LAPD arrests 9 in immigration march that blocked Westside traffic

The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested at least nine demonstrators who blocked Wilshire Boulevard Thursday as part of a immigrant rights march.

The protest jammed traffic in Westwood and surrounding communities, with both Wilshire Boulevard and the 405 Freeway affected. Metro announced that some bus routes were being detoured. California Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Strull said officials want to clear traffic so ambulances headed to Reagan-UCLA Medical Center are not delayed.

Nancy Meza, 23, a UCLA student who is scheduled to graduate in three weeks with a degree in Chicano studies, said the civil disobedience was organized in an effort to push for passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act is federal legislation that would provide certain undocumented alien students who graduate from U.S. high schools and have been in the country continuously for at least five years before the bill's enactment the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency. 

The students would obtain temporary residency for a six-year period. Meza, who said she arrived in the U.S. from Mexico when she was 2 years old and is undocumented, said it was the legislation was needed to ensure that students like herself would eventually be able to work.

“I’m graduating in three weeks, but I can’t even work,” Meza said. “We are urging Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-Calif.] to push for passage of the DREAM Act this year.”

Officer Krystal Carter, a spokeswoman for the CHP, said the students had been arrested for “failing to disperse…and not complying with police orders.” Carter could not confirm the number of students arrested.

-- Ann M. Simmons and Andrew Blankstein

Comments

[Dan]

Go back to Mexico.

[eric]

If you have a dream, make it happen in your own land, or come here "Legally".

Being Illegal doesnt entitle you to a thing, and wont buy any sympathy from a majority of Americans.

When you are illegal, that makes all else null and void.

Its not a race thing, the only people making it that is the La Raza movement.

Its more a about respect for the law of the land you want to be apart of.

[Food for thought]

I don't understand why she can't work. US citizens have paid for her primary education, and probably for her secondary as well. She can return to her native land and secure employment there. And while there, she can help conform the Mexican government for the betterment of all Mexicans. All protest should originate in Mexico, not here. Just think, if all the children brouhgt to the US against their will, who have been given a wonderful opportunity of FREE education would then go home to improve other less forunate. At what point will mexicans start to bring change to Mexico, or is this not the plan?

[concerned in LA]

Where do get a job with a degree in Chicano studies? I would suggest going back to Mexico and organizing protest aganist the government there.

[Just Asking]

Why do California tax payer have to fund courses such as Chicano studies, Black studies or even White studies (if they have such a course)? I used to like to think of our education system as an investment that will be paid off by increasing the future earning capability of people who major in a degree. Other than being a manager at Taco Bell, what does Chicano studies produce? Too bad we do not have the AZ law here. Ms. Meza would have earned herself a ticket on the Freedom Bus to TJ with her arrest.

[Streets]

How about NO! I am of Mexican Heritage, and my sons cant even get into UCLA and we are citizens! Please save any arguments about your abilities and desire to succeed etc. etc. Your not a citizen and you don't deserve anything free, or perceived rights!

[Joan]

This was "civil" disobedience? Disrupting traffic and endangering drivers, harming business owners by creating such havoc that patrons went elsewhere? This is not the way to get sympathy or support. And, not crying many tears for Ms. Meza, as thousands of legal citizen students are out there looking for the jobs that should rightfully go to them. I see my students sending out dozens of resumés, only to be rejected. Just what do you do with a Chicano Studies major anyway, is there a big call for that, career-wise? If you want sympathy and support, don't tick off thousands of voting drivers. It will have precisely the opposite effect of what you desire.

[JoseR]

These students can thank their parents for not being able to get jobs. The Dream Act may not be passed this year.

[Anon]

Meza is a candidate for deportation.

[James Westfield]

Can someone tell me how Nancy who is getting a degree in Chicano Studies will economically contribute to this society. She should be deported immediately.

[Georgia]

Deport her. She has admitted she is illegal and has caused a massive traffic tie up and would have caused injury to herself or others. No regard to the laws of this city and has NO RESPECT for ANY laws. How Dare SHE.

[Stacey]

The AUDACITY of these people!!NO DREAM ACT! NO AMNESTY!

