Hispanics from across the United States conducted the first ever march on Washington in October demanding new amnesty, better salaries and improvements to education. Marchers came from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Tucson, El Paso, San Antonio, Miami and New York to present U.S. President Bill Clinton with petitions asking for better treatment of immigrants, especially undocumented workers as well as other reforms.
An estimated 30,000 to 60,000 participants from 30 different states took part in the demonstration bringing a message to the White House, according to organizers, that the Hispanic community is looking for more political clout. The Hispanic community will no longer tolerate being treated as an inferior ethnic class nor accept further "humiliations". In the future, organizers said, those who attack their community with racist or anti-immigration initiatives will pay a high electoral price. Recent legislation by the U.S. Congress will take away food stamps from legal immigrants by April 1 and there have been efforts to prohibit children of illegal immigrants from attending public schools.
According to a Census Bureau report released in early October, the median income of Hispanics dropped by 5.1 percent last year to $22,860 while the U.S. average income rose 2.7 percent to $34,076. Meanwhile the Census predicts that by the year 2050, Hispanics will make up 25 percent of the population.
Sources: El Paso Times, Diario de Juarez