Thread: Dueling groups to demonstrate over immigration

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Dueling groups to demonstrate over immigration

By LEAH RAE
lrae@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS

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(Original publication: January 7, 2006)

In response to a "Stop the Invasion" protest planned for this morning at day-labor hiring sites, immigrant advocates in Rockland County will show up with their own message.

They plan to gather nearby on a stretch of Route 59 in Spring Valley while a local group called the Citizens Civil Defense takes part in a national protest calling for better enforcement of immigration laws.

"I don't want them to have the only voice," said Gail Golden, co-chairwoman of the Rockland Immigration Coalition. "There is going to be media coverage, and we're going to be there to stand in support of immigrant rights."

The national protest was initiated by the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control.

In Danbury, pro-immigrant groups decided against a counterprotest because they were reluctant to draw more attention to the event, said Wilson Hernandez, who helped organize a "Unity March" there in June.

William Tibbe, a Chestnut Ridge resident who organized the protest in Rockland, warned that President Bush's proposed guest worker program would bring a further influx of immigrants who "breed like rabbits," overburdening schools and hospitals.

He also warned that Mexico was trying to colonize the United States.

The Citizens Civil Defense is a "neighborhood watch" that calls attention to the presence of undocumented immigrants, Tibbe said.

He has submitted information to the Rockland Sheriff's Department in "copious amounts," said the department's chief of patrol, Harry Stewart.

"He seems to have some complaints, which probably are very valid, and we've looked into them," Stewart said this week. "But most of the complaints are against the immigration policies of the government, so we really can't respond on that level because we don't have the authority."

Local proponents of immigrant rights said they agreed that the immigration system needs an overhaul along with better security at the border.

But they said security measures should be combined with legalization for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

"Rather than single out one group, I think we need to think broadly about immigration reform," said Graciela Heymann, director of the Westchester Hispanic Coalition.

She said it was wrong to focus on day laborers, because immigrants work in so many sectors of the economy.

"Blaming migrant workers for failed immigration policy is like blaming the miner for the dangerous conditions of the mine," the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said in a press release. "The people they label 'invaders' are the very people building our homes, serving our food, and feeding our kids. They're our neighbors."

More than 40 Minuteman spinoff groups have formed around the country since May, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project.

The highly publicized Minuteman Project brought armed civilians to the Mexican border in April for a month of patrols to report what the group calls "invaders."

"What they're really trying to do is find a way to join this movement in states that don't have any (international) borders," Potok said. "And unfortunately for people who are day laborers, it's turned into a rather nasty, confrontational situation.

"I think what's worrying about the whole movement is you've got this very volatile mix of conspiracy theories, a fairly high level of bigotry, and a whole lot of guns."

Tibbe dismissed charges of bigotry.

"This is not an issue of racism," he said. "This is an issue of illegal immigration."

Does anybody here know what a dog hole mine is? It is a coal mine operating under substandard payment, safety and worker's compensation conditions. Once the coal is sold off through a broker there is no way of buyers spotting the difference. The legitimate coal mines have to compete against them to fill orders at a higher overhead cost.

Blaming illegal immigrants is like blaming those people who are willing to work in dog hole mines. They are unqualified and there willingness to work enables speculators to operate coal mines which create unfair competition for legitimate miners.

I would not be at all suprised if some of the dog holes mines are hiring illegal aliens.

ALPAC Survey on Protest issue

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Surveys