Thread: Protesters picket credit union

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Protesters picket credit union

RIVERSIDE: Accepting the matricula consular card endangers Americans' security, they say.


12:22 AM PST on Sunday, March 27, 2005

By BONNIE STEWART / The Press-Enterprise

Waving American flags and drawing honks and hoots from passing cars and trucks, about 40 protesters picketed the Altura Credit Union in Riverside Saturday because it allows non-U.S. citizens to open accounts using identification cards issued by Mexican consulates.

The protesters, some members of Citizens' Alliance for a Secure America, or CASA, said the identification, called matricula consular, gives undocumented immigrants access to banking and other services that only citizens deserve and encourages more people to enter the country illegally.

"Until the laws of the State of California change, we will continue to accept the matricula consular," said Ricki McManuis, a senior vice president with Altura.


David Bauman / the Press-Enterprise
Citizens' Alliance for a Secure America protests at Altura Credit Union in Riverside on Saturday. Members say financial institutions aid illegal immigration by accepting Matricula Consular cards.



"We certainly are not breaking any laws," she said.

Protesters said that undocumented Mexican immigrants use too many social services and medical resources and take jobs away from Americans.

San Bernardino resident and former teachers' assistant, Tori Stordahl, 56, said she was concerned about terrorists using the cards.

"They are risking our country to make a profit," she said of the credit union.

Numerous financial institutions around the country, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and health insurance companies such as Blue Cross and Health Net, accept matricula consular.

Freeman Sawyer, 61, from Camarillo in Ventura County, said the identification cards are not reliable because no background checks are done on the applicants.

"They are very secure documents," said Carlos Giralt-Cabrales, the Mexican consul for Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The cards are not issued unless people can prove their nationalities, their identities and provide proof of local addresses, he said.

Fingerprinting also is part of the process, Giralt-Cabrales said, adding that each card has a secret code embedded in it that can be read with a decoder. That way, financial and other institutions can confirm that they are legitimate.

Some Saturday pickets passed out fliers with a Mexican sombrero superimposed on the head of Altura Credit Union's president and chief executive officer Mark Hawkins.

Altura's McManuis would not comment on the flier.

"I call it racism," said Armando Navarro, a professor of ethnic studies at UCR and coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights.

Groups like those protesting Saturday fear the demographic shift in the Southwest, he said, because whites are becoming the minority.

He said that allowing undocumented immigrants to open banking accounts benefits everyone. Their labor contributes to the growth and stability of the economy, Navarro said. And when they spend their earnings, they pay sales taxes, which benefits the state.

Some of Saturday's protesters opposed any immigration.

"We don't need any more legal or illegal immigrants," said Corona resident and retired postal worker Don Schenck, wearing a button that read: "What part of illegal don't you get?"

"It should bother you if you drive by a school and see only one white student getting off the bus," he said.

Saturday protester Lupe Moreno, 47, president of Santa Ana-based Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, said she and her husband divorced over the issue of illegal immigration.

Moreno said she was born in Redding, grew up working in the fields, got pregnant at 14 and married an undocumented immigrant when she was 16.

After their marriage, she said, the couple spent seven years and hundreds of hours in lines until he got his green card.

They were in love, had five children and were happily married for years -- until Proposition 187 hit California in the mid 1990s.

Had courts not struck it down, the proposition would have banned illegal immigrants from public social services, non-emergency health care and public education.

Moreno, who supported the proposition, said her husband did not and told her she was a Mexican and not an American.

That did it for Moreno.

"I adored him. If he told me the sky was green, I agreed," she said. "But I couldn't stomach him telling me I wasn't American."

She's been protesting illegal immigration ever since, she said.

It was a great rally; 75+ people there. A reporter from Dobbs was there, doing interviews and the rally will be featured tomorrow on his show. The reporter was very nice, was introducing himself to people.

It was a boisterous crowd, lots of US flags. Great mood, very high morale, several dogs, lots of talking and laughing. There was a great deal of honking and waving from passersby. I think the US flags help with that. Several people entering the credit union stopped and took information.

There was a sour faced woman with a clip board from the credit union who wrote down the license plate of anyone who stopped in their parking lot.

The other employees just sort of looked and stared.

I believe it was Casey Wain that showed up yesterday. He usually covers rallies and protests for Lou Dobbs. He was doing the segment on Home Depot rally, although he wasn't there, but I got his name from the Home Depot segment on the transcript.

It is GREAT to hear of the good sucess of that operation. Targeting businesses is something that the IR movement MUST do, and do frequently. If only a protest here and there happens, then the MSM can easily dismiss it as a bunch of luny racists. However, if demonstrations such as this start happening with regularity (sevral per week) AND there is good forewarning to the media, then the MSM's talking point that there really is no one doing this, can be destroyed.

CONGRATS on a successful operation!

H.