With last month's barrage of anti-immigration-enforcement protests, Americans had their fill of the issue. The sea of Mexican and Latin American flags, the scuffles in schools and other public buildings over the raising of Mexican flags, all the "reconquista" and "stolen land" rhetoric and the sight of thousands of illegal immigrants demanding citizenship had done little to gain supporters.

So when organizers insisted on continuing the offensive with a nationwide boycott aimed at crippling the nation's economy on May 1, it was a political disaster waiting to happen.

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