Thread: Chicago Latino trying to fight illegal immigration

Chicago Latino trying to fight illegal immigration
'There are a lot of Hispanics out there like me'

February 11, 2007
By Esther J. Cepeda Special to the Daily Southtown
Rosanna Pulido is proud of her Mexican heritage.

So proud that she has committed herself to championing the rights of Mexicans and other immigrants who, like her parents, came to this country to live the American dream. Legally, that is.

Pulido actively fights illegal immigration -- in 2005 she founded the Illinois Minuteman Project, a civilian border patrol group that works against illegal immigration, and she believes illegal immigrants dilute opportunities for those who arrive legally.

Because of that, she has been painted a traitor to her people, bombarded with nasty e-mail and threatened with bodily harm.

But that hasn't dissuaded Pulido, 50, a resident of Chicago's North Center community, and she's ready to take on a new role.

She's the new Illinois chapter leader of You Don't Speak For Me, a Washington, D.C.-based organization made up of U.S.-born Hispanics and legal Hispanic immigrants who believe illegal immigrants -- and politicians eager to pander to special interest groups -- are cheating hard-working, legal immigrants and U.S. citizens by diverting already-scarce resources.

Like the founders of You Don't Speak for Me, Pulido is incensed by some lawmakers' priorities.

"We have politicians who've voted in plenty of benefits to illegal aliens like in-state college tuition and low home-loans," she said. "But what about senior citizens who need health care or the fact that Illinois' wounded veterans are the lowest paid in the U.S.?"

The new group has about 5,000 members, mostly Hispanics, which might mute some of the criticism aimed at her Minutemen involvement.

In the past, Latino leaders such as Jessica Aranda of the Latino Union of Chicago have called Pulido the Minutemen's token, used only to deflect the group's inherently white-supremacist ideology. Pulido shrugs off such criticism.

"I believe there are a lot of Hispanics out there like me who are afraid to speak out," she said. "I'm uniting with other Latinos who know we must stand up for the rule of law and fight for every American citizen no matter what race or ethnicity they are."

Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2519 ... 11.article

"I believe there are a lot of Hispanics out there like me who are afraid to speak out," she said. "I'm uniting with other Latinos who know we must stand up for the rule of law and fight for every American citizen no matter what race or ethnicity they are."

Now stick that in your pipe and smoke it, La Raza

When posting an article, please stick with the headline used by the source.

Good for Ms. Pulido. We need more Americans of hispanic decent to speak out against illegal immigration. It effects us all.

You should hear my Aunt Alice (maiden name: Valenzuela). Proud of her heritage, bilingual teacher in the schools, but the attitudes and behaviors of some of the new 'Aztlan' crop annoy her as much as us. She finds them obnoxious and threatening too. Her family's attitude upon arrival was much like mine (German, Norwegian, and even part Canadian): learn English, learn the culture, behave non-offensively, blend in and become American ASAP. For a time, in the late 19th and early 20th century, my German ancestors had 'training wheels' in the form of German language newspapers and church services, but moving beyond the need of them was #1 priority. Here in Colorado (my family was from Philly) there's a story of the founding Coors boss catching a worker speaking German, and admonishing him, "You're in this country now, you speak American!" Yes they had their 'barrios' but the goal was to move out and assimilate with the larger society quickly. One amusing result: the parents in both my German lines made the kids speak English to their parents even in the home. The results were that the older kids were bilingual and the younger ones barely functional in the old world language, as English became the norm over the years. My grandfather, an older kid, satisfied the foreign language requirement at Drexel University by cranking out his German - only his south German accent and words for some things gave away the fact that he didn't have to study and practice like the other students.

BTW, when I went to do the genealogy, I found the papers for both male heads of household - they were legal (immigrant women married to naturalized men became citizens automatically at that time).

thank you to all legal immigrants who are speaking out against illegals. Americans only have so many resources available and more and more of them are being given to illegals while legal immigrants and Americans are doing without.

According to the US Department of Labor because I was born outside the continental United States though to American citizen parents I am a legal immigrant.

On behalf of us you are welcome. Now let us get the illegals out of here.

nothing makes me happier than this news... now we just need someone like her here in Dallas.

This is a hit article on Myspace.