The student walkouts of Friday, March 24, 2006 in Los Angeles, California commenced protests that spanned several days. That day, hundreds of students representing all ages walked out of at least five high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. [1] Over 40,000 students staged walkouts in Los Angeles on the 27th. [2] The protests were against the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437). This act would make it even harder than ever for immigrants to attain residency status and would criminalize undocumented immigrants as well as individuals and organizations that aid them. Both Southern California immigrants and residents worked together to create a community response to legislative proposals that would scale back immigrant rights. [2] Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Los Angeles City Hall to demand a stop to H.R. 4437.
The student walkouts were occurring all over the United States at this time, but the largest student walkouts took place in the districts in the western and southwestern United States. [3] The protests are believed to have eclipsed in size the demonstrations that occurred during the anti-Proposition 187 campaign in 1994 and even a famous student walkout for Chicano rights in 1968. [4]
The population of students protesting was not only composed of immigrants, but also individuals who supported the cause, either because of personal opinion or because their family members and friends were immigrants. [5] The major walkouts were on the third day when 1,000 Kennedy High School students in the San Fernando Valley marched towards San Fernando High School at about 9:35 AM. The other major walkout was on that same day, when at 9:00 AM, 1,000 students at Los Angeles High School walked to Fairfax and Hollywood High School, which were both in locked down. [6]
In Los Angeles, various schools experienced walkouts, with the major events downtown, where students converged on City Hall. The third day of the walkouts, aides of Antonio Villaraigosa escorted representatives of half a dozen high schools to meet with the Los Angeles mayor. California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante addressed the crowd, telling the demonstrators that they were sending a powerful and important message to Washington. [6] At one point, protesters marched onto the Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles and two sections of the Harbor Freeway, downtown and in San Pedro, briefly halting traffic. [4]
The superintendents and principles scrambled to keep students in school by using strategies that ranged from campus lockdowns to disciplinary measures. LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer instructed all high schools and middle schools to enforce a lockdown of campuses, after more than 24,000 students in 52 schools walked out on Monday, March 27, 2006. [3]
The march also showed the reach and power of the Spanish-language media, which sounded a direct call to action for days leading up to Saturday. All week long, the Spanish media implored their audiences to march peacefully and respectfully. The local Spanish-language radio personalities, led by Eddie "el Piolín" Sotelo of 101.9 KSCA-FM, all began promoting the rally on their programs. They answered callers' questions about the bill and about the march's logistics. With the American national anthem playing in the background, a promo airing during Antonio Gonzalez's En el Medio program on KMXE-AM 830 told listeners: "We are all committed to the Grand March of the People!" It was still airing on Monday morning. Spanish media giant Univision, which owns the largest network audiences in Los Angeles in any language, also kept running its rally promo. [7]
California Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California. Voters passed the proposed law at a referendum on November 8, 1994. The law was challenged in a legal suit the day after its passage, and found unconstitutional by a federal district court on November 11. In 1999, Governor Gray Davis halted state appeals of this ruling.
Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to over 40,000 residents.
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Walkout is a 2006 HBO film based on a true story of the 1968 East L.A. walkouts, also referred to as the Chicano blowouts. It premiered March 18, 2006 on HBO. Starring Alexa Vega, Efren Ramirez and Michael Peña, the film was directed by Edward James Olmos. Moctezuma Esparza, one of the real-life students who was involved in the walkouts, was the film's executive producer.
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The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 was a bill in the 109th United States Congress. It was passed by the United States House of Representatives on December 16, 2005, by a vote of 239 to 182, but did not pass the Senate. It was also known as the "Sensenbrenner Bill," for its sponsor in the House of Representatives, Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner. The bill was the catalyst for the 2006 U.S. immigration reform protests and was the first piece of legislation passed by a house of Congress in the United States illegal immigration debate. Development and the effect of the bill was featured in "The Senate Speaks", Story 11 in How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories a documentary series from filmmaking team Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini.
In 2006–2007, millions of people participated in protests over a proposed change to U.S. immigration policy. These large scale mobilizations are widely seen as a historic turning point in Latino politics, especially Latino immigrant civic participation and political influence, as noted in a range of scholarly publications in this field. The protests began in response to proposed legislation known as H.R. 4437, which would raise penalties for illegal immigration and classify illegal individuals and anyone who helped them enter or remain in the US as felons. As part of the wider immigration debate, most of the protests not only sought a rejection of this bill, but also a comprehensive reform of the country's immigration laws that included a path to citizenship for all illegal immigrants.
The East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts were a series of 1968 protests by Chicano students against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. The first walkout occurred on March 5, 1968. The students who organized and carried out the protests were primarily concerned with the quality of their education. This movement, which involved thousands of students in the Los Angeles area, was identified as "the first major mass protest against racism undertaken by Mexican-Americans in the history of the United States".
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