Millions across the country are expected to protest in support of immigrant rights today. UCLA students and staff plan to express this sentiment with speeches, performances and city-wide marches along with a projected 500,000 others.
Today, people around the world will commemorate the achievements of labor movements in honor of International Workers’ Day.
Unions and nonprofit workers’ rights organizations nationwide have called for protests against proposed immigration legislation as well as an economic boycott against anything that supports the U.S. economy.
The Los Angeles Police Department projects that two planned marches will comprise the largest collective demonstrations in city history.
Daniela Conde, a fourth-year Chicana/o studies and political science student, expects a few hundred students at UCLA to not attend class for the day, instead rallying on campus and joining protestors across the city. Conde, who is also an intern with the Multi-ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network, plans to attend a rally and a march near MacArthur
Park along with several other students.
“Not going to school means recognizing the privilege of not being reprimanded for our absence. It is a privilege and freedom that immigrant workers do not have the freedom to do,” Conde said.
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, said he expected some UCLA employees to leave work and join the protests, but did not estimate how many workers would participate.
Though there was “tremendous support overall” on campus, some employees will only participate in the protests for part of the day, Wong said.
UCLA administrators said they value student opinion and support the free expression of political views.
“Naturally, UCLA would encourage students to attend classes,” UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said.
UCLA administrators have also planned for the possibility that employees will participate in the national boycott.
In anticipation, UCLA supervisors have told their employees that if they call in sick they will be asked to produce a doctor’s note, and also reminded them that employees who miss work will not receive pay for hours not worked, Hampton said.
Meanwhile, UCLA students from different ethnic groups find the immigrant issue hitting close to home.
“Being Japanese American, ... I see the effects government policy can have on one group of people. It makes me want to fight for not only the Asian Pacific immigrant community but also the Chicano and other minority populations,” said Jason Osajima, a third-year international development studies student and community relations coordinator for the Asian Pacific Coalition.
“Monday represents an escalation of the campaign (against restrictions on immigrants),” Wong said. According to Wong, government decision-makers have taken nationwide protests like these into consideration in their discussion of immigration policy.
“The mass immigrant-rights protests have already altered the debate,” he said. “As people have taken to the streets, we have seen a response from those in government.”
Wong said the Sensenbrenner bill currently moving through Congress is one of the harshest bills punishing immigration. The bill proposes stricter immigration regulations, with its primary changes making it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. and providing for the construction of a barrier on the Mexican-U.S. border.
Over the past several days, business leaders have speculated the boycott could have a large impact on the local economy, since approximately 15 percent of the county’s labor force consists of immigrant workers, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
But not all economics experts agree that the effect will be a significant one.
Christopher Thornberg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, said there will not be any significant economic impacts.
“If you don’t buy food today, you buy it tomorrow,” Thornberg said.
He compared events such as boycotts to natural events like snowstorms that also impede people from working and buying products.
“It is a political thing, not economic, and if they pull it off it will make a big statement politically,” Thornberg said.
Students from the UCLA School of Public Policy have planned a debate in front of the Public Policy Building at noon. From there, some students plan to attend a rally at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street, scheduled to be held at 3 p.m., which will host several speakers, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and an undocumented Iraqi war veteran, and feature multicultural performances by Filipino and South Asian dancers. At 4 p.m., rally attendees will march to the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.