Thread: Anti-immigration activists rally, preaching mostly to themse

Anti-immigration activists rally, preaching mostly to themselves

Choir practice in Raleigh
25 JUN 2008 • by Matt Saldaña



A member of the N.C. Minuteman Patriots holds a sign at ALI-PAC's anti-immigration rally June 18. The N.C. Minutemen "stand opposed to any organization based on race or one that advocates the invasion of American soil," according to its Web site.
Photo by Matt Saldaña
On the Bicentennial Mall outside the legislative building last week, a dozen immigration activists and conservative lawmakers delivered a series of red-meat tirades against undocumented immigrants, blaming them for drunken driving, gang warfare, crowded emergency rooms—and even, some insinuated, the fall of civilization.

Their rhetoric was designed not only to inflame, but also served as code: In trumping up the social and economic threats allegedly posed by undocumented immigrants, groups such as the Minutemen and Americans for Legal Immigration are tacitly justifying violence among activists—should it erupt—as the cost of defending America.

The latest threat, according to rally organizer and ALI-PAC president William Gheen, is permitting undocumented immigrants to pay their way through college. Gheen called the "emergency" rally June 18 to protest House Bill 2717, which would prohibit the state's community colleges from denying admission to illegal immigrants willing to pay out-of-state tuition—typically five times as much as the cost of in-state tuition.

No such prohibition exists within federal law. Yet last month, N.C. Community College System President R. Scott Ralls imposed a moratorium on degree-seeking students who couldn't prove their legal residency, following the recommendation of N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper. The bill would reverse Ralls' ban, and is waiting to be heard in the House education committee.

However, bill sponsor state Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) said in an interview that, based on its misrepresentation by anti-immigration groups, she doubted the measure would clear the committee this session. (State Reps. Paul Luebke of Durham and Rick Glazier of Cumberland County co-sponsored the bill.)

"From the e-mails that I get in opposition to the bill, it's primarily based on the fact that taxpayers don't want their money going to services provided to illegal immigrants, and they think they're taking the place of North Carolina students. Neither is the case."

During the rally, Gheen asked legislators considering Harrison's bill, "Which one of you is willing to sacrifice your children's, and your grandchildren's, place in college?"

However, of 1 million total students who attend college in North Carolina, only 144 are undocumented, according to Harrison.

"It's sort of a no-brainer to me," Harrison said. "Do you want to create productive members of society, or do you want to create a permanent underclass? From what I hear anecdotally, these kids, seeing that they don't really have a chance at a better life, are dropping out of high school and turning to crime and gangs. We ought to pay now or pay later, and it makes more sense to educate them."

The public relations strategy of ALI-PAC and the Minutemen is to equate illegal immigration with bloodshed, and they couch their language in violent terms. ALI-PAC regularly sends e-mail news alerts associating immigration with violence and ethnic warfare. Incendiary subject lines include: "Immigrants are attacking," "Battlestations: Immigrants in a Lose-Lose situation today" and "Illegals Supporters Riot in WA, marches bomb, five arrested."

Minutemen groups charge themselves with "securing the border" by patrolling for illegal immigrants. Its members focus their homespun crime-stopping on the "human flood breaching our Homeland Defense." The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national group, clearly identifies the source of that flood on its Web site: It features a close-up photo of a white face with a tear streaming down it, as the Mexican flag is superimposed over an upside-down American flag.

Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, told the sprinkling of onlookers, "Too many [immigrants] are entering this country, not to take the jobs that so-called Americans won't take, but to do the crimes that we allow them to commit."

Yet the majority of crime in America is still homegrown. A report by the Public Policy Center of California found that adult males born in the United States are two and half times more likely to commit crimes than foreign-born adult men.

While Gheen acknowledged that "Yes, Americans commit crimes and Americans drink and drive," he charged "we have illegal aliens that are drinking and driving, and vicious, very dangerous, gangs in this state that are killing people ... these people are dead because the government is failing in its most basic responsibilities to the citizenry."

Defending the anti-immigration activists were several state legislators, including Republican Reps. John Blust, Dale Folwell, Wil Neumann and Paul Stam (of Wake County) and Republican Sens. Andrew Brock and Neal Hunt (also of Wake)—many of whom used the occasion to ratchet up fears of immigrants.

