Illegal Immigration Protests Aimed At Closing Down U.S. Cities
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pro-immigration activists say a national boycott and marches planned for May 1 will flood U.S. streets with millions of Latinos to demand amnesty for illegal immigrants and shake the ground under Congress as it debates reform.
Such a massive turnout could make for the largest protests since the civil rights era of the 1960s, though not all Latinos -- nor their leaders -- were comfortable with such militancy, fearing a backlash in Middle America.
"There will be 2 to 3 million people hitting the streets in Los Angeles alone. We're going to close down Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tucson, Phoenix, Fresno," said Jorge Rodriguez, a union official who helped organize earlier rallies credited with rattling Congress as it debates the issue.
Regardless of one's stance on the illegal immigration issue I'm not sure how anyone could see this protest as being something that will be ultimately good for the pro-illegal immigration advocates.
On one hand, if the protest is successful and they do "shut down" several major American cities all they're likely to accomplish is to annoy a lot of people who just want to go to get to work and go about their daily routine without bother from a bunch of yahoos with a political axe to grind. Oh sure, they may intimidate a few Americans into thinking "Gosh there's a lot of them, we'd better give up!" but on the flip side of that it would do these advocates well to remember that a lot of Americans don't take intimidation well at all.
On the other hand, what happens if this protest flops? These advocates are promising to shut down cities and businesses across the nation, so what if that doesn't happen? What if there are just a lot of protests and media coverage, but largely nobody is impacted by it all?
I suspect that this latter scenario is the more likely one, and that wouldn't be very good for the movement either.
I think this is a lose-lose situation. If they do manage to intimidate some Americans I don't think it will be received well, and if the protest flops the movement is going to be seen as inconsequential.






