California students protested against proposed US immigration reform for a fifth day as Congress debates a crackdown on undocumented workers. The protest came as President George W. Bush started a two-day summit with his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The American leader's first bilateral meeting was to be with Fox, whose country is worried about proposals in the US Congress to possibly criminalize unapproved entry into the country.
About 6.3 million of the more than 11 million-plus illegal immigrants believed to be in the United States are Mexican.
Bush backs a plan that would toughen border security but launch a guest worker program that would give 400,000 visas a year and open the possibility of full citizenship.
In San Diego, the major California city closest to the US-Mexican border, hundreds of high school students, mainly Hispanics, took to the streets to protest the measures under debate in the US Congress.
Police arrested between 30 and 40 protesters for obstruction and street actions, Music McCall, spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified School District, said. Most of the city's public schools have suspended classes until Monday.
Police estimated that nearly 400 students took part in the demonstration and that those arrested would be processed and released to the custody of their parents.
The size of the protest in San Diego was considerably smaller than Wednesday's, when more than 1,200 students marched out of class here. Police said about 150 were arrested.
Thursday was the fifth day of student protests in California, where 32.4 percent of the population of 36 million are Hispanic, according to federal data.
But the number of students hitting the streets was dramatically lower compared to previous days when between 11,000 and 36,000 pupils boycotted class in Los Angeles alone, officials said.
The wave of demonstrations erupted last Friday in Los Angeles, mainly among Mexican-American students who called for less-restrictive reform of immigration law.
The boycott prompted authorities to warn that pupils who skip class to take part in the demonstrations could be suspended from school, face 200-dollar fines and be ordered to perform 20 days of community service.
Saturday, 500,000 demonstrators brought Los Angeles to a standstill by staging one of the biggest demonstrations in recent US history against the proposed crackdown, while 50,000 people protested Monday in the northeastern US auto-making capital of Detroit over the issue.
The issue has split Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress, some of whom have pushed for strict enforcement measures on the US-Mexico border without providing the possibility of legalizing those undocumented workers already settled in the United States.
The House of Representatives has already voted for the construction of a wall along the US border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration, as well as severe penalties for violations of immigration laws.
