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Authorities tightening control of student immigration protests
| Tuesday, Mar 28 2006 6:15 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Mar 28 2006 6:15 PM
Thousands of students took to streets again Tuesday in Western states to protest proposed toughening of immigration laws but law enforcement authorities began cracking down by rounding up demonstrators as truants and issuing citations. Small numbers of arrests were reported.
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"We're not going to allow lawbreaking to take on a new dimension," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said after a second day of students roaming streets and attempting to march onto freeways - a dangerous tactic that alarmed officials.
"When kids are walking on freeways, that's not free speech," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Some 11,600 students cut classes in Los Angeles County, and thousands of others demonstrated from Central California to San Diego and elsewhere in the West.
As many as 3,000 students rallied at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix and a similar number left their schools in Texas. More than 1,000 students rallied near the Las Vegas Strip after being directed away from casinos.
In California's agricultural Central Valley, 1,000 students thronged Fresno City Hall, waving Mexican, Salvadoran and U.S. flags, and carrying signs reading "Who will pick your fruits?" and "The economy would collapse without us."
"We're not kids, we're the future. We're the ones that are going to be sitting inside this building one day," said Carlos Zelaya, 18, pointing to City Hall.
The student protests coincided with U.S. Senate debate on a congressional measure to determine the future of millions of immigrants now living in the United States illegally.
Many demonstrators waved Mexican flags and said their cause was protecting Hispanics from discrimination and possible deportation.
"It's not right," said Eddie Rodriguez, 15, of Carson High School, wearing a Mexican flag bandanna on his head. "The United States is nothing without immigrants. The United States is nothing without Mexicans."
In the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, which is nearly 73 percent Hispanic, teens rallied despite rain and campus lockdowns, but the number - about 8,800 - was well down from the tens of thousands who marched freely Monday.
Police were tougher Tuesday. About 100 students were detained, cited for truancy and returned to their schools in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. Police Chief William Bratton said truants could face up to 20 days of community service in addition to costly fines.
Freshman Mercedes Estrada, 15, of San Pedro High School, got a $250 truancy citation.
"I thought it was wrong. I was just trying to support my friends," she said.
Officials suggested that accountability could go much further than individual students.
"It's important for parents to understand that beginning today, we are going to be very strongly behind our truancy laws here in the city," Mayor Villaraigosa told reporters. "We think it's important for parents to understand that they have a responsibility to ensure that their children are in school."
Sheriff Baca said he had a word of warning for leaders of the marches, which he said, "I believe are not students but adults, and people who are not part of the school system."
"When you take a child out of school, for whatever purpose may be, that child is your responsibility," Baca said.
Some students were unhappy with the marchers, complaining they didn't know what they were protesting about.
"I don't think any of them actually read the 40-page proposed bill. They were just jumping the gates to get out of school," said Amanda Ellis, 15, of San Pedro High.
She spent the first three hours of school in lockdown in her French class.
"They wouldn't let us go to the bathroom or anything," she said.
The marchers were mostly peaceful but there were some confrontations.
In the city of Carson, helmeted Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies scuffled with protesters from other schools who tried to encourage a walkout at Carson High School. Plastic water bottles were hurled and a boy was tackled and detained.
Handfuls of arrests were reported in Orange County, and in Central California at Watsonville and Salinas.
Besides lost educational hours, Monday's walkouts cost the Los Angeles Unified School District more than $500,000 in state funding based on student attendance.
At the district's Huntington Park High School, Principal Robert Hinojosa said there would need to be a two-hour make-up exam for the California Standards Test, which requires at least 95 percent of students at a school to participate. The test is taken at year-round schools like Huntington from March 27 to April 1, he said.
Huntington's attendance was well below 95 percent Tuesday because of 10 to 20 students walking out, students staying home because of safety concerns, and rain, he said.
LAUSD spokeswoman Monica Carazo said she didn't know if any other schools would need to retake the test because of walkouts.