Folwell reminded attendees that while people with brown skin who spoke a language other than English weren't necessarily illegal, "there's a correlation." He said illegal immigration "hit home" when he walked into hospitals, ostensibly referring to the ethnicity, or language, of patients.

Folwell also offered as evidence of the "cost" of immigration the fact that "every publication" published on the issue "had to be in two languages." He then delivered this doomsday prediction: "As a student of economic history, I can tell you that there's two things that civilizations never survive: devaluation of their currency, or devaluation of their language, and these are two things Americans are facing at the same time."

During tough economic times, anti-immigration activists often use the immigration issue to try to instill fear, particularly among working-class Americans, that foreigners will displace them from their jobs. N.C. Listen Director Ron Woodard cited —wrongly—a UNC-Chapel Hill study that "pointed out that North Carolina workers are losing $1.9 billion a year due to out-of-control immigration."

In fact, UNC professors James Johnson and John Kasarda co-authored a 2006 study that found Hispanics contribute $9 billion a year to the state's economy, while saving the private sector $1.9 billion in wage costs due to labor efficiency.

"Some of these labor-cost savings keep North Carolina's businesses competitive, while others are passed on in the form of lower prices to North Carolina," the report found.

With the exception of two Latinos invited by activists, the rally was predominantly white. Gheen, who has deflected accusations of race-baiting in the past, insisted that the anti-illegal immigration movement is color-blind:

"Radical groups, to the left, are constantly injecting race into this conversation, and we wish they would stop." He added: "It is time—black, white ... Latino—every American, I mean every American, realizes that when you have 80 percent of the American public [who support] the existing [immigration] laws, that say, 'This is what needs to be done in the United States,' then that's what you do. All together."

The poll Gheen referenced was conducted in 2007 by the Civitas Institute—a North Carolina-based conservative think tank—in the midst of heated debate over an immigration reform bill sponsored by U.S. Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy. The Civitas poll framed the bill as providing "amnesty" to illegal immigrants, the same argument conservative talk-radio hosts used in denouncing a portion of the bill that would provide a path to eventual citizenship.

One poll question asked, "Would you be more or less likely to vote for a congressional candidate who supported immigration legislation that you believed provided amnesty for illegal aliens?" The question Gheen cited, which occurred in sequence after the "amnesty" question, asked whether the U.S. should "secure the border" and "enforce existing immigration laws"—before new legislation has passed. Presumably, the 81 percent who answered yes included both those who supported and disapproved of McCain and Kennedy's bill. In other words, the overwhelming majority of people Gheen said approve of "what is to be done," may actually want do something else about immigration.

Two speakers, Lee Anthony Nieves and Roan Garcia-Quintana, seemed intent on disassociating their Latino heritage from that of illegal immigrants.

Nieves, a "third-generation American" who represents the Latino anti-immigration organization You Don't Speak for Me, said he wanted to debunk the myth that Latinos are a "monolithic" group—and implied that some Latinos are anti-American.

"Not all Hispanics view the United States with contempt," he said. "We do not want to see a Balkanized America, separated into little ethnic tribes, like we see in today's prisons."

Garcia-Quintana, a Cuban-American who said in an interview that his family's roots are in Spain, characterized Mexican and Central American immigrants as "Indo-Hispanics" who "impose" their culture on him.

As director of Americans Have Had Enough, Garcia-Quintana said he identifies as "Southerner" and insisted he arrived here "the right way, the legal way."

"By the grace of God, I was raised in the South. I went through from Havana to Savannah, Ga. South Carolina's my home. I do speak English, and I do speak Spanish. There's nothing wrong with speaking 20 languages, but English is the language that unites us."

In South Carolina, Garcia-Quintana lobbied to strengthen local immigration laws, and warned of an invasion of undocumented immigrants to North Carolina. "When we get rid of them in South Carolina, they're coming here. So you better get ready for it."

In an interview after the rally, Garcia-Quintana alluded that vigilante justice could break out if immigration laws aren't tightened. "What I'm concerned about is that if we don't do something, people are going to take the law into their own hands," he said. "I hear a lot of people casually mention, 'I've still got my Second Amendment right.' That can only mean one thing."

