turnout and a counterdemonstration denouncing illegal immigration.

Nearly 5,000 immigrants and supporters gathered at the Sports Arena for an event dubbed "Justice for Our Families," featuring mariachi music and speeches by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other politicians.

Carrying American flags and waving banners that read, "We are America," the participants signed prewritten letters to Congress calling for legalization for the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants and an end to deportations and raids. Organizers said they received about 6,000 signed letters.

Although the crowds fell far short of the 10,000 expected, participants were hopeful that this would be the year for immigration reform. Last week, Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., introduced a bill that would include a path to citizenship, create a new worker program and overhaul the nation's visa system.

"The government has to listen to us," said Raymundo Aguilar, 40, a tree trimmer who sneaked across the border more than two decades ago. . "We aren't just a few, we are millions."

Like many other illegal immigrants at the rally, Aguilar said he pays taxes and contributes to the economy and simply wants a way to work here legally.

Berenice Bautista, a 15-year-old undocumented immigrant at Wilson High School, gave a tearful plea to the arena audience to keep pushing for reform.

"We might not see anything overnight, but the process is already under way," said Bautista, who came from Michoacan when she was 2. "We can't give up."

The energy and crowds didn't compare to last year's protest, when more than 500,000 protesters took to the streets against proposed legislation that would have criminalized undocumented immigrants and those who help them.

"My proudest moment as mayor of Los Angeles was greeting a half-million families during last year's march," Villaraigosa told the crowd at the Sports Arena. "We are saying that in this great and generous America there ought to be a pathway to citizenship."

Organizers from community and immigrant-rights groups attributed the small turnout in part to the fear and uncertainty felt among undocumented immigrants and to a backlash against them after last year's protests.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but I'm cautiously optimistic that we can get it done," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for Central American Resource Center. "We are going to have to do a lot of outreach."

While the rally at the Sports Arena remained peaceful, a nearby counterdemonstration staged by anti-illegal-immigration activists became raucous as they traded insults and racial epithets with pro-immigrant protesters. About 150 Los Angeles Police Department officers marched between the two groups as they headed toward City Hall.

About 200 anti-illegal-immigration activists carried American flags and signs reading "Mexican gangsters belong in Mexico" and "Deportation? Si, se puede!"

"What do we want? Deportation," they chanted. "When do we want it? Now."

"I would not be welcomed into their country, and they are not welcome into mine," said Barbara Coe, founder and chair of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

"It's a double standard," said Debra Bedoy, 54, of Upland, who wore a "Save Our State" pin and carried a bottle of pepper spray. "If you're an American citizen and break the law, you get a ticket or you get arrested, but for illegal immigrants who come here and are breaking a federal law, it's overlooked. Nobody does anything ... we're fed up."

A crowd of about 60 immigrant supporters gathered on an adjacent corner, making their voices heard by waving Mexican flags, stomping on the American flag and, in at least one case, burning it.

"Racists!" they yelled at the anti-illegal-immigrant groups.

Their numbers grew as downtown workers joined in. Celina Rivera, 43, a Salvadoran immigrant who works in a bridal shop, came out to see what was going on. "America is free!" she yelled.

In a separate rally, several hundred gathered outside a church, intending to march to the downtown federal building and immigration offices and encircle them by joining hands in a human chain to demand an end to deportations. When they reached the buildings, they held hands but made it only halfway around the buildings.

Concern about recent federal immigration raids around the country ran deep among marchers.

Waldir Ramaz, 39, a truck driver from Compton, carried his 5-year-old daughter Lauren on his shoulders as he marched. Ramaz, a legal resident from Guatemala, fears for his Mexican wife, Rosalina, 35, an undocumented immigrant for 18 years.

She "goes to work nervous and comes home nervous" that she will be picked up by authorities, Rosalina said.

Hilda Bautista and Ricardo Gutierrez, both undocumented immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, said their hopes for citizenship rested with their three U.S.-born children rather than the current Congress.

"As they grow older, so does our hope that one day they'll be able to vote and elect people who will pass laws that protect us immigrants," said Gutierrez, 45, a custodian at the University of California, Los Angeles. "In the meantime, it's important to keep reminding the lawmakers that we're here."

Times staff writers Francisco Vara-Orta and Tony Barboza contributed to this report.

Excuse me, when illegal immigrants burn the American Flag and start waving their Flag in our Country that tells me they are NOT HERE TO ASSILMATE!

