3,000,000 people demonstrate for immigrant rights

Here is a statistical snapshot of the past month’s immigrant justice movement building. Over 60 events (around 3 million people) here barely begin to represent the power of what’s going on, although you can almost see it when looking at the past couple days of thousands of highschool students walking out in protest repeatedly!
It’s unbelievable how little coverage there is (it took me hours to compile this). The fully grassroots nature of most of these actions (many fueled by radio/ tv, the walkouts mostly organized using myspace and cellphones) is promising…

For all of us who had the chance to be part of this past week’s explosive demonstrations, for us non-immigrants who have the gift of being part of this incredible movement, this is the time. Allies need to step it up! More to follow….

please send any additions to immigrantjusticesolidarity [at] gmail.com

3/7 D.C. 20,000
3/8 Atlanta 100 in city hall
3/10 Chicago 300,000
3/11 Tampa “several hundred”
3/14 Topeka KS “several hundred”
3/17 Santa Cruz 500
3/20 Trenton 1,200
3/22 Providence 200
3/23 Milwaukee 30,000
3/23 Racine WI


3/24 FRIDAY
*Phoenix 30,000
*Tucson 1,500
*Kansas City 2,000
*Dallas 1,500
*L.A. 2,700 students walked off at least 8 campuses, others rallied on campuses and at least one highschool, students climbed the gate after
administrators declared a lockdown
*Atlanta estimated 80,000 workers boycotted, 200 rallied at capitol
*Gainesville GA boycott, hundreds of students honor boycott (over 40% of students)



3/25 Saturday
*L.A. 1- 2 million
*Denver 50,000
*Charlotte, NC 7,000
*Sacramento 4,000 +
*Watsonville and Salinas 2,500 (with the march from
Tijuana)
*Houston 5-6,000 rally for DREAM act
*Cleveland rally organized by latino pastors coalition
*and tons of smaller cities I can't find turnout
estimates for, including Boise, Knoxville, and Reno


3/26 Sunday
Columbus 4-7,000
L.A. 2,000
NYC/Washington Heights: 500



3/27 MONDAY
San Francisco: 5,000? (joining up with the March for Peace/Peregrinacion por la Paz)
Santa Ana:700 rally while 200+ riot cops invade their neighborhood
Watsonville march
Detroit & Grand Rapids: over 50,000
Boston 2,000
Columbus ?
D.C. 1,500 + 100 clergy
Denver: strategy meeting, 200, mostly latin@ & some union organizers ending with work groups
Louisville KY 3,000



WALKOUTS:
L.A. 25-40, 000 (LA daily news) highschool walk out, blocking freeways, encircle city hall, from 52 high and middle schools
Orange county highschoolers take over the Riverside Freeway
Sacramento: 70
Fresno: over 500
San diego: 1,000+
Santa ana: morning, high school students shut down treasuer/tax collection office
Phoenix: 400 walk out, march to capitol
Farmersville (central Valley CA) 200
Also thousands of walkouts in Aptos, Hollister and Salinas.



3/28 Tuesday, ALL WALKOUTS
L.A. 6,000 walkout from 25 schools
Long beach: 400
San diego 3,000 walk out, rallies at chicano park, campuses
Watsonville 1,000
Houston TX 1,000
Dallas 3,300 walk out & rally at city hall
Springdale, Arkansas: 36 highschoolers
Phoenix hundreds walk out, march to capitol again
Farmersville walkouts day 2
Northern Virginia: 250 highschoolers, 8 middle schoolers




Wed 3/29/06 WALKOUTS
Las vegas: 500
Phoenix: hundreds
Houston: hundreds
Nashville
Santa Cruz: hundreds
l.a. schools on lockdown, hundreds of students still protesting


Next steps being discussed:

April 4th :Some students are calling for a national student sit-in
April 8th: The organizers in LA announced a national meeting for April 8 in Dallas,
Texas of all the Latino immigrant rights leaders in the country to strategize
for a national work stoppage in late May under the banner "A Day Without An
Immigrant." This would be following on the action in Philadelphia Feb 14th and building off last Friday’s boycott in Georgia.
April 10th: National day of action
april 23rd: San Francisco Day of Action