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Conten ... d%3A260092

To the Editors of Indy Media:

Matt Saldaña is full of crap and his opinion piece 'Anti-immigration activists rally, preaching mostly to themselves' is so full of errors I will only correct the first few paragraphs.

First, we had about 35 people at our rally on June 18 at the legislature, not 'a dozen'. We had about 24 activists, eight lawmakers, and six organization leaders, which isn't bad for the middle of a workday and a rally with barely two weeks to plan. We also had over 600 people listening live to an Internet broadcast of the event.

Two, our organization ALIPAC has never advocated violence or spoken in mysterious codes to facilitate violence. We have, on numerous and well publicized occasions, spoken out against racism and violence. Your assertion we are violent is repugnant, as well as idiotic.

Three, you claim I was citing polls from the Civitas Institute showing 80% support for our efforts for immigration enforcement. You then try to discredit those specific polls.

What you stooges fail to realize is that the 80% I'm talking about are now citations from hundreds of polls from hundreds of sources all across America, who say the same thing. Over 80% of Americans want secure borders, immigration enforcement, and no benefits whatsoever for illegal aliens.

Finally, you know full well from our name "Americans for Legal Immigration" and the well publicized and documented fact we are supported by many legal immigrants concerned about illegal immigration, that we are not anti-immigrant.

This hatchet job of make believe news is more appropriately placed with the scribbling in bathroom stalls, instead of masquerading as news in the Indy.

It is such a shame that your publication is so riddled with moral and ethical shortcomings that you would expose yourself so easily to ridicule for lying so extensively. But then again, that is why my side of this debate is making headway, while your side is floundering. Each time one of you left wing elitists writes a hateful fiction piece like this, we win and you lose.

People see our side telling the truth and standing with the people, while they see your side lying and scrambling to do all you can to attack our character, instead of focusing on the issues. People instinctively sense the weakness of your position when you do that.

Thank you for the free exposure that overreaches to the point of harming your side and helping mine.

William Gheen

"Not all Hispanics view the United States with contempt," he said. "We do not want to see a Balkanized America, separated into little ethnic tribes, like we see in today's prisons."

Which is what's happening. This article is so slanted and biased.....there are some days I just want to scream when these people won't wake up and see what's happening and I'll bet will be the first to complaine when it hits them and they wonder what happened. Unfortunatly an I told you so won't be enough by then to fix it.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

This hatchet job of make believe news is more appropriately placed with the scribbling in bathroom stalls, instead of masquerading as news in the Indy.

So true.

William,

When reading this faux article my thoughts were similar to your reply and I said to myself this will hurt them.

In fact,it is so obviously a hatchet job,it really did not deserve a reply.

Hispanics contribute $9 billion a year to the state's economy, while saving the private sector $1.9 billion in wage costs due to labor efficiency.

Is "labor efficiency" the same as being paid less than minimum wage and in cash? Did I mention no benefits?

This is my reply to this idiot reporter and the liberal rag that he works for.=======================================

Just yesterday I read an interesting article detailing how newspapers all acrosss America are crashing and burning financially. This story is a prime example of the facts behind that article. Instead of telling the truth, this reporter elects to insert his own biases in his his article. Lies, half truths and political correctness is his order of the day. Anything that can put criminal alien invaders and their employers in a good light is the truth that he seeks. To hell with the truth, what matters to him is an agenda to pretend that our laws do not exist or that certain groups of people are exempt from them.
It is articles like this that makes Americans want to get up and run to the bathroom to throw up. This idiot reporter has his head so far up his fouth point of contact that he would not recognize the truth even if he stumbled over the top of it. It is also articles like this that make Americans give up reading newspapers because the truth doesn't matter anymore. What matters to these newspapers is to insert articles composed of mostly bullcrap, feel good lies and hope we don't see the truth for what it is.
Is it any surprise that newspapers are going bankrupt? To them it is, but to the American people we see the lies, so we decide to find the truth in other ways. We are giving up on newspapers because they have forgotten that their mission is to print the truth.
And I will bet that this newspaper is crashing and burning for the same exact reasons that others are experiencing in every state in the union. Their mission is to report all the lies that are fit to print, to hell with the truth, and are becoming extinct because of it.

No wonder progressive liberal types are so ignorant about the ill effects of illegal immigration. They need to wean themselves off this indymedia pap and carefully take a look at the facts ALIPAC presents.