[St. George]

No wonder this state is teetering on bankruptcy. How many criminal border jumpers have been educated at our Universities? And then they go and protest to open the flood gates? This is why the legal means to enter our country works, you learn to love the country of whose border you crossed. You learn to respect its laws, you contribute to the society, you don't think it owes you more as those who think by committing a crime they are still owed more. I have a daughter attending a University, she is not getting a penny from the government-she has paid taxes, she is due it if the money is being passed out. In fact we applied for a grant/nada, nada not a word. People are fed up and the law breakers are daily, hourly, hurting their cause, the anger is growing!

[Tam]

Wow...she's here illegally and she got arrested.

Congrats Nancy on your impending graduation, but don't you think that at some point in the 23 years of your life you should have looked into ways to change your status? Yeah, I understand you might have needed to return "home" to do it, but thousands who follow the law are doing that today.

[Gary T.]

John & Ken (KFI radio talkshow hosts) are recommending that this illegal alien be turned over to ICE for deportation. I agree. Why is it that American taxpayers have funded her entire education in the U.S.? If she wants employment, she should return to Mexico and take up her cause there. The tide has finally turned. Americans are sick and tired of supporting residents from other countries.

[Miguel]

A lot more where that came from. We will have justice.

[Judy]

I thank Ms. Meza for letting me know about the DREAM ACT. I hadn't heard about it before. I wonder why? So, she's going to graduate with a degree in Chicano studies, all on the taxpayers dime! Wow! To think I was stupid enough to pay for my own tuition! Now she wants citizenship. Gee, what else can we give away to her? Please let everyone know.

[J.Ben]

Perhaps Ms. Meza should seek employment in the country where she has legal status - I'm sure her Chicano Studies degree can be put to good use there.

[Franky]

She not only used our tax payer money to stay in the country, by doing this protest she cost Los Angeles ALOT of money...This protest cost lots of business money and lots of people that are sick that had to go to UCLA for appointments to be VERY late and doctors to be late for surguries and appointments!...WHAT A SHAME THAT THIS GIRL DID THIS, IT WENT WRONG.

[Jay Gupta]

How does this protest convince anyone to support the DREAM Act? Are the people whose day was ruined by the traffic tie-up going to somehow become MORE supportive of the DREAM Act? Did the opinion of anyone against the DREAM Act get switched to supporting it, or did Nancy Meza and her group harden opposition against it? What if someone had died or suffered complications because they couldn't get to the Reagan Medical Center? Would that have helped pass the DREAM Act, or would soundbites like "Elderly man dies while trying to reach hospital while illegal immigrants create traffic jam" have killed the DREAM Act?

Gandhi and King weren't successful because they engaged in civil disobedience for the sake of civil disobedience -- they were strategic thinkers who mobilized their supporters intelligently.

[Larry]

Concerned Citizen,

Fret not. CA does have a law very similar to AZ SB 1070 that even forbids sanctuary cities, the only problem here is that our government officials seem to think it is okay to pick and choose which laws THEY think should be enforced. The law is Section 834B of the California Penal Code.

[mrgertner]

As a teacher at Nancy's former high school, I can attest that she is a dedicated student and a great asset to the UCLA campus. She personifies why we need the DREAM Act. This country of immigrants should be embracing these top students who contribute so much. It takes a lot of courage for someone in Nancy's position to put herself in the public spotlight to fight for herself and the many thousands in a similar situation.

[IvanG]

DREAM should be renamed NIGHTMARE. She should be fined several thousand dollars for the cost of arresting and processing her through the courts, plus the inconvenience she caused motorists. And what a ridiculous degree. What is it good for? Can you get a degree in Gringo studies in Mexico?

[mark]

“I’m graduating in three weeks, but I can’t even work,” Meza said. “We are urging Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-Calif.] to push for passage of the DREAM Act this year.”

well perhaps you should have thought of that before you persued a degree in "Chicano studies" in lue of a marketable degree

[kuruc]

actually, meza could get a job with the city of la, as tony v's illegal alien aide. poof.