Thread: In D.C.- "We're here and we're not going."

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... /603080338

PICTURES AT ABOVE LINK

Immigrants: We aren't criminals
Fury against House bill fuels rally outside Capitol
By PATRICIA V. RIVERA
The News Journal

03/08/2006
WASHINGTON -- Shouting, clapping and pleading, some 20,000 immigrants gathered Tuesday to protest federal efforts to turn into criminals those who come to America seeking freedom and opportunity.

Among the protesters was 35-year-old Lucas Perez, a construction worker from Georgetown, who joined the crowd as it chanted in Spanish, "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos." Translation: "We're here and we're not going."
"We need everyone to understand we're part of this society," he said.

Perez traveled to the rally, held to protest federal legislation that threatens to detain and deport illegal immigrants, with at least 500 workers who filled five buses leaving from Georgetown. Sussex County's immigrants have grown so vocal about influencing federal legislation that a local employer, Perdue Farms Inc., decided to stop production at its Georgetown plant for the day so that its workers could attend the rally outside the Capitol.
Heron Ramirez, 30, the father of the two girls who had a sign saying they weren't terrorists, said he knew he had to attend Tuesday's rally as soon as heard the details of how H.B. 4437 would affect immigrants. "I took a day off from work because I feel it's important to stop this," Ramirez, of Georgetown, said. "We can't be treated like criminals."

Organized by the National Capital Immigration Coalition, the protest united groups that represented immigrants from all over the world. Participants

included the African Peoples Action Congress, Council of American-Islamic Relations of Maryland and Virginia, the South Asian-American Leaders of Tomorrow and the National Council of La Raza.

"We have never mobilized these many hardworking, tax-paying immigrants to the Capitol," said Jaime Contreras, a Washington labor leader and coalition organizer.

Speakers addressed the crowd in English and Spanish, and many participants waved flags from Latin American countries, despite requests from organizers that they display only the stars and stripes.
The event included a religious service that embraced eight faiths, focusing on the American tradition of hospitality to immigrants.

Artemio Masa, 35, of Alexandria, Va., held up a sign with an illustration of pilgrims stepping on dry land. "Your ancestors," the sign read. "Immigrants, too."

Senate bill considered friendlier

The gathering occurred as lawmakers struggle to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, with sometimes conflicting goals of tightening borders and offering hope to an estimated 11 million undocumented workers already working and raising families here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee started this week to debate the specifics of proposed legislation calling for enhanced enforcement along U.S. borders and creating legal avenues for residency.

Immigrant advocates consider that bill friendlier than the controversial House bill passed in December that calls for detaining and deporting illegal immigrants in the United States.

Many at the Washington rally spoke passionately against H.B. 4437, known as the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, which would also make it a crime for social service agencies, churches and individuals to assist illegal immigrants. Unlawful presence in the United States is a civil offense.

Children not even old enough to walk donned white shirts with bold black letters stating, "I am not a criminal."
Immigration reform, rally speakers insisted, should include legalization of undocumented residents.

President Bush has called for a program that would grant temporary worker status to illegal immigrants already here. The Senate is trying to address that as well as border security, but consensus has been elusive. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has said he hopes his panel will produce a bill by the end of March.

Speaking for themselves

The Rev. Cesar Gomez of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Georgetown said the immigrants from Sussex County, many of whom participated in a rally in Georgetown last month, wanted to make an even more personal statement on Tuesday. Parishioners from Catholic churches in Seaford and Georgetown paid for the buses through collections this weekend totaling more than $3,000.
"They feel it's important to make the trip and speak for themselves," he said.

Jack Martin, a researcher with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that lobbies to reduce immigration, said most of the bills under discussion ignore the impact of illegal immigration on U.S. workers.

The federation estimates that 1 million illegal immigrants enter the United States each year. Lawmakers need to take draconian steps such as H.B. 4437, Martin said, to stop even more people from crossing the borders without documentation.

"Any of the other proposals only encourage more illegal immigration," he said.

The number of undocumented immigrants already in the United States has grown to as many as 12 million, according to a report Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, and efforts so far to curb such immigration have not slowed it.
Instead, the report's author said, those efforts are having an unintended consequence: People who illegally enter the United States from Mexico are staying longer because it is harder to move back and forth across the border.

"The security has done more to keep people from going back to Mexico than it has to keep them from coming in," said Jeffrey Passel, a senior research associate at the center.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. Contact Patricia V. Rivera at 856-7373 or privera@delawareonline.com.

Artemio Masa, 35, of Alexandria, Va., held up a sign with an illustration of pilgrims stepping on dry land. "Your ancestors," the sign read. "Immigrants, too."

Umm how can pilgrims be considered immigrants if the land they stepped foot on didn't even have a central government to rule over the masses back then? This country didn't even become the United States of America until 1776, long after pilgrims got here, so until then there was nothing to migrate to. Gee you think these scumbags would at least get their facts straight before going on their usual mindnumbing rants, but I guess not.

Originally Posted by dman1200

Artemio Masa, 35, of Alexandria, Va., held up a sign with an illustration of pilgrims stepping on dry land. "Your ancestors," the sign read. "Immigrants, too."

Umm how can pilgrims be considered immigrants if the land they stepped foot on didn't even have a central government to rule over the masses back then? This country didn't even become the United States of America until 1776, long after pilgrims got here, so until then there was nothing to migrate to. Gee you think these scumbags would at least get their facts straight before going on their usual mindnumbing rants, but I guess not.

That's because the illegals want to go back to the stoneage. The good old days when there were no laws. Sort of like the third world countries they left behind for a better life.

Why didn't ICE round them up?

Yep, that article is situated dead center on the front page of our only statewide newspaper, the Delaware News Journal. The writers and editors are blatant champions of illegal immigration. Rarely does a week go by that it's readers aren't force fed a front page story sympathetic to the plight of "immigrants". Last week they ran a piece that was, for all intents and purposes, a rallying call for this states illegals to attend this protest in Washington. The running joke around here is that the editor, John Sweeny, is really Frank Purdue jr.

For this reason I, and many, many Delawareans seeking anything resembling fair and balanced news either subscribe to, or buy, the Philadelphia Inquirer.

They figure we just need to get used to the fact that they have usurped our land, our language, our laws??

Gosh, I hate to say it...but there are a lot of Americans that are furious at this point. Really furious...and THEY Think Otherwise.

RR

Among the protesters was 35-year-old Lucas Perez, a construction worker from Georgetown, who joined the crowd as it chanted in Spanish, "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos." Translation: "We're here and we're not going."

Wanna make a bet?

"We're here and we're not going."

Famous last words !!
No, WE'RE HERE, AND YOU ARE GOING.

Perdue Farms Inc., decided to stop production at its Georgetown plant for the day so that its workers could attend the rally outside the Capitol.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Perdue paid them for the day for their protest. After all, these chicken pickin places depend of illegals.

"We have never mobilized these many hardworking, tax-paying immigrants to the Capitol," said Jaime Contreras, a Washington labor leader and coalition organizer.

Left out the little word ILLEGAL didn't you Jaime?

many participants waved flags from Latin American countries, despite requests from organizers that they display only the stars and stripes.

I hope they'll soon be waving their Latin American flags in their home countries.

Parishioners from Catholic churches in Seaford and Georgetown paid for the buses through collections this weekend totaling more than $3,000.

Can anybody tell me how this is NOT aiding and abetting illegal aliens

The number of undocumented immigrants already in the United States has grown to as many as 12 million,

Call them what they really are please: ILLEGAL INVADERS

They wouldn't recognize the truth if it bit 'em....12 million? HA...closer to 30 million.

RR