Thousands set for US immigration protests

UNITED STATES: Thousands of immigrants are expected to demonstrate in several major cities across the United States, calling for sweeping reforms of laws governing foreign workers.

Around 100,000 people are expected to gridlock downtown Los Angeles in day-long demonstrations, one year after more than half a million, mostly Hispanic, protestors took to the streets here.

Protests and rallies are also scheduled in New York, Chicago, Miami and Phoenix, but the events are not expected to reach the scale of last year's massive demonstrations as activists struggle to present a united front. Immigrant groups are divided over calls to ask workers and students to down tools or school-books for a day, a key feature of the large-scale protests of 2006.

Flavia Jimenez, an analyst at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest non-profit Latino rights organization in the US which opposes a boycott, said workers were wary of possible repercussions if they protested. "There is more fear this time and that is preventing our community from mobilizing like last year," Jimenez told AFP.

She said workers were reluctant to draw attention to themselves following immigration raids by authorities.

Los Angeles, Tuesday, AFP