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Hispanic Group Defends Calling Opponents 'Racists'
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
January 13, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - The oldest and largest Hispanic "civil rights" organization in the U.S. is defending a website that labels some opponents of illegal immigration as "racists, cowards" and "domestic terrorists." The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said Tuesday that it launched the site to give immigration control activists "a taste of their own medicine."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, LULAC launched the WeAreRacists.com website on Dec. 14, 2005. The website was intended as a response to members of the "Herndon Minutemen" and HelpSaveHerndon.org, who were photographing and videotaping contractors hiring day laborers at a new taxpayer-funded facility on public property in Herndon, Va.
Other chapters of the nationwide Minuteman Project have been conducting similar operations and posting some photos online. George Taplin, president of the Herndon Minutemen, told Cybercast News Service that the photos taken by his group's members are kept confidential.
The various Minutemen chapters use the documentary evidence they gather to lodge complaints against unlicensed contractors and to request that government agencies verify that all of the contractors are paying appropriate taxes and providing required workers' compensation insurance for the laborers they hire.
The LULAC-sponsored website accuses the Minutemen of being "racists, cowards, un-Americans (sic), vigilantes, [and] domestic terrorists," because of their efforts.
On Friday, the WeAreRacists.com domain name no longer linked to the website, but the singular version of the name - WeAreRacist.com - took visitors to the original home page. LULAC also added photos of Minutemen from Burbank City, Calif., Framingham, Mass., and Denton, Texas to the page that previously displayed only photos of the Herndon Minutemen.
No one from LULAC responded to interview requests for Cybercast News Service's initial report. But, after reading that article, Brent Wilkes, executive director of LULAC, defended his group's accusations against the Minutemen.
"If they can take pictures of people at these locations and post them online," Wilkes said, "we thought we'd give them a little bit of a taste of their own medicine so they can see how harmful and hurtful it can be to have your photo put online."
Wilkes believes that, if there are questions about the immigration status of some of the workers, those questions should be addressed only by federal law enforcement officials.
"We're very concerned that by having untrained volunteers, in essence vigilantes, trying to enforce the law on their own that they're selectively enforcing it against a largely Hispanic immigrant community," Wilkes charged, "and there's no effort to prevent any type of racial profiling."
Wilkes dismissed comparisons of the activities of the Minutemen to those of "neighborhood watch" groups.
"The problem begins when you start having volunteers selectively enforcing laws, especially volunteers that have a particular axe to grind and are all of one race and are focusing it on another race," Wilkes said. "That's when we say that it's racism."
But what Wilkes labels "racial profiling" may be unavoidable in any attempt to effectively discourage illegal immigration because of the demographics of those most often committing the crime.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services indicate that more illegal immigrants come to the United States from Mexico than from any other country, by a margin of 25 to one.
"Mexico's share of the total unauthorized resident population (illegal aliens) increased from 58 percent in 1990 to 69 percent in 2000," according to an analysis completed by federal authorities in 2003.
As of January 2000, more than 4.8 million Mexican citizens were living in the United States illegally. Other than Mexico, only six countries - China, Columbia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - contributed more than 100,000 of their citizens to the U.S. illegal alien population. All tolled citizens of those countries comprised less than 12 percent of the total illegal immigrant population - only about 835,000 people.
Wilkes acknowledged that "Improper Entry by an Alien," is a federal crime, but called it "minor," and compared it to a traffic violation.
"A lot of Americans come into conflict with the law. I have to admit, I've been stopped for speeding before. I've broken the law. But I don't consider myself 'illegal,'" Wilkes said.
"What these immigrants did at the time they crossed the border was illegal. But the anti-immigrant crowd wants to say that they are always illegal, forever, in perpetuity, they can never make amends," he added.
But illegal immigration is, in many ways, Wilkes acknowledged, like trespassing.
"For a crime like trespassing, there's typically a fine attached to that," Wilkes said. "So I pay my fine and I've paid my debt to society and now I'm 'legal' again."
But he rejected the analogy when reminded that the convicted trespasser, after paying the fine, cannot return to the complainant's property.
"The distinction is because that's private property," Wilkes argued. "This whole country isn't private property."
