200,000 protest anti-immigrant bill

Some 200,000 mostly Latin@ workers hit the streets on March 10 to show their opposition to the racist Sensenbrenner bill in the most massive mobilization of workers from oppressed nationalities since the Vietnam War era.

Congressmember F. James Sensen bren ner, an arch-reactionary from Wis con sin, is the sponsor of House Reso lution 4437, the so-called “Border Protec tion, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immi gration Con trol Act of 2005.” This racist bill would turn the formerly civil “crime” of being undocumented into a criminal act. It would also criminalize people or groups who aid those who want to stay in this country. This aspect of the bill is meant to intimidate those who would show solidarity to undocumented workers and drive a wedge of fear into the working class.

HR 4437 also provides for the construction of a 700-mile wall across the U.S.-Mexican border, similar in scope and purpose to the Israeli wall currently under construction in occupied Palestine.

This bill would break up families, affecting more than 1.6 million children. It would deport asylum-seekers to their home countries, which are often U.S.-supported and -financed dictatorships, to face possible torture and even death.

Jose Artemio Arreola and Omar Lopez of the Coalition Against HR 4437 put out the call for this massive mobilization five weeks ago. More than 70 organizations in the Latin@ community, such as Centro Sin Fronteras, responded along with their allies in the Korean, Filipino, Irish, Polish, and South Asian communities. Over 100 factories as well as numerous restaurants gave workers the day off, basically admitting that most of them would be showing up at the march instead of work no matter what the bosses did. The protest was virtually a general strike for immigrant workers rights.

The march began at noon at Union Park in the Near West Side and proceeded downtown for a rally at the Federal Building that tied up Loop traffic for more than five hours. A small and isolated group of fewer than 20 ultra-right anti-immigrant Minute men feebly “counter-demonstrated” in Grant Park. The corporate media gave it equal time.

Mass mobilizations of the type that took place here March 10 are what can stop the bosses’ drive to split our class.