Thread: Austin Border Rally

Immigration debate comes to Capitol

Border Watch prompts Capitol confrontations

By: Regina Philip

Posted: 6/18/07

Pro- and anti-immigration groups clashed outside the Capitol building for three hours Saturday in response to action in the U.S. Senate last week in which a comprehensive immigration reform bill failed passage.

The U.S. Border Watch, represented by several dozen protesters, called for increased border security, returning illegal immigrants to their native countries and banning their return for up to 10 years. Some protesters said they oppose the immigration bill, strongly backed by President Bush, which would provide a guest worker program and grant "Z" visas that allow a path to becoming permanent legal residents.

In the Senate, some lawmakers are calling for Senate Bill 1348 introduced by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, to be revived next week.

Members of the anti-immigration bill wore red, white and blue and played patriotic music at the front steps of the Capitol.

About 10 pro-immigration Austin residents countered the rally with signs and loud drums.

"I want to stop the federal government from bickering at our neighbors," said Henry San Miguel of San Antonio.

San Miguel and others planned the counter-rally in solidarity with efforts to close down the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas where illegal immigrants are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some civil rights groups have claimed that the conditions at the Hutto facility are inhumane and unconstitutional.

"There are innocent two-year-old children who are put in prisons," San Miguel said. "Are they criminals?"

San Miguel said the immigrants who cross the border illegally are unskilled and cannot afford to become citizens through the legal system.

"I can understand the illegal immigrants," San Miguel said. "We need to give them the chance to become citizens of America. They are poor people trying to make something out of themselves."

Bill Ward, a member of the U.S. Border Watch in Friendswood, Texas, said illegal immigrants take advantage of the government and overpopulate the state.

"There are millions of illegal immigrants," Ward said. "They weigh us down so heavily that they are going to turn us into a Third World nation."

Nikki Standing of Allen, Texas said she would like to see the border secured and under control. She said the health care system is being stressed with too much tax money going toward illegal immigrants instead of to the elderly, poor and orphaned.

"There were 29 hospitals in San Diego that closed down because they were giving free medical service to these illegal immigrants," Standing said. "If they pass the amnesty bill, they are just rewarding people for coming illegally and feeding off of our social status."

Efforts by President Bush to reform immigration laws will return to the Senate floor before the July 4 recess. Provisions of the bill include increased border security, harsher penalties for companies that employ illegal immigrants and a guest worker program with a path to legal citizenship.
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© Copyright 2007 The Daily Texan

I went to the Atlanta rally on Saturday. I made a quick count and I estimate that there were about 250 people there while I was there. I stayed about 2 hours and there were people coming and going the whole time. So there were probably a total of 500-700 that attended that rally during the day.

Some civil rights groups have claimed that the conditions at the Hutto facility are inhumane and unconstitutional.

"There are innocent two-year-old children who are put in prisons," San Miguel said. "Are they criminals?"

San Miguel said the immigrants who cross the border illegally are unskilled and cannot afford to become citizens through the legal system.

"I can understand the illegal immigrants," San Miguel said. "We need to give them the chance to become citizens of America. They are poor people trying to make something out of themselves."

Inhumane? Unconstitutional? according to whose rule? I'm sure our prisons are heavenly compared to the treatment American CRIMINALS would receive at the hands of Messyco. Why do they still question whether a person crossing into the US is a criminal? Yes they are criminals and the fact that they are raza does not change the facts. Nobody is arguing that some of them are poor people trying to make something out of themselves, we just don't want them here illegally trying to do so. How about making something of themselves AND MESSYCO IN MESSYCO?