Thread: Immigration activists target employers (ALIPAC mention)

http://www.newsobserver.com/1154/story/503817.html

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer

Grass-roots groups in North Carolina are taking a new tack in their fight against illegal immigration.

They're targeting businesses they suspect of hiring illegal workers -- the contractor whose crew speaks only Spanish, the factory owner who hires more Mexicans than whites, the cleaning service whose Hispanic janitors don't have bank accounts.

The campaigns are mounted by groups such as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an Arizona-based group best known for reporting illegal crossers at the Mexican border. A spokesman said the group has two newly appointed chapter leaders and is seeking more as it works to expand in North Carolina. Their mission here will be to confront business owners they suspect of hiring illegal immigrants.

Another Raleigh-based group, the political action committee Americans for Legal Immigration, is promoting a Web site, www.WeHireAliens(DOT)com where anyone can anonymously accuse a business of hiring people without proper documents.

Researchers estimate that roughly half the 600,000 Hispanics living in North Carolina are here illegally.

A host of people from North Carolina have anonymously complained on the site that they have been passed over for jobs in favor of illegal immigrants, taunted by Mexican co-workers and threatened by their bosses when they noted illegal hiring. While many claim to have seen falsified Social Security cards and other evidence, others base their allegations on overheard conversations, second-hand accounts or hunches: "The workers sent to my house did not speak English," one person wrote about a Triangle electrical business. "I am from CA and can tell an illegal from a legal."

William Gheen, a former political consultant who founded Americans for Legal Immigration, oversees the Web site, which he said is democracy in action.

"The laws our elected officials passed are not being enforced," Gheen said. "You can expect more people to take more and more things into their own hands, as long as the government fails in its responsibilities."

Gheen, who lives in Raleigh but says his group works nationwide, defended the postings, which he says have been sent to immigration officials. Businesses identified on the site are not notified.

Claudia Cooper, who owns Guglhupf Bakery and Cafe in Durham, said she was shocked to learn that an employee claimed she hires illegal immigrants to save money. She said that all her workers present Social Security cards and other documents. She doesn't investigate whether they're falsified.

Cooper, herself a German immigrant, said she was "sick" at the suggestion that she pays Hispanics less than other workers.

"I know immigration is a really hot topic, and it is important that it gets dealt with," Cooper said. "But what I find really outrageous and scary are these assumptions, that they can just throw us in the middle of it and say, 'They do it so they can save $2.' "

If the Minuteman membership drive is successful, the tactic won't stay confined to cyberspace.

In California and Arizona, the group's supporters are known for protesting at sites where Hispanic workers congregate, as well as photographing and confronting their employers.

Carmen Mercer, vice president for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said that two North Carolina chapter leaders were appointed last week at a training session in Atlanta. She said one lives in Matthews, near Charlotte, and another in Cashiers, in the mountains.

Mercer, who lives in Tombstone, Ariz., said the group is pushing to expand nationally and that it would like to establish four or five chapters in North Carolina.

She said those who join the group go through a background check and telephone interview, to ensure they aren't racist. Then, they are trained to go to any business they suspect of hiring illegal immigrants and hand them information about immigration laws.

The group's leaders hope to appeal to those who believe that illegal immigrants take American jobs, burden schools, spread disease and commit crimes.

But some supporters are concerned about the new tactics. Reagan Sugg of Greensboro, a Minuteman who participated in one of the group's border operations, says he's uncomfortable with the group's new philosophy.

"I'm not going to picket an employer just because I suspect he's hiring illegals, because unless I'm given permission to inspect documents, I don't know," Sugg said this week. "I don't think it serves the cause to participate in activities than can be perceived as harassment."

Mark Potok, who monitors hate groups for the Alabama-based civil rights group, Southern Poverty Law Center, said the rapidly growing anti-immigration movement will almost certainly become more visible in states such as North Carolina, where Hispanic immigration is transforming communities. He said many of the groups, including the Minutemen, have traits reminiscent of the militia movement of the 1990s.

"They encompass a scary combination of bigotry, of conspiracy theories and of a real affinity for weapons," Potok said.

He said claims being made about Mexicans who cross the border illegally -- that they carry diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis, that they are prone to gang rape or child molestation -- are similar to claims made about immigrants throughout history.

