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Occupy ICE: Hundreds protest at LA Federal Building against immigration policies
Hundreds protest against immigration policies at the downtown L.A. federal building.
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Corey Moore/KPCC
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Demonstrators protest federal immigration policy in downtown L.A., Dec. 15, 2011.
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Paige Osburn/KPCC
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SEIU union protest sign calling for justice for janitors as protesters march to downtown L.A. federal building to protest immigration policy, Dec. 15, 2011.
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Paige Osburn/KPCC
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Protesters march against downtown L.A. federal building housing immigration enforcement agency ICE, Dec. 15, 2011.
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Paige Osburn/KPCC
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Leftover signs as immigration protesters move out in downtown L.A., Dec. 15, 2011.
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Paige Osburn/KPCC
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Hundreds of demonstrators rallied today at downtown L.A.'s Roybal Federal Building against immigration enforcement policies they say unfairly target working families. Occupy L.A. activists, labor organizers, clergy and others marched from La Placita Olvera plaza near Los Angeles Union Station.
When they arrived at the federal building, they chanted and shouted through bullhorns.
Organizer Ian Thompson says the federal fingerprint sharing program Secure Communities mistreats undocumented people and American citizens.
“To terrorize people and to force them to go back into complete poverty and to split their families apart when their U.S.-born family members and when their family members born in Mexico or whatever other country... it’s an unconscionable thing," said Thompson as protesters gathered around him. "So that has to end. People need to see this as a new civil rights movement.”
The federal building where protesters rallied houses the L.A. headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that operates Secure Communities. Demonstrators called today's rally "Occupy ICE."
Unions bused in hundreds of protesters for the immigration march as well.
This story has been updated.
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