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 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
Immigration Reform Coalitions in Los Angeles Rejoin, Call for Consumer Boycott
 Associated Press
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| | Different from the May 1 boycotts, which called on workers and students to stay home, this boycott only calls on immigrants and supporters not to spend money. |
Los Angeles - After splintering over a year ago, two Los Angeles immigrant coalitions joined forces while calling for a Sept. 12 consumer boycott in favor of immigration reform.
The groups said Tuesday they united after the Aug. 19 arrest and deportation of Elvira Arellano, a recently deported illegal immigrant from Mexico who lived in a Chicago church for a year to avoid deportation. Arellano was detained by immigration agents outside Los Angeles' Our Lady Queen of Angels church near Olvera Street, a Mexican cultural center and tourist area.
Arellano, 32, was sent back to Mexico after traveling to Los Angeles to attend a rally for the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Her 8-year-old son, Saul, who was born in America and is a U.S. citizen, stayed in the United States.
"It took the sacrifice of that brave woman (Arellano) to break our myopic visions," said Javier Rodriguez of the March 25th Coalition, which is named after a demonstration last year in which 500,000 people rallied in downtown Los Angeles. "This is a new chapter for all of us."
The massive marches across America in the spring of 2006 brought new clout to immigrant organizing groups, but bitter infighting and rifts soon followed. Coalitions, which included Hispanic activists, religious organizations and large unions, disagreed on whether to call for economic boycotts, what kind of reform legislation to lobby for and whether to continue calling for street protests.
While the March 25 Coalition called for and helped organized May 1 boycotts the past two years, the We Are America Coalition in Los Angeles has focused more on citizenship and voter registration drives, along with lobbying Congress.
Both said they were forming the Los Angeles We are All Elvira and Saulito Coalition, and planned to organize a consumer boycott in Los Angeles.
"The only time people in our community are not asked for (immigration-related) identification is when they spend money," said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "It's time for America to realize their buying power and contribution to this country."
Different from the May 1 boycotts, which called on workers and students to stay home, this boycott only calls on immigrants and supporters not to spend money. |
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