Illegal Immigrants Should Hit the Bricks

URL: http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/nation_world_ ... 86,00.html

Scripps Howard News Service

Opponents of plans to overhaul the immigration system have been sending bricks marked with messages to U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's (R-Fla.) office in the Russell Senate Building in Washington, D.C.

Activists say illegal immigrants should hit the bricks
By AMIE PARNES
parnesa@shns.com
May 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — About a dozen small, weighty boxes began trickling in to Sen. Mel Martinez's Capitol Hill office a few weeks back. At the time, the senator's staff didn't think much of it.

But with each day, more boxes came.

And then dozens more.

Inside each box the staffers found a red brick, usually with a note or a message: "Build a wall. Secure the border."

By Tuesday morning, Martinez staffers had received more than 200 bricks sent by opponents of plans to overhaul U.S. immigration laws in a way that would give millions of those in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship.

Those opponents are trying to persuade lawmakers to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and drop a plan to create a guest worker program. The bricks, they believe, send a strong message.

Martinez, the freshman Republican, has been at the center of the divisive immigration debate in recent weeks, primarily because he is the Senate's sole immigrant.

He and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., helped craft a compromise last month that would create a guest worker program and grant citizenship to illegal immigrants who pass background checks, pay back taxes plus a $2,000 fine.

Because of his stance on the issue, Martinez has become a one of the biggest targets of the bricks on Capitol Hill — as of Tuesday, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has only received about two dozen, spokesman Dan McLaughlin said. In fact, Martinez staffers have received so many, they covered a good part of the floor in an aide's office.

"If this debate went on for a few more weeks we could pave the entire office," said Martinez spokesman Ken Lundberg. "It's certainly creative.

"It's encouraging how people have found a way to express themselves on the issue," Lundberg added. "We agree with them. We want secure borders, but we also want comprehensive immigration reform."

The Senate is expected to pass a comprehensive immigration package, much like the one Martinez proposed, in the next couple of days. The upcoming vote has caused a surge in the shipments of bricks. They've been coming in from Florida, Ohio, Colorado and other spots around the country.

"It's not too late to do the right thing," Roger Preece of Aurora, Colo., wrote on a note taped to a brick Martinez received recently. "You swore to uphold our laws. Have you lied?"

Most of the bricks came from an organized anti-illegal immigration Web site, www.send-a-brick.com, which gives users the option of sending their own brick or buying a brick online for $11.95.

"Don't have time to mail your brick?" the Web site says. "We can do it for you."

Each brick is sent with a letter addressed to a lawmaker of choice. The letter reads, "I am sending you this brick in support of an increase in the border security of the United States. This brick should give you a start in building the wall on the border."

But Lundberg said the bricks would not be used to build a wall. The office hopes to donate the bricks to Habitat for Humanity.


I am also happy to report there were 17 comments to this article and all of them were against illegal immigration!

"But Lundberg said the bricks would not be used to build a wall. The office hopes to donate the bricks to Habitat for Humanity. "

Why not use the bricks to build a prison to house anyone that comes over the wall?

I've been listening this morning to the left-wing radio program "Democracy Now!" They had immigrant advocates on there, and it seems they HATE the changes made to the Senate bill . . . they don't want it to pass any more than we do! "Better nothing than this compromise," they said. And if it does pass, gets reconciled with the tougher Senate bill and is signed into law by Bush, most illegals will not accept the terms of amnesty! Just as I predicted some time ago: If illegals can't dictate the terms of amnesty, they don't want it.

The pro-illegal side is not any happier about this than we are.

They want full amnesty right now, if not yesterday, nothing less.

So it's all just a big ol' political show, isn't it? Everything they're doing will basically have no effect at all. We'll get a fence that isn't long enough, National Guard presence with no enforcement power, toothless employer sanctions and a guest worker program and amnesty that will be ignored. Meanwhile, the illegals keep flooding into our country and the specter of terrorism hovers unnoticed over us all. Somehow, we've got to take back our government.

That is what I thought. Like they need the government to do anything really, most are happy now the way it is. Like they need any help at all heck they are set up with a government golden goose. Even if they get Amnesty that means paying taxes. I would wager some if not most would like to remain in the shadows. Some are sitting around a camp fire each night chuckling about how much effort we are putting into this issue.
Does anyone really believe that these new laws will be enforced?

I think all of us here on this website can declare a limited victory of sorts. Illegal immigrants, if they get any legislation at all, will get something they don't want and won't respond positively to. The politicians who shephered this stinking immigration bill to Bush's desk will be left with egg on their faces and angry constituents to answer to, no matter whether they're Anglo or Hispanic! So now it looks like if we stop it from becoming law, we'll please everybody on all sides of this issue EXCEPT the corporate lobby. I'm feeling better about our prospects now than I have in days.