http://www.10news.com/news/8296790/detail.html

SAN DIEGO -- Thousands of protesters -- mostly teenage students -- took to the streets throughout San Diego County on Monday to voice their opposition to an immigration bill being debated in Congress.

One of the largest and most boisterous demonstrations occurred in Escondido, where hundreds of youths from Orange Glen and San Pasqual high schools marched along streets and chanted in front of City Hall, police said.

Escondido police requested backup personnel from other agencies, said Lt. James Bolwerk of the county sheriff's department, which sent in a group of motorcycle officers to help keep the peace.

Similar rallies -- prompted by a bill that would crack down on employers hiring illegal workers and people smuggling illegal immigrants into the country -- took place throughout the county, Bolwerk said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14199154.htm

Students, advocates protest immigration reform bill
HUNDREDS MARCH ON SAN JOSE CITY HALL
By Deborah Lohse, Janice Rombeck and Mary Anne Ostrom
Mercury News

Hundreds of San Jose high school and middle school students walked out of their schools and gathered in front of city hall today to protest pending immigration reforms. And in San Francisco, more than 1,000 protesters were heading into the city's main thoroughfare, Market Street, just before noon today.

The San Jose students, many of them of Mexican heritage, bore signs urging defeat of proposed federal laws they said would make many of their undocumented parents, relatives or friends into felons. Police said they were expecting hundreds more students.

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By midday, law enforcement personnel reportedly had taken several people into custody for failing to disperse. Precise arrest numbers were not immediately available.

In San Diego, about 300 students from at least three public secondary schools -- Gompers, Mission Bay and San Diego High -- walked out of classes and joined a march to Chicano Park, said district spokeswoman Music McCall.

"Our school police officers are on scene, as are SDPD officers, to provide traffic and pedestrian safety," she said at midday. "We have at least one site administrator keeping track of the students and requesting that they return back to school."

Those participating in the walkout were "considered to be in defiance of district rules" and will be subject to discipline, possibly including detention or suspension, McCall said.

The disputed immigration bill, introduced by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would require employers to verify Social Security numbers with the Department of Homeland Security, increase penalities for human smuggling and stiffen punishments for undocumented immigrants who re-enter the United States after being deported.

Under the legislation, local law enforcement agencies would be reimbursed for detaining illegal immigrants. Refugees with aggravated felony convictions would also be barred from receiving green cards.

The House of Representatives approved the bill in December. The Senate was debating the legislation Monday.