Chants of "la migra escucha, estamos en la lucha!" ("INS listen, we are fighting!") and "No more raids!" echoed through the terminals and parking lots. The protesters carried banners and signs of their unions and immigrant rights organizations. Some read, "Stop the war on immigrants," "Stop INS raids," and "Immigrant does not Equal Terrorist." A few demonstrators carried American flags. There was a strong showing of janitors, restaurant workers, and day laborers marching in their own contingents.

The action began with a well-attended news conference in the central grassy area of the airport. Protesters, followed by the TV and other media, then marched to Terminal 1 where 183 Mexicans and one Guatemalan were arrested by INS agents the previous week as they were about to board Southwest Airlines flights. The Los Angeles Times reported that a separate set of INS sweeps targeting airport workers have resulted in more than 200 arrests of immigrant workers at airports in California and elsewhere in the West.

"We are here today to demand that cur rent and future INS raids and sweeps cease immediately," said Angelica Salas, a leader of the Coalition for Humane and Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, addressing the media and supporters at the airport protest.

The demonstration was organized by the Coalition for Humane and Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the Central American Resource Center, Service Employees International Union Local 1877, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, Garment Worker Center, and several other immigrant, human rights, and religious organizations.

In response to the protests INS spokesman Francisco Arcaute told the Los Angeles Times, "We welcome their opinion, but we will continue with our operations wherever they're needed."  
 
Sweeps of el Centro
In the week following the arrests at Southwest Airlines, INS agents went through the streets and into several buildings in the downtown garment district and shopping area for Latino families, or el Centro as it is called in Spanish. Garment workers reported that people were approached on the street and asked for their papers, chased, and those apprehended were loaded onto buses.

The Spanish-language radio stations announced the presence of the INS and as word spread, workers emptied out of shops to leave the area. The last two Saturdays in March the bosses in garment shops announced they had been alerted that INS agents were in the area and that everyone without papers should go home.

Workers at some shops cleared out of the area, while some bosses simply locked the doors of the plant.

During the week Spanish language radio stations urged people to remain calm and said that many reports were coming in that weren't verified. Latino vendors in el Centro sold their wares while keeping an eye out for the federal agents. "This is awful," one shopkeeper originally from the Middle East said. "These people are just trying to make a living. I thought they were supposed to chase terrorists not workers."

A sewing machine operator from Guatemala remembered the last time this happened in the garment district about three years ago when his two brothers-in-law were deported. "But, they're back working now," he said with a smile.

"I'm afraid, but I have to work," said Mario, another sewing machine operator. "And if they deport me, I'll come back. I work hard and I have a right to make a living and support my family here."

During the workday a sewing machine operator told the entire shop where she works that she had just heard on the Spanish-language radio station that the INS picked up a busload of 50 immigrants in a sweep of McArthur Park, in a Central American neighborhood near downtown on a Saturday afternoon.

An anti-immigrant protest of 150 rightists was held at the federal building on the same Saturday as the first INS raid in el Centro. The demonstration was organized by Border Patrol, a group promoting vigilante actions in the border areas.

Nan Bailey and Elizabeth Lariscy are sewing machine operators in downtown Los Angeles.  
 
 
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