Hundreds of youth from roughly half a dozen different schools in East Los, Southgate, Bell, and Montello walked out today to protest vicious anti-immigrant legislation now before the US Senate that would make all migrants without papers into felons - and make anyone who aids them felons as well.

After a month of planning they hit the streets with Mexican flags and red, white and green balloons chanting "Que Viva Mexico!" and causing small traffic gridlocks. Students at Bell High School climbed fences there by the hundreds after school administrators declared the school on "lockdown."

About 500 students walked out of Huntington Park High.

Students said they organized the demonstration or heard about the demonstrations from friends. School officials tried to blame the walkout on outside agitators, activists and community groups.

Minutemen are demanding that all the students be expelled - claiming they have no rights, and that the students are not citizens of the US.

One youth said ""We're not criminals. We're in this country to work." There was a widespread sense among the protestors that they were standing up to a dire and racist piece of legislation.

In Riverside County over 400 students held on campus rallies denouncing the anti-migrant legislation.

Elsewhere, over 15,000 people marched against the anti-migrant legislation in Phoenix. Organizers had expected a crowd of 2,000.

LA Times foto

WALK OUT OF SCHOOL ON APRIL 10TH NO MATTER WHAT! PROTEST HR 4437. VIVA MEXICO1 tHE u.s AIN'T NOTHIN' WITHOUT US

walk out tuesday april 4 2006 no matter what, protest keep your rights.

If HR 4437 is passes, APRIL 10TH will be the DAY WITHOUT LATINOS

wear white tuesday!!!!!!!

If HR 4437 is passed:
no school or work on APRIL 10TH
tell everyone you know not to attend school and tell your parents not to work
the movie "A Day Without a Mexican" will become real
All Latinos have to work together to make this happen
to prove to everyone that the U.S. is NOTHING without us
On APRIL 10TH don't even go into the streets! don't buy ANYTHING!
Stay at home and kick it. watch the U.S. struggle without us. APRIL 10TH will be the day the gov't loses tons of money and realizes who really runs this country.

spread the word!

** if you are going to be involved please do it with class. don't act stupid because not only will you make yourself look bad, but you will make ALL OF US look bad. Represent the Latino community with pride and honor. People will expect us to riot and go nuts but show them that we are BETTER than their stereotype.

**APRIL 10TH will be the day without Latinos

Remember that this Law is for ALL RACES not only Latinos

We are not going to allow a bunch of non-Americans to dictate to rest of this country the way our laws should written . We will have the final say .Thanks

There are a lot of citizens and legal residents in support.