One of the major topics in the new this week has been the discussion of H.R. 4437: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. There have been many public demonstrations against this bill including over a half million people protesting in the streets of Los Angeles as well as hundreds of thousands of other students walking out of class to protest across the country. If this bill is passed, it could potentially make felons of anyone that helps an undocumented citizen: volunteers in a soup kitchen, doctors, nurses, or even a friend driving them to work. Personally, I think the bill is ridiculous and hope it fails.

Here are a few pictures from the recent protest held here in Salt Lake. On Monday, about 100 students from West High walked out of school to join the protest across the street. The Assistant Principal was stationed at the door, discouraging the students to leave. Many of the students did not care and strutted past the authority figures. I found it interesting that later during the protest, the assistant principal came out to make sure the students were being safe and told them that although they were exercising their constitutional rights to free speech, it was the school’s official policy that they would all be given an unexcused absence.