Marisol Jiminez-McGee, advocacy director for El Pueblo, a Raleigh non-profit that represents Latinos, said she worries that all Latinos will soon be suspects.

"If I choose to be speaking Spanish, does that mean that I become a viable target for the Minutemen?" she said. "These are not things that are going to offer real solutions to our broken immigration system."

(News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)

Staff writer Kristin Collins can be reached at 829-4881 or kcollins@newsobserver.com.

He said claims being made about Mexicans who cross the border illegally -- that they carry diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis, that they are prone to gang rape or child molestation -- are similar to claims made about immigrants throughout history.

Been monitoring ALIPAC have you Mark? Only thing is these aren't "claims" they're documented instances.

ps..........left out drunk driving illegals and animal molestations didn't you?

William Gheen, a former political consultant who founded Americans for Legal Immigration, oversees the Web site, which he said is democracy in action.

"The laws our elected officials passed are not being enforced," Gheen said. "You can expect more people to take more and more things into their own hands, as long as the government fails in its responsibilities."

Gheen, who lives in Raleigh but says his group works nationwide, defended the postings, which he says have been sent to immigration officials. Businesses identified on the site are not notified.

I have a problem with this statement. this reporter gives the impression that ALIPAC is turning in businesses that are suspected of hiring illegals aliens. This is not a function performed by this group and is therefore, in my opinion. a false statement.

They're targeting businesses they suspect of hiring illegal workers -- the contractor whose crew speaks only Spanish, the factory owner who hires more Mexicans than whites, the cleaning service whose Hispanic janitors don't have bank accounts.

Hmmmmm........did he mean WHITES or did he mean AMERICANS? Isn't this a bit of racism peaking out?

How would one go about finding out if hispanic janitors don't have bank accounts in order to 'target' them?

More than one FALSE statement being spewed here.

What gets me is how this evil woman wrote

Gheen, who lives in Raleigh but says his group works nationwide

As if there is some doubt that I head up a national organization. It's not like she needs to take my word for it, our work in many other states is clear for all to easily see and document.

The way she worded this is as if there is some doubt to my claim I am leading a national organization because I live in Raleigh.

When I first started talking to this woman, she acted like she had never heard of us at all even though we have been covered in her own newspaper over 20 times in the last two years!

W

Somebody needs to work on their research a bit more and show both sides of the story. My journalism classes taught that a writer must be objective, unbiased, un-opinionated (unless stated) and print the who , what where, when, why and how.


Added to the home page:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1638

Originally Posted by jp_48504

Somebody needs to work on their research a bit more and show both sides of the story. My journalism classes taught that a writer must be objective, unbiased, un-opinionated (unless stated) and print the who , what where, when, why and how.


Added to the home page:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1638

Well, JP.........you're still in the "unscathed" mode. Better known as an innocent whippersnapper. Seriously though, the OBJECTIVE is not something that our current crop of journalists/reporters hold in high esteem. They've sold their souls for their own agenda and that of the one world/humanist eutopia.

Besides, how'd you get such an 'unbiased' prof? That, in itself, is amazing.

As if there is some doubt that I head up a national organization. It's not like she needs to take my word for it, our work in many other states is clear for all to easily see and document.

Let's see, I live in Colorado but, I have called, emailed and written people in North Carolina, Texas, New York, New Mexico, Arizona, WASHINGTON DC, Ohio, New Jersey, California, and Florida and may have missed a couple. I think that is pretty national.
It appears to me that her agenda was to discredit and diminish. I don't think she will win a Pulitzer for that article!!!!

Gheen, who lives in Raleigh but says his group works nationwide


As if there is some doubt that I head up a national organization. It's not like she needs to take my word for it, our work in many other states is clear for all to easily see and document.

Seems to me this is a nationwide organization. I am a member and I live in West Texas.

HEL...LO
IF THEY WANT DOCUMENTS...
LET THEM SHOW ME THEIR'S FIRST...THEN I'LL SHOW THEM MINE

I don't know how to paste someone's message section I want to answer so here goes.....

