ALIPAC in Chicago Tribune: We dominate illegal alien supporters!
Posted on Wednesday, June 04 @ 08:39:54 EDT
Topic: Illegal Immigration News in the US
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 ALIPAC Note: The radical left blogs are going nuts this morning in reaction to this article. They are agitated by what ALIPAC had to say. ALIPAC is not "anti-immigrant" as this article suggests and we greatly value our ALIPAC supporters that are LEGAL immigrants.
Please follow the links at the end of the article to vote in the Tribune's slanted online poll.
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Immigration debate grows from Web roots
Blogs, forums rife with opinions from advocates, opponents
By Antonio Olivo | Tribune reporter
June 4, 2008
Minutes after word broke about a Nickelodeon TV special on children
affected by Immigration raids, messages like "What part of illegal
don't you understand!?!" and "Deport them all!" bombarded Web sites and
blogs.
Then, in an increasingly common reaction, bloggers from
"pro-migrant" sites such as Citizen Orange and The Unapologetic Mexican
countered by ridiculing the show's critics.
By the end of the day, a Google search for the documentary was more
likely to highlight the pro-legalization side of the debate than the
anti-immigrant side. Victory, for the moment, was theirs.
But the war is just getting started on this increasingly influential front in the Immigration debate.
In what is becoming a rhetorical echo chamber for anyone who types
the word "Immigration" into their search engine, the Internet is
filling up with clashes—often racially tinged—over deportations, border
security and the country's general future in the face of changing
demographics.
Both sides hope to build popular momentum for a renewed fight over
Immigration reform during the next presidential administration.
Squaring off in blogs, on Facebook or in YouTube videos, they see
themselves immersed in a cultural battle for the ages and are enlisting
students and seniors alike in volunteer squads charged with advancing
their side of the argument whenever and wherever possible.
"I've got 80-year-olds that are . . . Internet fighter pilots,"
said William Gheen, president of the North Carolina-based Americans for
Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a conservative group
whose Web campaign helped derail Immigration reform legislation in
Congress last year by prompting thousands of faxes, e-mails and phone
calls to legislators.
Topics: ALIPAC, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, illegal immigration, anti illegal alien, websites, Internet, Web, activism, grass roots, blogs, Amnesty, Chicago Tribune
"Some of them, when they first came on, were scared to death to even
interact in this media," Gheen said. "But I've watched them grow.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and we're inventing tactics as we
go."
The dominance on the Internet of conservative groups like ALI-PAC
has moved pro-migrant groups to get more active, prompting
conservatives to escalate their efforts.
After failing last summer to win legalization for the country's
estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, advocates realized the
battle was lost largely on the Web.
A study by The Opportunity Agenda, a New York-based social justice
organization, showed the presence of anti-legalization groups last
summer on social networking sites was twice that of pro-immigrant
groups. Some conservative discussion forums on Facebook have dwarfed
the opposition with as many as 18,000 members.
"We haven't yet been able to win the hearts and minds of the
average American, and that has to happen before legislation passes,"
said Jacquelyn Mahendra, who coordinates a Web campaign for the
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Generally, both sides fall into three categories: e-advocacy blogs
calling on readers to pressure legislators, human interest sites that
tap into frustrations over federal raids or illegal Immigration, and
creative, sometimes comical, games and videos meant to win over the
unsuspecting Web surfer who may still be undecided on Immigration
reform.
The latter group ranges from conservative TV and radio host Glenn
Beck's 2006 cartoon "History of Illegal Immigration in a Couple of
Minutes," attracting nearly 200,000 YouTube views, to the Web video
game "ICED"—a 3-D journey of the pressures faced by deported immigrants
that has been downloaded more than 90,000 times since last summer.
Meanwhile, "Great Immigration Debate," a cartoon that mocks both
sides, has reaped nearly 3 million views on YouTube and a 2007 Webby
Award nomination.
Immigrants themselves, frustrated by how they're portrayed, also
have entered the fray. In Chicago, one such blogger is Flor Crisostomo,
an illegal immigrant who has sought sanctuary inside a Humboldt Park
church since January. She also has a MySpace page.
From her Northwest Side perch, Crisostomo, 29, has begun posting
bilingual screeds against federal raids, news of her personal stand,
and critiques of U.S.-Mexico trade policies that, she argues, have
spurred border-jumping.
"This site will be for the whole world, including groups who are
anti-immigrant," said Crisostomo, who once loaded pallets in Pilsen.
"More than anything it will be to educate people why we're in this
resistance."
Prenal Lal, 23, a Fijian immigrant in northern California, is among
a growing number of "Dreamers" hoping to show the debate's complexity.
Their site, A Dream Deferred, is built around the Dream Act, which
proposes temporary legal status for undocumented college students. The
bill has languished in Congress.
Among the site's links to blogs and videos, an online petition
calls on each of the presidential candidates to make the Dream Act a
top priority during the first 100 days of a new administration. So far,
it has just more than 8,100 signatures—a response that has Lal
wondering how much influence she and other Dreamers wield. "I would
like to see more people get active in this."
While small, such efforts are cumulatively weaving a Web network
that can be used for political organizing and fundraising, said Frank
Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington-based
strategy group for Immigration reform.
"It's just such a potent tool," said Sharry, whose staff has been
meeting with political Web firms to devise a national strategy. "Over
time, what we'd love to see happen is have bloggers who swarm the way
anti-immigrant bloggers do and, eventually, challenge lawmakers to act
and debate strategy and policy."
To all such pro-migrant ambitions, Gheen and other conservatives
say: Bring it on. "We are light-years ahead of the competition," said
Gheen, a former political consultant who said he sees his group as part
of a "populist movement" of conservative talk show hosts, legislators
and others who report what mainstream media do not about Immigration.
ALI-PAC has been a persistent voice on the Web, posting videos and receiving 5 million hits on its Web site in May, Gheen said.
Such aggressive efforts on both sides have attracted extremists who
have charged the debate with a rising level of hateful, violent speech.
"You look at these blogs and there's some horrendous stuff going
back and forth," Gheen said, emphasizing that his staff of 14 moderates
language on the ALI-PAC site. "You've got [militant Latinos] posting
'Kill all whites' and you've got white nationals over there posting
'Kill all browns.' It's out of control. It's crazy."
Discuss this article with our online activists at...
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