What would happen if immigrants vanished from the cityscape? Boycott organizers say more than you could imagine. They hope one day of personal sacrifice will go a long way in the Senate debate on immigration reform. But while businesses brace for the potential economic fallout, some immigrants dare to dream of a more positive outcome. Laura Cavanaugh reports.

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In the harsh morning glare, a woman in red slippers shuffled unsteadily across the Sandman Motel’s parking lot. Carrying a fifth of something in a black plastic bag, she followed a familiar path from the nearby liquor store, climbed the motel’s stairs with effort, and disappeared into the $49 per night desolation of her room.

Here, at the edge of South Central Los Angeles, there is no shortage of despair. An indoor gun firing range abuts a windowless pornography shop, which sits hard by another liquor store. But the business done in those establishments is matched — if not dwarfed — by the area’s underground economy. The people on the street do their own cash-based commerce, selling either themselves or substances that make their customers feel like someone else.

And here, in a motel populated with drunks, drug dealers, and acne-faced prostitutes, a few of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigration problems are being played out in real time. The Sandman’s owners use the cheapest, most plentiful and vulnerable labor available — undocumented Latino women. (more…)

Olvera Street, bustles with activity pretty much every day.  Lately, its centrality and its location in the city’s historic old town have made La Placita, as it’s known, the perfect rallying point for many recent protests for immigrants’ rights. 

The events have periodically transformed the place into a boisterous caricature of itself - and April 10^th’s gathering was no exception.  (more…)

Charged with filming the April 10 immigration rally in downtown Los Angeles, I spent much of the time jockeying for camera position, checking my audio levels and making sure that people didn’t trip over my cables. 

But I took a second to think about how this same passionate show of force has been unfolding in dozens of cities across the country, involving hundreds of thousands of people, and … well, it began to dawn on me that this is a truly historic moment in our nation’s history, on par with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

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Four words about the guy who picked the spot for April 10’s immigration protest: Give him a raise.

It was just too perfect. Los Angeles’ Olvera Street and the adjacent La Placita look more Mexican than any part of Mexico I’ve had the pleasure of seeing – the architecture, the restaurants, the statues, the shop signs. The apt question was not, ‘Do these protesters deserve to be Americans?’, but rather, ‘Can you believe this place is in America?’

The protest had the atmosphere of a carnival, vertiginous and loud. No one was crying; no one was scared. Giant blue globules of cotton candy floated past like low-flying storm clouds. A helicopter thumped overhead. Rosaries jangled like flecks of sunshine in a sea of lolling flags.

Halfway down Olvera Street I launched into conversation with an avuncular man who stood hocking umbrellas in front of a tiny wishing well. He wore a sombrero, which was also for sale. His eyebrows twitched like fishing lines when he spoke.

“Why the long face?” I asked. “Protests are supposed to be fun, aren’t they?”

“Protest or no, I wish it would rain,” he said, looking skyward. “That way I would sell more umbrellas.”

“What could be more American than that?” I wondered aloud. (more…)