Preparing For Immigration Protests

Massive, Nationwide Demonstrations And Boycotts Planned For May 1

(CBS/AP)  Preparations are being made across America for massive demonstrations and boycotts planned for Monday to protest strict immigration legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

Organizers of the national effort to have immigrants stay home from work and school hope to press Congress to provide opportunities for citizenship for illegal immigrants. They want immigrants to show their economic clout with the effort.

President Bush said on Friday was against the protests.

"You know, I'm not a supporter of boycotts," he said in a Rose Garden news conference, but hundreds of thousands of people are expected to participate.

The president focused on his proposed "guest worker" program that he hopes will alleviate illegal immigration and help secure the border with Mexico.

In California – where immigrants make up a third of the labor force and a quarter of its residents – police say Monday's immigrant rights demonstrations in Los Angeles could draw half a million marchers to the streets.

That's about the number that marched last month in another major immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles.

Officials warn next week's marches could be even more disruptive because they will occur on a weekday and involve calls to miss work and school.

The California State Senate voted Friday to endorse the planned boycott of schools, jobs and stores by a 24-to-13 margin that split along party lines. The State Senate approved a resolution that calls the one-day protest the "Great American Boycott 2006" and describes it as an attempt to educate Americans "about the tremendous contribution immigrants make on a daily basis to our society and economy."

Opponents say the nonbinding resolution is misleading because it fails to mention a goal of the boycott was pressuring Congress to legalize millions of undocumented people.

But California's top education official on Thursday urged students to stay in school during the protests. State Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O'Connell encouraged students interested in the immigration issue to voice their opinions by participating in protest activities - but only after attending their classes.

"If students need to protest, they should feel free to do so after school," O'Connell told students and reporters at San Jose High Academy. "We want students to exercise free speech, but not at the expense of their education."

Businesses nation-wide are rearranging their schedules to accommodate anticipated disruptions because of the protests.

Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, says it will temporarily shut down five of its nine beef plants in the United States and four of six pork plants Monday

"While we understand the sentiment behind the May 1 events and support comprehensive immigration reform, we are not encouraging workers to participate in the rallies," Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said.

Cargill Meat Solutions is also rearranging schedules next week at seven of its largest meatpacking plants around the country to allow some 15,000 of its workers to take part in the protests.

Cargill will close plants in Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Texas, Nebraska and Colorado. A Cargill spokesman says management and the workers' union agreed to a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule for next week, after production slowed during previous immigration rallies.

The House of Representatives passed legislation in December that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Senate has been unable to reach a compromise on its own immigration legislation.