Walkout Is Planned to Show Solidarity With Immigrants

By FERNANDA SANTOS for the New York Times, Published: May 1, 2006

From behind a vending cart in Jackson Heights, Queens, Mohammad Ali, 58, minced some betel palm tree leaves and nuts in a plastic bowl — mouth freshener made to order for the man in a burgundy tunic who sells Islamic books from a nearby stand.

"Busy, busy, every day, but 15 minutes Monday, no work," Mr. Ali said yesterday, using the few English words he has managed to master since arriving in New York five years ago from Hyderabad, a city in India...

...In Jackson Heights, protesters will gather at 37th Avenue and 74th Street, just outside Pizza Boy, where Nick Lombardo, 53, has worked for the past 30 years, long before he became a United States citizen in 1998.

...Word of the demonstration spread quickly throughout Jackson Heights, where the language options at automated-teller machines — English, Spanish, Korean and Hindi — mirror the diversity of the neighborhood. There were mentions in the pages of ethnic newspapers and on Spanish-language television broadcasts...