Immigrant Rights Groups Prepare For May Day Action

Organizations across the nation are preparing for mobilizations in support of immigrant rights in a continuation of recent May Day demonstrations.The National Immigrant Solidarity Network is organizing another May Day mobilization in support of paths to citizenship for undocumented workers and will be opposing other legislation that the group sees as anti-immigrant.

According to a new Web site created to organize the demonstration, there will be common goals

1. No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.

2. No to militarization of the border.

3. No to the immigrant detention and deportation.

4. No to the guest worker program.

5. No to employer sanction and “no match” letters.

6. Yes to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

7. Yes to speedy family reunification.

8. Yes to civil rights and humane immigration law.

9. Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers.

10. Yes to the education and LGBT immigrant legislation.

This year’s  event comes after massive mobilizations that were held in U.S. cities on May 1, 2006. Tens of thousands marched in Denver, and thousands more participated in states like California, New York and Arizona. And a second national mobilization was held on May Day last year.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.