The City of Irvine, which likes to boast about being a melting pot, is perhaps a fitting location for an immigration reform rally.
Actually, it does not matter if it is fitting or not because it is getting two such protests Saturday morning, although it's more likely two heads of the same monster.
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First, members of SEIU-United Service Workers West activists will make signs and banners from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday as part of their national day of action for immigration reform. The sign-making takes place at the Teamsters union office at 1936 W. Chapman Ave., Orange.
Then, they will meet with their fresh news signs at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine, march to the office of Congressman John Campbell at 20 Pacifica and rally for reform.
Organizing for Action (OFA-CA) has also been holding rallies throughout Orange County, particularly outside the offices of congressmen, including Irvine Republican Campbell's. They have called on volunteers to meet for a rally in the same general area, Irvine Spectrum at 5 Fortune Drive, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
If you know how to get to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, even from when it was called Irvine Meadows, you know how to get to Irvine Spectrum. It's also off Irvine Center Drive, only on the opposite side of the freeway from Verizon.
Activists from both groups are demanding that Speaker John Boehner and the House of Representatives vote on the comprehensive immigration reform bill that was passed in the Senate.
“The U.S. Senate already passed legislation that will help the economy in local communities flourish by drawing on the skills, talents and economic input of every Californian,” reads the SEIU-USWW alert. “But House Republican leaders are ignoring the strong majority of Americans, who support a comprehensive approach, refusing to bring a reform bill forward for a vote.”
Dealing with immigration reform is more vital to the country's interests than shutting down the government, claims OFA-CA, whose protest flier follows:
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.