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Sunday, April 30, 2006
People to counter Monday's boycott by shopping and speaking up
People frustrated with pro-immigration rallies to counter-protest by shopping, speaking out.

By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register


CONCERNED: Sandra Sweet of Mission Viejo has planned a “pro-American” rally in Santa Ana for Monday. “I’m just a person who wants to go out there and be heard,” she says.

LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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* Activists urge Latinos to boycott
* What to expect from the boycott
* Experts say economic pinch from boycotts may be brief

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Immigration reform: An archive of the Register's coverage

MISSION VIEJO - Sandra Sweet was 8 the last time she did anything political in public. She thinks.

She has this vague memory of being a little girl when her father took her to a political rally in Washington, D.C., that involved the Vietnam War and something about "a march for victory."

So it's surprising that Sweet, 45, is organizing a "pro-American" rally in Santa Ana on Monday to counter what some are calling "the Great American Boycott." Armed with her e-mail address book – and a sense of alarm – Sweet is taking the first political action of her adult life.

"I got into it because I became very concerned, as a lot of Americans did, when we saw 500,000 people marching in the streets with Mexican flags and American flags turned upside down," Sweet said.

Sweet is among a growing number of people who, frustrated by the debate and Washington's failure to pass any immigration policy changes, are moving from apathy to action. Although she expects only 50 people at her lunchtime rally, many more are urging their friends and families to counter the Monday boycott by taking part in that other great American pastime: shopping.

"Shop 'till I drop," is the answer Barbara Coe, the leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, gives when people ask what she'll be doing Monday. She's going to buy a dishwasher, a purchase she's put off for more than a year.

E-mail campaigns crisscrossing the country are urging people to hold off buying groceries and gas until Monday and dining out – but only at American restaurants.

Jay Gaskins, 44, of San Clemente will be buying a $500 home gym on Monday, along with seat covers for his car and his weekly groceries. Total for the day, about $700.

"It's time for America to wake up and send a message of our own to those who think they have the power to change our country to suit their needs and wants," reads a mass e-mail Gaskins sent last week. "It's time again for the 'Silent Majority' to be silent no longer."

The laws seem to favor illegal immigrants over law-abiding citizens, said Sylvia Christiansen, 40, of Orange. She's protesting the economic boycott by a day of spending that will include her weekly needs and two lawn tools – a mower and an edger – that she and her husband have wanted for a while.

Granting amnesty to people here illegally is not fair to people who jumped through all the legal hurdles, like her parents, who emigrated from Germany, Christiansen said.

Christiansen and Sweet said they know people think they are racist, made out to be the "bad guys" for speaking up, but that's not true.

"They're saying we're racists because we're mad that they're here. Every time they can't prove they're legal, they throw out the race card," Christiansen said. "We just want things done the legal way."

Others, like Sweet, who have never joined a group on either side of the immigration debate, are signing up for duty. The Minuteman Project, the border security group founded by Orange County resident Jim Gilchrist, has seen a spike in its national membership since the pro-immigrant marches last month.

After the March 25 pro-immigrant marches, a deluge of response shut down the project's 24-hour phone line and e-mail system, said Tim Bueler, a Minuteman spokesman. Five hundred people a day called, 200 new chapters have formed across the country, and there are 2,000 to 3,000 new members, he said. Total membership is now at 200,000, Bueler said.

"We don't see the terms 'racist vigilantes' to describe the Minutemen or Jim Gilchrist anymore," Bueler said. "Americans are seeing it's OK to talk about the illegal immigration issue."

The growing interest and action on both sides of the issue doesn't surprise Louis DeSipio, an expert on Latino politics at UC Irvine.

"I think it reflects a healthy democracy," he said. "People are frustrated on both sides of the political issue, all sides of immigration. They are concerned that Washington isn't listening to them, and that's where the power lies to address this issue."

Washington, D.C., where she grew up, is the place Sweet is most concerned about. She's visited congressional Web sites and is versed on both versions of immigration proposals being studied by Congress. She has problems with both bills and isn't sure exactly what should be done.

Still, the issue is so important, she felt she must speak up. And if just a few people show up at her rally, so be it.

"I'm a citizen of Orange County, a legal citizen. I'm not a member of any of these groups," Sweet said. "I'm just a person who wants to go out there and be heard. Even if it's just me out there, I want to be heard."

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