Illegal Alien Protest Marches Planned for Today

"Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants hope that nationwide marches will spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape. Marches, meetings and voter registration drives were planned Tuesday from California to New York, a year after 1 million flexed their economic muscle in a nationwide boycott during last year's May 1 activities," the AP reports.

"But woe to a movement that can't see the burrito for the beans. Chanting and waving flags while slowly snaking through downtown accomplishes only so much, even if previous gains using the same tactics were huge. There's much still to be done; Latino voting numbers, in particular, are still pitiful. More important, most Americans are still skeptical of these immigrants and their self-interest. It's nice that those Mexicans marched for themselves, think Mr. and Mrs. American, but at what point are they going to care about us? To be frank, you can expect Latino immigrants to care more about Americans when they are allowed to become Americans," says Gustavo Arellano in a LA Times op-ed today.

In Los Angeles, "[O]fficials warned that the protests will snarl traffic, disrupt mass transit and halt some business in downtown Los Angeles and beyond."

Read the full story