May Day Madness: Reportedly Over a Million Take the Immigration Battle to the Streets
Arizona may have set a record for the most immediately unpopular law ever. The measure to force cops to ask brown-looking people for immigration papers was condemned by Obama. Now people are taking to the streets to show their displeasure.
The Daily News reports that up to a million people will attend May Day rallies across the country today to protest the measure. Which, according to CNN:
...requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they are in the United States illegally.
The protest picture here is from Los Angeles — the numbers are perhaps not surprising considering the large Hispanic population in that city. NY1 reports that irate protesters marched through New York too. They left Union Square at 4pm. Though a similar event is held annually to support the immigrant cause, this year it's dedicated to the Arizona legislature and the state's desperate governor and senators who are backing the bill in an attempt to look tough to the tea party. "Today is the day when immigrants across the country say talk is not enough; we need action," Chung Wha Hong of the New York Immigrants Coalition told NY1. "What happened in Arizona that legally sanctions racial profiling and makes it a crime to be non documented has set off a national spark."
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed amendments to the bill yesterday that were designed to quell the round mocking she's received since the immigration law was passed on April 23. It doesn't seem to have assuaged anyone.