Chicago Latino trying to fight illegal immigration
'There are a lot of Hispanics out there like me'

February 11, 2007
By Esther J. Cepeda Special to the Daily Southtown
Rosanna Pulido is proud of her Mexican heritage.

So proud that she has committed herself to championing the rights of Mexicans and other immigrants who, like her parents, came to this country to live the American dream. Legally, that is.

Pulido actively fights illegal immigration -- in 2005 she founded the Illinois Minuteman Project, a civilian border patrol group that works against illegal immigration, and she believes illegal immigrants dilute opportunities for those who arrive legally.

Because of that, she has been painted a traitor to her people, bombarded with nasty e-mail and threatened with bodily harm.

But that hasn't dissuaded Pulido, 50, a resident of Chicago's North Center community, and she's ready to take on a new role.

She's the new Illinois chapter leader of You Don't Speak For Me, a Washington, D.C.-based organization made up of U.S.-born Hispanics and legal Hispanic immigrants who believe illegal immigrants -- and politicians eager to pander to special interest groups -- are cheating hard-working, legal immigrants and U.S. citizens by diverting already-scarce resources.

Like the founders of You Don't Speak for Me, Pulido is incensed by some lawmakers' priorities.

"We have politicians who've voted in plenty of benefits to illegal aliens like in-state college tuition and low home-loans," she said. "But what about senior citizens who need health care or the fact that Illinois' wounded veterans are the lowest paid in the U.S.?"

The new group has about 5,000 members, mostly Hispanics, which might mute some of the criticism aimed at her Minutemen involvement.

In the past, Latino leaders such as Jessica Aranda of the Latino Union of Chicago have called Pulido the Minutemen's token, used only to deflect the group's inherently white-supremacist ideology. Pulido shrugs off such criticism.

"I believe there are a lot of Hispanics out there like me who are afraid to speak out," she said. "I'm uniting with other Latinos who know we must stand up for the rule of law and fight for every American citizen no matter what race or ethnicity they are."

Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2519 ... 11.article