SF Immigrant Rights Hunger Strikers begin their fast

It was dry but cold out there today at the San Francisco Federal Building as longtime activist Renee Saucedo and 29 other San Francisco and East Bay teachers, students, parents and immigrants began a weeklong hunger strike for immigrant rights and justice.
A number of the supporters included many SF State Raza students and teacher Clarissa Rojas. I also stood beside longtime Salvaroran community leader Ramon Cardona. My daughter Jade made a bunch of new friends including Saucedo's little doggy CoCo. Renee and I participated in a similar immigrants rights hunger strike over 10 years ago at the same spot protesting the passage of CA's Prop 187 and the onslaught of anti-immigrant federal legislation at that time.
Tomorrow Wed 3/22/06 the Chinese Progressive Association and the May 1st Alliance [grassroots alliance of low wage worker organizations] are organizing a noon rally at the SF Federal Building.
KTVU Channel 2 had a great segment on the hunger strike with good analysis of the anti-immigrant legislation currently being debated in Congress - the Specter bill in the Senate and the Sensenbrenner bill in the House HR 4437.
For a great comparison of the various bills and their harmful impact on immgrant communities and civil liberties click here for the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights analysis.
See also NILC [National Immigration Law Center's] analysis as well -
http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=18648
Arnoldo Garcia of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights urged community members to call their senators to speak out against the 2 bills.
For ways to do this - see the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalitions action page -
http://www.immigrantrights.org/actionalerts.asp#antiimmigrantbills
Please come out to the SF Federal Building every evening after work from tonight 3/21 until 3/27 to support the courageous hunger strikers and our immigrant community organizations.
Eric