Why the hell can't the politicians see that! They will eventually be voted out of office and replaced by the anchor babies!

Many (most?) fit the democratic party just fine.  They are a major constiuency after all and want us to pay them...

Get ready.

This will help the dims become a majority party and taxes will be increased--on every one of us--to pay their interest groups.

Americans have a chance to march and be seen!  Stand up and be counted!

http://www.lframerica.com/march2.html

Go to Let Freedom Ring and sign up on the website.  Are you going to let these aliens do this to us?  How many patriots are out there?  Send them a donation and try to help out in any way that you can!  The thing we need to get across to them and our Representatives is the loyalty of the U.S. citizens to their country!  We need millions of Americans to march.  Get the word out!

Oh fudge Lady Jane I posted something that I need to post here somewhere else and not sure of our rules on double posting so will take a chance. I like to give positive feedback to you folks that have great ideas that I can do. So I went to Iframerica.com and will do my part with these awesome flyers

I thanked Gail M for her input and will add the IRS reward URL to my flyers in this forum

 http://www.firesociety.com/forum/thread/10772/We-The-People---United-We-Stand/?page=5

Here's the law for voting in California.  So, how is it that these illegals are voting??????

Why wouldn't I believe it?  I watched last year as hundreds of high school students skipped their classes to march down to Dallas City Hall, and the majority of them didn't even know what the protest was about when questioned by the news!

 This is out of hand.  We are a nation of laws!  Laws that should be enforced on every level.  If they do not like the law, then my suggestion to those who ARE legal, get the votes, the politicians and CHANGE THEM!  But stop breaking them. 

I feel bad for all the LEGAL IMMIGRANTS who took the time, obeyed the law of the land and entered this country legally, and could stand proud and tall as new American Citizens, ready to assimilate into the American culture.  All these illegal immigrants want (and the vast majority are hispanic) is to come here, steal identities away from US citizens, so that our SS and IRS information is messed up, hide away in 1 or 2 room apartments with 10-20 living there, have no intention of assimilating into our culture, want us to learn THEIR language, make the money, and send it back to Mexico.  While eading the group with high numbers  of DWI's and DUI's, car crashes, motor pedestrian crashes, falls from >3 stories, lead construction incidents (as you can tell, I am a trauma nurse who sees it first hand every day I walk into our busy level I trauma center.)  They are targeted by alcohol advertisers and are leading the way to the epidemic of underage drinking and all the trauma that causes. 

 So, not only are we losing jobs to these low wage accepting illegals, we are losing money. because somebody has to foot the bill for their wreckless behaviors, and the nights Ive spent on trauma hall 78% do not have insurance, do not have drivers lisence or have multiple ones with different names, and don't speak any English, and are drunk!  I've been spit on, cussed at (I do know some of those words), hit on, and puked on, and I get to discharge them to home (if they're luck enough to have a sober person to take care of them).  No police or Immigration people come around to check and see if they are legal, so why not -  LET'S LET THEM ALL COME IN!  JUST THINK OF  THE HEALTH CARE CRISIS THEN.  It's bad enough they are allowed to seek medical treatment in a US Hospital to have a baby, that baby is instantly a US citizen, and because he/she is too young to take care of themselves, mommy, daddy, and whoever else snuck across the border gets to stay too.  And at our taxpayers expense!

 If you haven't noticed, it's mainly the hispanics that are winning this war on making America once again Americana - where they will have the majority rule of the land - if amnesty is granted -  and what does that teach our children - THAT LAWS HAVE NO MEANING IN THIS COUNTRY!

That's a good set of values to teach our kids.  Where is the OUTCRY OF NOT ONLY AMERICANS, BUT OTHER IMMIGRANTS WHO PLAYED BY THE RULES AND BECAME CITIZENS THE JUST WAY?  THEY SHOULD BE THE ONES YELLING AT THE TOPS OF THEIR LUNGS THAT THIS ISN'T RIGHT!

 I AM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN - NOT A HYPHENATED AMERICAN, JUST A PLAIN OLE' AMERICAN - AND I SAY STOP THIS MADNESS- YOU WANT TO COME TO THIS COUNTRY AND FIND A BETTTER LIFE THEN DO IT LEGALLY!!!!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA, AND THOSE AMERICANS WHO AREN'T  GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!   WELCOME TO AMERICA - IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO STAY

SPEAK ENGLISH OR GET THE HELL OUT!

Check this one out.

https://www.grasstopsusa.com/amnestyxxix2.html