Thread: Immigrant Rights Supporters Rally Across Nation

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189052,00.html

Immigrant Rights Supporters Rally Across Nation
Friday, March 24, 2006


Agents Raid L.A. House, Find 70 Illegal Immigrants Held by Smugglers
LOS ANGELES — Thousands of people across the country protested Friday against legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants, with demonstrators in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.

Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.

The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were largely peaceful, authorities said.

Chantal Mason, a sophomore at George Washington Preparatory High, said black students jumped Hispanic students as they left classes to protest a bill passed the House in December that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally.

"It was horrible, horrible," Mason said. "It's ridiculous that a bunch of black students would jump on Latinos like that, knowing they're trying to get their freedom."

In Phoenix, police said 10,000 demonstrators marched to the office of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, co-sponsor of a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. The turnout clogged a major thoroughfare.


"They're here for the American Dream," said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated by police to be at least 10,000 strong. "God created all of us. He's not a God of the United States, he's a God of the world."

Kyl had no immediate comment on the rally.

At least 500 students at Huntington Park High School near Los Angeles walked out of classes in the morning. Hundreds of the students, some

carrying Mexican flags

, walked down the middle of Los Angeles streets, police cruisers behind them.

The students visited two other area high schools, trying to encourage students to join their protest, but the schools were locked down to keep students from leaving, said Los Angeles district spokeswoman Monica Carazo.

In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs Friday after calls for a work stoppage to protest a bill passed by the Georgia House on Thursday.

That bill, which has yet to gain Senate approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S. illegally and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.

Supporters say the Georgia measure is vital to homeland security and frees up limited state services for people legally entitled to them. Opponents say it unfairly targets workers meeting the demands of some of the state's largest industries.

Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work. About 200 converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs reading: "Don't panic, we're Hispanic" and "We have a dream, too."

Jennifer Garcia worried what would the proposal would do to her family. She said her husband is an illegal Mexican immigrant.

"If they send him back to Mexico, who's going to take care of them and me?" Garcia said of herself and her four children. "This is the United States. We need to come together and be a whole."

On Thursday, thousands of people filled the streets of Milwaukee for what was billed as "A Day Without Latinos" to protest efforts in Congress to target undocumented workers. Police estimated more than 10,000 people joined the demonstrations and march to downtown Milwaukee. Organizers put the number at 30,000.

"This is the United States. We need to come together and be a whole."

Yes, it is the United States of America. Why then do these people march behind the flag of Mexico??

Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work.

About Maus

http://www.vdare.com/awall/expulsion.htm

Take the career of only one Mexican diplomat: Teodoro Maus. From 1989 to 2001, with a brief hiatus, Maus was consul general at Atlanta, responsible for Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. But Consul Maus functioned more like a colonial governor than the diplomatic representative of a foreign nation.

In 1995, Consul Maus criticized the declaration of English as the official language of Georgia. Later he demanded and received an apology from a radio talk show host who had suggested machine guns and guard towers be placed on the border.

In 1996, Maus joined with local Hispanic activists and turned his guns on Norman Bingham, Cobb County Board of Education Chairman. Bingham, you see, had the temerity to exercise his First Amendment free speech rights in Maus’ fiefdom, by stating that Latino construction workers were “uneducated” and “probably illegal aliens”. After demanding Bingham’s ouster, Maus allowed the chairman to retain his position, after of course recanting and issuing a two-page apology. That same year Maus attacked a Smyrna, Georgia law requiring all commercial signs be in English.

In 1999, Maus agitated for the issuance of drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, but in this case the Georgia legislature failed to carry out the consul’s edict. That same year, on a Spanish-language radio station, Consul Maus ordered local Hispanics to punish Georgia companies which, in Maus´ view, “mistreat or ignore Hispanic customers”.

After stepping down as Consul General, Maus stayed in the U.S. as a private consultant and then president of the Mexican-American Business Chamber. Now Maus is slated to move to Washington as the Mexican government’s liaison on environmental affairs. So you will be hearing more of him.

One need not necessarily be in agreement with the targets of Maus´ attacks to realize that something very dangerous is going on here - a foreign diplomat consistently meddling in American internal politics. This goes way beyond waving machetes and chanting slogans.

What is truly astonishing though, is that absolutely nothing is done about Mexican diplomatic meddling. No Mexican diplomat has been expelled yet for engaging in activities incompatible with diplomacy–they seem to know this and so we can expect even more brazen behavior in the future. They don’t even have to hide what they do.

Certainly, during the Cold War Soviet diplomats carried out espionage and purveyed propaganda, but would never have dared such blatant public intervention in U.S. politics. Yet Mexican diplomats routinely get away with it - because our government lets them.

A government that was really concerned with national sovereignty would send meddling diplomats packing.

Just like the Mexican media said when the gringos were expelled – “any foreigner... should not meddle in national affairs.”