Wilkes believes that once an illegal alien pays a fine for entering the country unlawfully, they should be allowed to remain in the U.S. legally as long as they are gainfully employed or have a financially responsible sponsor.
"The only reason that I can think of that someone wouldn't agree to that is because they're concerned about changing demographics in the United States," Wilkes explained. "They're worried that this is a largely 'white' country and there are a lot of Latinos coming in.
"That's why we feel that a lot of this is race-based," he concluded.
It is the activism of the Minutemen, more than their opposition to illegal immigration that provokes Wilkes.
"If you get up at 6:30 in the morning every day and head over to the day labor site to protest people who are probably the lowest income people in the United States struggling to make a living," Wilkes said, "and that's how you gain satisfaction and you're white and they're all Latino then, chances are, you're a racist."
Taplin denies that he or any of the Herndon Minutemen are motivated by either racism or opposition to lawful immigration.
"We haven't said anything [racist] to anyone. If they can come up with an example where we've been quoted as saying that [or] that anybody here in our group is anti-immigrant
I'd like to hear it, because I'll expel them from the group," Taplin said. "And I can be sure that I won't have to do that. I'm positive."
The presumption by LULAC - that any Caucasian U.S. citizen who acts to discourage illegal immigration is a racist - is what Taplin believes is truly bigoted.
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 4705 Location: North Carolina
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject:
It looks to me like the name of their website would backfire in their faces because they would APPEAR to be ADMITTING they are racist which we know THEY ARE. I would have thought of another name if I had been LULAC. It just immediately sounded to me like they were admitting it and BRAGGING ABOUT IT. _________________ "POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton
Joined: Nov 07, 2005 Posts: 1084 Location: Saxon Tree Goddess
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:29 pm Post subject:
Quote:
The presumption by LULAC - that any Caucasian U.S. citizen who acts to discourage illegal immigration is a racist - is what Taplin believes is truly bigoted.
yep and bootsie- its nice that their favorite weapon is backfiring- cause minutemen have killed and raped no one - but we can't say that about the illegals - who by the way are not a race-
mexico was settled by as many diverse groups as the united states- the latino bolivian woman across the hall is half arab and half spanish- but because she speaks spanish and is from bolivia she is called hispanic.
she is not indian and there fore should be deported to jordan - if you follow the logic of the LA Raza movement _________________ SAVE OUR NATION BOYCOTT
http://sonboycott2.proboards102.com http://saveournationboycott.blogspot.com
Joined: Jan 08, 2006 Posts: 377 Location: Washington State
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:51 pm Post subject:
Quote:
"Who's the one that's spreading the hate?" Taplin asked. "Who's the one that's really the racist?"
And another important question. Who aids and abets this racist attitude? Perhaps the President of the United States, who refers to American Citizens as "Vigilantes". That one statement from Mr. Bush has done a lot to incite hatred against Americans.
Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 1225 Location: COLORADO
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:40 pm Post subject: Responding to the article
Is there any way to respond to this article on a blog associated with CNN? Does anyone know? It would be good to post there and refute this ridiculous misuse of the term "Racist".
Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 1225 Location: COLORADO
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:48 pm Post subject: Brains are BEHIND Lulac not IN it
Quote:
It looks to me like the name of their website would backfire in their faces because they would APPEAR to be ADMITTING they are racist which we know THEY ARE. I would have thought of another name if I had been LULAC. It just immediately sounded to me like they were admitting it and BRAGGING ABOUT IT.
Agreed! Just shows you that the brains are coming from outside LULAC. They sure are not IN it.
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject: Re: Responding to the article
SylviaAlvarado wrote:
Is there any way to respond to this article on a blog associated with CNN? Does anyone know? It would be good to post there and refute this ridiculous misuse of the term "Racist".
You cna respond by going to the link and look at the bottom of the story. The editor and reporters email addresses are there
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 4705 Location: North Carolina
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:18 am Post subject:
Quote:
Agreed! Just shows you that the brains are coming from outside LULAC
From WAY outside!!
That's funny that it's mysteriously DISABLED!! jp--did YOU DO THAT?? COME ON NOW. FESS UP!!!! _________________ "POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton
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Is there any way to respond to this article on a blog associated with CNN? Does anyone know? It would be good to post there and refute this ridiculous misuse of the term "Racist". 