http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... 0900185E64?

Feel strongly about immigration? Joe Buehrle does
By Shane Anthony
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/15/2006

Joe Buehrle on his front porch with two of his signs.
( Wayne Crosslin/P-D)

ST. CHARLES

No one doubts how Joe Buehrle feels about illegal immigration, but some of his St. Charles neighbors wonder if he has decency.

Neon yellowish-green signs that adorn his porch have turned more than a few heads.

A recent one read in part: "I support the U.S. Border Patrol." It also used a curse word. Another sign also included a curse and then said, "You live American, you speak American!! Viva America!!!!!" He has similar signs on his van.

Buehrle, 52, a retired St. Charles city employee, lives in an unassuming brown house on Perry Street. An American flag flies on one side of the steps leading to the house. A red-and-white St. Charles flag flies on the other side.

Buehrle is a tall man with tattoos in remembrance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on each bicep.

The anti-immigration signs are readable from the street. Buehrle says all he is trying to do is express an opinion about an issue he feels is growing in importance nationwide.

But Al Gonzalez, 49, who runs DOTec Engineering just around the corner from Buehrle, says the problem isn't really about the right to express an opinion.

"The real issue that we're having here is that he can express himself freely, but the way that he's doing it cannot be right," said Gonzalez, who also serves as chairman of the Hispanic Leaders Group of Greater St. Louis. Not only do the signs use offensive words, he said, but they also make generalities about Hispanic people.

Immigration is a difficult subject, said Gonzalez, whose heritage is Puerto Rican and who was born in Louisiana.

The Hispanic Leaders Group has tried to take a middle ground position on the issues surrounding immigration. But the type of language used by Buehrle, he said, only deepens problems.

Buehrle says millions of people are in the United States illegally, and he wants it to stop. He says all borders, not just the Mexican border, need to be monitored. He also says he would be glad to go to the Mexican border, and if he could, shoot people who tried to cross illegally.

Jane Johnson, 37, who lives in the area, stopped by recently to tell Buehrle she didn't like the wording. She generally opposes illegal immigration, she said, but the language is offensive, and his house is a block and a half from Lincoln Elementary School.

Buehrle said that the words he used were in the dictionary and that parents and children didn't have to pass his house to get to the school. They can take another route, he said.

Nationally, the issues surrounding immigration have sparked heated debate. And in the St. Louis area, immigration has been targeted by officials in St. Charles County and Valley Park.

The St. Charles County Council has been discussing a proposal that, among other things, would bar companies from getting a county business license, permit or contract for five years if they are found to be hiring illegal immigrants. It would apply only in unincorporated areas.

However, the sponsor of the bill, Councilman Joe Brazil, said last week that "we're kind of in a holding pattern" because it appeared that no such list of companies was available because the federal law wasn't being enforced. He said he also was watching to see what happened in court with the Valley Park ordinance.

Valley Park passed a law that penalizes business owners and landlords for hiring and renting to illegal immigrants, but it is on hold pending a legal challenge.

Buehrle would like to see similar legislation passed in St. Charles, and he is considering a run for the City Council.

Across the street from Buehrle, Larry Hendrix, 45, a union laborer, said he agreed with his neighbor's positions. Hendrix was among the protesters a few months ago who pointed out the use of undocumented workers at a construction site in O'Fallon, Mo.

"I feel like he's 100 percent right," Hendrix said.

Buehrle said he had no intention of changing his signs.

"It's my right as an American to speak my mind," he said.

santhony@post-dispatch.com 636-255-7209