No our laws aren't being enforced and we have every right to complain and fight for our constutional rights...they are ILLEGAL and what they are doing is criminal...of course those from a 3rd world that's not a democracy wouldn't get it...My governor was told...the following..(so much for law abiding individuals)
"IN NEW JERSEY, STATE AND LOCAL POLICE SHOULD NOT ENFORCE FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW" For more details and follow-up discussions, please contact us. Thank you.
On behalf of our coalition partners (see enclosed list),
Partha Banerjee, Ph.D.
Executive Director, New Jersey Immigration Policy Network
Phone: (973)-621-0031
Email: pbanerjee@njipn.org
Marlene Lao-Collins
Associate Director for Social Concerns, NJ Catholic Conference
Phone: (609)-989-1120 x 15
Email: mlaocollins@njcathconf.com
Special thanks to the following individuals who helped us compile this document.
Dr. Nicholas Montalto, Vice-Chair, New Jersey Immigration Policy Network
Reena Arya, Esq., Safe and Free Coordinator, American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
Analilia Mejia, Program and Policy Coordinator, New Jersey Immigration Policy Network
If the Minuteman membership drive is successful, the tactic won't stay confined to cyberspace
I HOPE IT SPREADS AROUND THE COUNTRY
THIS BILL I BELIEVE WAS LEFT TO SIT , BECAUSE OF PRESSURE FROM ILLEGAL ALIEN SUPPORTERS
H.RES.839 : Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that officers of the Department of Homeland Security should not undermine the efforts of citizen groups such as the Minuteman Project to preserve the integrity of the borders of the United States and protect the Nation from intrusion.
Sponsor: Rep Goode, Virgil H., Jr. [VA-5] (introduced 5/24/2006) *****Cosponsors (30)
Committees: House Homeland Security
Latest Major Action: 6/6/2006 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity
The group's leaders hope to appeal to those who believe that illegal immigrants take American jobs, burden schools, spread disease and commit crimes.

WE HAVE DISEASES BACK that haven't been in this country in many years, because we all have been immuned against them since we were kids.



Click here: National Council of La Raza: NCLR-CSULB Center for Latino Health to Release Report on HIV/AIDS Crisis in Latino Co
http://www.nclr.org/content/news/detail/42681/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contactiana Tejada, dtejada@nclr.org
(202) 785-1670

Oct 16, 2006
NCLR-CSULB CENTER FOR LATINO HEALTH TO RELEASE REPORT ON HIV/AIDS CRISIS IN LATINO COMMUNITYWashington, DC - The National Council of La Raza-California State University, Long Beach Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation, and Leadership Training (NCLR-CSULB Center for Latino Health) will release a report, Redefining HIV/AIDS for Latinos: A Promising New Paradigm for Addressing HIV/AIDS in the Latino Community, during a telephonic news briefing on Thursday, October 19, at 11:00 a.m. EST. [Call-in information below]
Hispanics make up 14% of the U.S. population but account for one of every five people currently living with HIV/AIDS in the country, including a disproportionate number of women and youth
read in full
Hispanic Professionals
http://www.nshp.org/hispanic_diversity/ ... _more_jobs
New immigrants getting more jobs
Submitted by Editor on July 23, 2004 - 13:35. Hispanic/Diversity

A study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, found that from the beginning of 2001 through the first four months of 2004, the number of new immigrants who found work in the U.S. was 2.06 million, while the number of native-born and longer-term immigrant workers declined by more than 1.3 million.
Hispanics formed the dominant group of new immigrants," the study said, "with migrants from Mexico and Central America playing key roles. Slightly under 56 percent of the new immigrant workers were Hispanic, nearly another one-fifth were Asian, 18 percent were white, not-Hispanic, and 5 percent were black.
"Those most affected by the influx of new immigrant workers are young, less well-educated American workers and so-called established immigrants, those who have been in the U.S. for a number of years.
read full article
"They encompass a scary combination of bigotry, of conspiracy theories and of a real affinity for weapons," Potok said.
first of all we citizens have a right to bear arms...we are free thinking people and we see the difference between right and wrong,we have the freedom of speech, and because we speak against injustices we are called names, like it or not our voiceswon't be quieted and we citizens make up a lawfull nation with the right to have our laws enforced.
WHEN THE LAW IS AGAINST YOU....ARGUE THE FACTS
WHEN THE FACTS ARE AGAINST YOU..ARGUE THE LAW.....WHEN BOTH ARE AGAINST YOU...ATTACK THE PEOPLE..