The New Freedom Riders
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride started on September 25, 2003, and concluded on October 4. Endorsed by presidential candidates Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and Joseph Lieberman, the ride brought together 1000 immigrants on 9 buses traveling across the United States.
The IWFR's platform calls for legalization and a road to citizenship, guarantee of labor rights, family reunification, and protection of civil rights and civil liberties.
Nathan Newman has been covering the IWFR and before it started he explained how immigrant rights help U.S. workers. Indeed, the labor unions are among the strongest supporters of the IWFR and among its major sponsors.
The IWFR got quite a bit of media coverage and also faced a difficult several hours when one of the buses was detained by the Texas Border Patrol for questioning. Jeralyn Merritt posted an account of the stop by one of the freedom riders.
Some coverage from around the blogosphere includes Jeanne d'Arc's overview, Kevin Hayden's look at the larger context (posted here at Open Source Politics), Latino Pundit's reflections, my own report on the Seattle send-off rally that I attended, and Freedom Rider's thoughts from an African-American perspective (you may need to scroll down; look for "Huddled Masses; and a Confession from the Freedom Rider").
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