Heckler ejected from rally for immigrants

By Jack Spillane
Standard-Times staff writer
March 18, 2007 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — Though yesterday's rally in support of the undocumented workers caught up in the Michael Bianco raid was packed with immigrants and their supporters, a lone woman holding a counter-protest sign succeeded in throwing the rally off stride for a bit.

Marjorie Blaha of New Bedford held a sign that said, "ICE protects my mother, America, by deportation of illegal alien criminals."

After being asked to lower the sign, Ms. Blaha began to heckle the rally speakers, who in turn tried to quiet her.

Corinn Williams, a longtime advocate for the local immigrant community, asked the protester to keep quiet while immigrant supporters at the rally began to surround her.

"We've given you the airwaves, now give us our time to speak," said Ms. Williams, director of the Community Economic Development Center.

"You can call radio all you want, you can call them all day," Ms. Williams continued, in a reference to the many opponents of illegal immigrants who can be heard on local talk radio.

After a few minutes, New Bedford police forcibly escorted Ms. Blaha from the auditorium.

Some people attending the rally were gathering around her and the emotional situation could have gotten out of hand, police spokesman Capt. Richard Spirlet said.

"It's our duty to protect her, as well as the other people there," said Capt. Spirlet, who was part of the police presence at the rally.

In an interview outside the building, Ms. Blaha described herself as a disabled Navy veteran who stands up for what she believes.

"I'm just angry that an American citizen has to follow the laws but those who illegally came into this country are given ... rights," she said.

Ms. Blaha criticized The Standard-Times for drumming up sympathy for the children of illegal immigrants by publishing their pictures.

"These people need to be deported," she said.

She charged the illegal immigrants with driving down American wages and working conditions by taking jobs that Americans won't.

"The labor system is being subverted by these people," she said.

Jeff Taylor of New Bedford, a supporter of Northeast White Pride (a white supremacist group that picketed Gov. Deval Patrick's appearance in New Bedford on Martin Luther King Day) backed Ms. Blaha.

Like her, he contended that the American job market is being adversely affected by foreign workers.

"I've lost jobs (in the carpentry and garden industries) because of illegal immigrants," he said.

Illegal immigrants have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament, he said.

"I don't feel sorry for people who don't deserve your sympathy," he said. "They know they broke the law by coming across the border."

He isn't moved by illegal immigrant mothers separated from their children, Mr. Taylor continued. (The pro-immigrant rally speaker's podium bore a poster that said "Free my mom.")

"If a pregnant woman kills somebody, should you feel sorry for her because she's pregnant?' he asked.

Immigrants and others are asking for special treatment because of this circumstance or that circumstance, he said.

"Everyone should be treated the same," he said.

Contact Jack Spillane

at jspillane@s-t.com

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... /703180356