Today there are 515 people representing 32 different unions aboard 11 buses traveling 357 miles to Phoenix, the state capitol of Arizona, to protest that state's new immigration law, also known as SB 1070. The law is scheduled to go into effect today.

Federal District Judge Susan Bolton on Wednesday had blocked several parts of the law from going into effect, including provisions that required law enforcement officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

Judge Bolton also blocked parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, law enforcement officers are temporarily blocked from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

In making her ruling, Bolton said those provisions should be put on hold until the courts have resolved those issues. Other provisions, many of them procedural and small revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, would go into effect beginning at 12:01 a.m. today (Thursday).

Judge Bolton said "requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked."

"Today's ruling is a great victory for the constitutional rights of everyone in the U.S. and the Department of Justice. However Wednesday's ruling is only a partial victory for workers," Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary - Treasurer, L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL - CIO, announced at a news conference under a banner that read: 'We Challenge Arizona to arrest us.'

"We will have letter carriers, nurses, teachers, hotel housekeepers, librarians and truck drivers [on the bus to Arizona]. All of whom share a belief in an America that is fair and just. A belief that we have more in common as working people - immigrant and non-immigrant alike - than those who seek to divide us."

DIANA MARTINEZ / SFVS

Students in the San Fernando Valley and L.A. County have joined the union's caravan to Arizona.

Joe Gonzalez, representing the National Association of Letter Carriers ,one of those mail carriers on the bus said he is concerned about the practice of racial profiling anywhere. "When you look at me, you can't tell where I was born, until I open my mouth [and speak]" he chuckled.

A member of UTLA, Dan Barnhart said he was concerned about the far reaching impact to his students. "We are sick of seeing our valedictorians, and many of our students have their dreams cut off because of their immigration status. I remember when I was a student in Arizona 20 years ago, and I protested the state's refusal to honor Martin Luther King with a holiday, yes we have to go to Arizona again today. [Those that passed this law] should be ashamed of themselves."

Durazo said the goal is to change the system that created SB1070 to prevent it in Arizona or anywhere else.

"That is why we are still going to Arizona, we have a national crisis, and we call on Democrats and Republicans and the Obama Administration to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We call on the Republicans to stop stonewalling immigration reform." said Durazo.

Opponents of SB1070 maintain the law still targets Latinos while proponents claim it safeguards Arizona's porous border with Mexico.

Durazo, an organizer of the 11- bus caravan, said the trip will also serve to exchange information among Arizona residents, community organizers, and union leaders about California's experience with Prop 187. "Two lessons were that (first),we really had to watch out for these kinds of laws and don't assume that something like this could never happen to our community, and second, to get involved in the political process," Durazo said.

The union members aren't the only ones headed to Phoenix. Immigrant students and their supporters, religious leaders, day laborers and others who oppose the law are also going. A valley college student riding on the bus, Elizabeth Valldejuli, said while she was born in the United States, she comes from a family of immigrants.

"I am studying to be either a teacher or a lawyer because I know how important it is to educate people and to change laws like this one. One of my parents was undocumented, and I know what it was like to grow up with such uncertainty. My mother worked cleaning houses and my relatives lived together in a small apartment working night and day, never having a day off."

Another student, William Diaz said he believes racial profiling will continue even after the judges partial ruling Wednesday. "Joe Arpaio already announced on an early morning talk show Wednesday that he'll continue to arrest people he suspects are undocumented. I think Americans should try to do the jobs the undocumented do in this country. Pick the fields, sell oranges off the freeway, you're welcome to it. Go on the website takemyjob.com and try it for yourself."

Gerardo Almeida a member of the Labors International Union of North America, a construction union, agreed that it was necessary to go to Arizona despite the ruling. "It's a social issue. Today's ruling is one step forward, but what we really need is reform. Everyone is a human being and deserves to have human rights."

While there were reports of plans for civil disobedience with some protesters prepared for being arrested, Durazo said none of the union members plan to be involved in that part of the protest. What the union members plan instead is help Arizona's Latino residents with voter registration and mobilization.

One of the effects of California's Prop 187 was a surge in Latino voters, which has a continuing impact on California politics. "Even (Republican nominee) Meg Whitman says she needs at least a third of Latino votes to win (the California Governorship). So it's created a sensitivity to the Latino vote," said Durazo.

"There's already a growing sentiment among some of those going that they'd like to return and do a weekend to help do voter registration in Arizona. We're going to try to raise resources that will help pay for these voter registrations and voter turn out."

In the past, union members and immigrants have been portrayed as antagonists. But at least in Los Angeles, years of union organizing campaigns involving immigrants - that includes undocumented as well as legal - in the hotel industry, home care, janitorial, among car wash workers and in construction, has shown that unionization can work. As Durazo pointed out, "It's become clear that it's not the workers who don't want better working conditions, it's the dirty tactics used by employers to try to scare them away from organizing."

Another aspect of labor's self interest today that is different from the past is many of the same politicians who were anti-worker and anti-union are also anti-immigrant. Like many people vowing to continue their protest Durazo cited the practices of the now infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona. U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently won a $2 million class action lawsuit against Arpaio because he had failed to pay overtime to his law enforcement officers.

Durazo feels that in the current economy, with thousands of workers getting laid off in both public and private sectors, all workers - union, nonunion, and immigrants, legal or otherwise - must stick together.

"Otherwise, we are going to rebuild an economy based on lowwaged jobs, undocumented immigrants not even paid, not even getting what's legally required," Durazo said. "There's been a number of campaigns that have raised the consciousness and have made it clearer and clearer that if we don't stick together, we're all going down."

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