Thread: Anti-illegal immigration rally in Farmers Branch park schedu

Anti-illegal immigration rally in Farmers Branch park scheduled

6:18 PM Mon, Aug 09, 2010 | Permalink
Dianne Solis/Reporter

Arizona's new anti-immigrant law and legalization for illegal immigrants pick up more traction for divisive debate this month.

The twin issues are the focus of a rally set for this Sunday, Aug. 15th, at 1 p.m. in Farmers Branch, where the city council is fighting in federal courts to defend an ordinance barring illegal immigrants from rentals.

The event's organizer is Dan Baltes, a 51-year-old paralegal in Salt Lake City who calls his group Americans Against Immigration Amnesty. Baltes says he plans a multi-city tour against legalization programs for illegal immigrants.

"Since 1986, the last time we granted amnesty under [then-President] Reagan, the problem hasn't gotten better," Baltes says.

Baltes says the border must be secured first. It's a familiar point raised by some who oppose legalization for a portion of the 10.8 million persons the Department of Homeland Security estimates were in the U.S. unlawfully in 2009.

"The name of our group is very straight-forward: We are not in favor of blanket amnesty because that would grant citizenship to every cartel member, drug runner and human smuggler," Baltes says.

Questioned further, Baltes said he "absolutely" does recognize that every illegal immigrant doesn't fit into those illicit job categories. A good number work as waiters, gardeners, nannies and dry wall hangers.



The Border Patrol's beefed up with its largest staff ever at 20,000, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a quarter of its personnel in the Southwest border region, according to the two career prosecutors who head those agencies and penned an essay in the Wall Street Journal last month.

Insufficient, Baltes says.

"We do have more Border Patrol agents but we don't have any more control over the border," he said. "We need operational control," says Baltes, who served in the U.S. Army right after Vietnam.

Farmers Branch was choice real estate, Baltes said, because of its stymied renters ordinance. Baltes couldn't secure permission for rally use of the FB Historical Park, just off Interstate-35, because he isn't a resident of the Dallas suburb, he said.

"They wouldn't let me take out a permit, if you can believe it," he says. So he found a Tea Party activist with an FB address to get the necessary permit, he says.

Baltes' tour is financed by his membership, he says.

And a newly formed Texas-based group calling itself Texans for Arizona's Immigration Law is assisting with the rally, said Mark Little, a co-organizer and a FB resident. That group has held one other rally, in Austin, Little said.

(The activist group Citizens for Immigration Reform isn't involved. Its Dallas co-founder has moved to West Texas and now refers calls to an Austin-based group.)

The twin issues of legalization and Arizona's SB 1070 galvanized thousands into the streets last May 1 in downtown Dallas. Then, however, marchers supported an amnesty program and Catholic Bishop Kevin Farrell, an Irish immigrant, helped to kick off that march from the downtown Cathedral.

http://farmersbranchblog.dallasnews.com

Arizona's new anti-immigrant law

Wow, in the first handful of words one can discredit their own story.


(edit: I can't get logged/signed in to comment on this misrepresentation, hope someone else has better luck )

HA! Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6CYA8QwtNA

This author is so BIASED and definitely an IA HUGGER. She's even won awards for her slanted writings.