Students Defy Lockdowns, Continue Walkouts

Carlos Moreno, 17, walked out of Cleveland High School in the Los Angeles Valley on a rainy Tuesday to protest against a litany of immigration proposals now before Congress.

"I was born here," he said, "but I'm doing it for my parents, and for my family, and for all the Latinos, because I know what the struggle is."

Along with hundreds of other students, Moreno headed to Reseda High School, some three miles away, to urge students there to join them in the massive walkouts. Riot-clad police officers, at the request of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), however, made sure that Reseda High students were not able to participate.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer Tuesday declared all secondary schools in the district on "lockdown," using a term originating in and usually limited to the prison industry. Romer said students would not be allowed to leave campus until nutrition time -- a daily recess usually scheduled around 10 a.m. for most schools. The Reseda administration decided, however, that its lockdown would last through 1 p.m. on what was already scheduled to be a shortened day.

School district spokesperson Susan Cox said the lockdowns were set in place to protect the students and ensure their safety. The day before, hundreds of students in Los Angeles took to the Hollywood Freeway, while students in Orange County marched through the Beach Blvd. onramp on the Riverside Freeway. No students were injured.

Roselina Garcia, 15, a student from Valley High School in Orange County, said students don't need protection from themselves, but instead from the police who she said were equipped with guns, smoke bombs and Tasers, and shouted contradictory orders to the student demonstrators.

"They were being very aggressive -- we weren't doing anything," Garcia recounted, "They were pushing people; they were pushing everybody."

Despite the districtwide lockdown Tuesday, according to the LAUSD, over 8,500 students walked out in Los Angeles County alone -- thousands more joined walkouts in neighboring Riverside, Orange and San Diego Counties. Thousands of other students in the Bay Area, as well as in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Texas have also left school in protest.

On Wednesday, the lockdowns proved somewhat effective at keeping students in classrooms: Spokesperson Cox said that only 211 students participated. Since elementary schools were not included in the lockdown, children from Stanford Elementary in Garden Grove walked out along with students from three other secondary schools in the district.

Students began walking out of high schools in Southern California last Friday, joining hundreds of thousands of protesters representing all ages across the United States who have taken to the streets in opposition of various immigration reform proposals working their way through Congress.

The most liberal immigration bill in Congress was submitted to the House by Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee. That bill would allow for legal permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for the past five years, would double the cap for family visas and would increase the number of work visas. Jackson-Lee's bill has been stalled in the Immigration Subcommittee since mid-2005.

Toward the opposite end of the spectrum, HR 4437, introduced by James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Peter King, R-New York, would make it even harder to ever attain residency status, and would criminalize undocumented immigrants as well as individuals and organizations that aid them.

In the Senate, the Judiciary Committee approved a proposal Monday that borrowed heavily from a bill introduced by Arizona's John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. It, too, allows for permanent residency for those living in the United States for six years or longer, but with stiff penalties to be paid up front. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, unhappy with that bipartisan proposal, is sending his own measure to the Senate floor and urging his colleagues to ignore the Judiciary Committee's proposal.