2006 United States Immigration Reform Protests
In 2006, millions of people participated in protests over a proposed change to U.S. immigration policy. The protests began in response to proposed legislation known as H.R. 4437, which would raise penalties for Illegal immigration and classify undocumented immigrants 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 undocumented immigrants.
A major demonstration in Chicago on March 10, 2006 estimated at 100,000 people was the initial impetus for protests throughout the country. The largest single demonstration occurred in Los Angeles on March 25, 2006 with a march of more than 500,000 people through downtown. The largest nationwide day of protest occurred on April 10, 2006, in 102 cities across the country, with 350,000–500,000 in Dallas and around 300,000 in Chicago. Most of the protests were peaceful and attracted considerable media attention. Additional protests took place on May Day.
Read more about 2006 United States Immigration Reform Protests: Role of Spanish-language Media, Controversy and Backlash Over Flag Symbolism and Protests, Backlash, Legislation, Kennedy Ruling, Organizations
Famous quotes containing the words united, states, immigration and/or reform:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the United States generally, any more than to Patagonia.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.”
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)