A very diverse group of immigrant communities came together in Boston, Massachusetts yesterday to celebrate May Day, a worker's holiday celebrated throughout Europe but generally not recognized in the United States, the Boston Independent Media Center reports.

While the event was primarily a celebration of culture, some discussed more substantive concerns affecting their communities. For example:

• According to a representative of the Brazilian Immigration Center, out of an estimated 230,000 Brazilians in Massachusetts, 3,000 were arrested in 2003, 4,000 in 2004, and from October 2004 to April 2005 10,000 arrests of Brazilians have been made. Yet immigration still denies that Brazilians are a targeted community.
• Hamza Pelletier of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, says he hears about anti-Muslim discrimination all the time from people he meets in Massachusetts. Every thing from bullet holes in mosques and beatings of individuals, to the story of a boy whose teacher purposely loses his homework.