Boycott Is Urged Over Licenses

Several Latino activist groups are calling on Californians to boycott jobs, school and shopping Friday in protest over the repeal of a law giving illegal immigrants the right to hold driver’s licenses.

But there is dissension among Latino organizations and community leaders about whether the “Great Latino Economic Boycott” would do more harm than good. The repeal of the driver’s license bill was already a political defeat, and some Latino leaders worry it would be another blow if the boycott fails to draw much support.

“That is serious talk, calling a general strike. The credibility of the community is at stake,” said Ricardo Moreno, a regional organizer with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, which supported the license law. “What happens if after Dec. 12 no one feels the effects?”

The boycott plan has also raised concerns in local school districts, which are worried that it could significantly reduce student attendance -- and the state funding that is tied to it. The Santa Ana Unified School District, for example, is trying to combat the action by conducting a raffle of a color TV Friday for students who attend class. The district has called and sent letters to parents.

“I am appalled by the idea of using children as political pawns,” said Maria Colmenares, a counselor at Villa Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana, where at least 50 students have asked her whether they should participate in the walkout. “To mess with their education is unbelievable.... I am a Hispanic woman myself, and I do not go along with this. The kids need more time in class, not less.”

The boycott, which has been touted in fliers posted in heavily Latino neighborhoods and discussed on Spanish-language TV, is the brainchild of the Mexican American Political Assn. and its president, Nativo Lopez. Other groups, such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Comite Pro-Uno, are backing the effort, saying the Latino community must take a dramatic stand to protest SB 60’s death.

A boycott, they argue, would remind the state that immigrants are an integral component of daily economic activity here.

“It’s an individual act of conscience that everyone needs to confront,” Lopez said. “The sacrifice of one day pales in comparison to the 10 years of sacrifice that our people have endured for driving without licenses.”

Legislators have been talking about granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants for years. Gov. Gray Davis vetoed two such bills, saying that issuing licenses to noncitizens could result in identity fraud and hinder the war on terrorism.

But this summer, as he faced a recall election, Davis signed a similar bill into law. At the time, it was hailed as a major step in the government’s recognition of illegal immigrants. His opponent Arnold Schwarzenegger accused Davis of pandering for Latino votes and vowed to repeal SB 60 if elected. After Schwarzenegger’s election, the Legislature repealed the law Dec. 2 amid efforts to place a measure on the March ballot to kill the law.

Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), author of SB 60, said Wednesday he supports the boycott but expects Schwarzenegger to follow through on his promise to revisit the issue as early as this month in the hope of reaching a compromise.

“There’s a hypocrisy from people who say we can’t sanction them with licenses, and yet they hire them to do all the work they can do themselves,” Cedillo said. “Every time you eat out, you sanction them. Every time you stay at a hotel, you sanction them.”

Still, some activist groups are expressing wariness over the boycott. L.A. METRO, a coalition of dozens of churches and school groups, declined to endorse it because it was not planned far enough in advance, said Father Jay Cunnane, pastor at St. Thomas Church in Pico Union.

Jose Calderon, president of the Pomona-based Latino Roundtable, said he was wary about supporting the boycott because it might hurt Latino-owned businesses.

“Economic boycotts have to be thought through a lot more,” said Calderon, whose group organized a four-day march from Claremont to downtown L.A. in support of the law. “It would be effective if it was targeted and separates small businesses from large multinational corporations.”

For CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas, the boycott doesn’t take into account the fact that some Latinos didn’t support SB 60. “The Latino community is not homogeneous. There is another sector that is also in opposition.... There is a potential for backlash,” she said.

Juan Nova, 25, a construction worker, said he planned take part in the boycott. “Not participating would be like ignoring what people are putting themselves through for you,” he said.

But others remained skeptical.

“We’re just not united enough,” said Ontario resident Jose Najera, 22, a factory worker. “If we all did it, it would work. But if you don’t go to work, well, you don’t get paid.”

School districts are hoping students choose class over protests. The Los Angeles Unified School District issued a statement Wednesday, saying the district “expects its students and teachers to attend classes on Friday, December 12.”

In Santa Ana, where 92% of the student body is Latino, officials said they would lose $40 for each unexcused pupil absence.

The boycott is an attempt to politicize what is simply a legal issue, said Paul Beard, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed a suit against SB 60 and then dropped it after Schwarzenegger signed the repeal.

“To the extent that [illegal immigrants] want to stay home, well, ironically, they’re within the law because they’re not supposed to be working in the first place,” Beard said.

Times staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.