Dueling immigration billboards cloud College World Series
Dueling immigration billboards cloud College World Series
Julie Hong - KPTM FOX 42 News
A follow up to a story KPTM FOX 42 News first told you about earlier this week:
After we pointed out mixed messages on some area billboards, a local anti-immigration group is trying to take the College World Series to the plate.
On Wednesday, we told you about two billboards. One, an ad against illegal immigration, the second was an ad in Spanish, advertising the College World Series.
Two days later, the Spanish CWS ad has been replaced. However, controversy continues for America's favorite pastime.
Susan Smith, Founder of the Nebraskans Advisory Group is playing hardball, protesting against the College World Series. "They're pandering to the Latinos, not just the Latinos but to the illegal alien community," she says.
This anti-immigration rally was prompted by the pairing of these two ads earlier this week.
The Spanish ad for the College World Series has since been replaced.
The other... a message against illegal immigration... remains.
"We don't care what country they're from, if they're here illegally we want them out and we don't want any businesses or governments coddling those illegal aliens by putting it in their language," Smith says.
Smith says the group initially considered boycotting the series... but have come up with a different game plan. "If they're going to run their billboards in Spanish, they need to run it in German, Italian, French and every language we have here," she says.
It's one game the College World Series wants no part of.
"We're just not going to enter a political debate on immigration issues because that's not why we're here," says CWS Executive Director Kathryn Morissey.
The CWS executive director says it's been running Spanish ads for three years with no complaints. "We weren't reaching out to a community that was very interested in baseball and we saw that as a marketing issue and said we should solve that," Morissey says.
Organizers of Friday's protest say the focus should be on baseball... not politics.
"We're here to welcome baseball fans from all across the country to the CWS and Omaha and make it the best, fan friendly, family friendly event that we can," Smith says.
Both sides say that the placement of the billboards was coincidental.
The CWS asked the billboard company to remove its sign, which has happened.
The Nebraskan Advisory Group says it has left messages with the CWS. CWS officials say that they plan to return those phone calls.
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