LOS ANGELES : Plan Unveiled to Counter Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Latino groups unveiled a wide-ranging plan Friday designed to counter what activists call “immigrant-bashing” on the state and national levels.

“This is a call to mobilization,” said Armando Navarro, a UC Riverside political science professor who helped draft the plan.

“If we don’t respond, the anti-immigrant hysteria will only get worse,” Navarro said during a news conference and rally at Olvera Street.

Activists also made the plan public in cities throughout California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, as well as in Chicago.

The initiative is called the “Riverside plan,” because it was drafted last month during a conference there. The more than 50 participating groups included both well-known organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the G.I. Forum and smaller groups such as the Rainbow Coalition of New Mexico.

The 16-page plan calls on Latino lawmakers and advocacy groups to launch a concerted election-year lobbying, education and media campaign against “xenophobic attacks” by elected officials, private organizations and others.

Among their specific goals, the organizers oppose efforts to “militarize” the U.S.-Mexico border and strip illegal immigrants of the right to education and other social services, while backing initiatives encouraging foreign nationals to become U.S. citizens.