Thread: Immigration critics rally near Bush ranch

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Immigration critics rally near Bush ranch
"We're in a fight to save our country," says participant


08:39 PM CDT on Saturday, May 6, 2006
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press


CRAWFORD, Texas – About 500 people rallied in President Bush's adopted hometown Saturday, calling for tighter border security and protesting amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"Rumble is both a noise and a fight, and we're in a fight to save our country," said Frank Jorge of Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, which organized the "Rumble at the Ranch" event in a lot near the high school football field several miles from Bush's ranch. "Hey America, are you ready to rumble?"

He and others called for Bush's impeachment, saying the president has put politics and businesses' greed above the rights and safety of American citizens.

Bush spoke at Oklahoma State University's commencement in Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday.

Several speakers at the Crawford rally said illegal immigrants are taking citizens' jobs and health care and that unsecured borders increase the terrorism risk.

"Amnesty and guest workers programs are ... the death of the American family and the death of the American dream," Raymond Herrera of the Minuteman Project, also part of the rally, told the cheering crowd gathered under a tent on a rainy day.

About 10 cars in the Minuteman Project caravan stopped in Crawford after leaving Los Angeles last week on the way to a similar rally in Washington.

Later Saturday, the Crawford Peace House hosted a news conference in support of amnesty for illegal immigrants. Several speakers said the counter rally was trying to pit Hispanics against each other, but they said the issue is not just about Hispanics.

They also said a House-passed bill that would make illegal immigration a felony could encourage discrimination and violence toward many migrants.

"Everybody came from other countries and all together make strong this country," said Antolin Aguirre, a youth leader at Cristo Rey, an Austin church.

Saturday's events were five days after more than 1 million people around the nation staged marches demanding amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Holding a sign with the message "No beating around the Bush – What part of illegal don't you understand?" Carolyn Goodwin of nearby Lorena said she attended the counter rally to show her disapproval of the president.

"He is absolutely not addressing this issue," she said. "It's like they (immigrants) are breaking into our house and then flaunting it. I feel like an alien in my own country. I think we're in real trouble."

Lupe Moreno of Santa Ana, Calif., president of Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, said the Latino community is most affected by this issue because illegal immigrants are moving into their neighborhoods, causing schools to be so overcrowded that American youngsters are on waiting lists for public schools.

"They've stolen our children's future," Moreno said.

http://www.wacotrib.com

Protestors blast Bush, other officials for immigration policy


Sunday, May 07, 2006

By Tim Woods

Tribune-Herald staff writer

About 200 people gathered under a tent Saturday in Crawford to vocalize their displeasure with President Bush’s handling of the immigration issue and to demand strict immigration reform.

One speaker, Frank Jorge, a Cuban immigrant and member of the Texas Minutemen, called the president “a traitor to the American people” and said Bush has started a program called “Every American Left Behind,” referencing the president’s “No Child Left Behind” education initiative. Jorge’s assertions received cheers from the crowd.

The rally was part of a 13-stop Minuteman Project tour across the United States that originated Wednesday in Los Angeles and is scheduled to wind up Friday in Washington, D.C. Minuteman Project Executive Director Stephen Eichler said some stops might be skipped if certain rallies last longer than scheduled. Eichler pointed to the Los Angeles, Crawford and Washington, D.C., rallies as the three most important stops.

Eichler said the tour, and the Minuteman Project itself, came about as the result of some Americans’ frustration with what they perceive as the government turning a blind eye to the immigration issue.

“The American people are fed up with the hemorrhaging borders, and we want action now. We’re done talking, and we want action,” Eichler said before the rally. “The American people just aren’t going to take it any longer. We’re tired of this invasion force occupying America. If you can’t come here legally, get the hell out.”

People from all over Texas and the nation were in attendance Saturday, with some coming from as far away as Montana to voice their support for immigration reform. Many said that they do not support amnesty for undocumented immigrants already here, and some said they are beginning to feel like outsiders in their own country.

“I am here to demand that (the government) does something about the rights of American citizens instead of the illegals marching in our streets,” said Karen Beatty, 45 of Pasadena, Texas. “I feel like it’s a socialist, communist-backed propaganda plot for the illegal aliens, and I am offended that they’re marching in our streets when they don’t have the right to, that they’re changing the national anthem and flying their colors over ours.”

The Minuteman Project is “a call to voices seeking a peaceful and respectable resolve to the chaotic neglect by members of our local, state and federal governments charged with applying U.S. immigration law,” according to its Web site. The group has more than 1,000 members, some of whom have taken to patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.

Some organizations, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization founded in 1971 by lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin, have been critical of the Minuteman Project and some of its members. The SPLC compiled a list of “nativists” who wish to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and has criticized some Minuteman Project members and others affiliated with the project as being racist and intolerant.

Five of the 23 scheduled speakers at Saturday’s rally appear on the SPLC’s “nativist” list, including Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist.

The Minuteman Project recognizes the SPLC claims on their Web site and denies that the organization is racist, saying that “the Minuteman Project is inevitably attacked and falsely accused of having racist, immigrant-hating motives.” The Web site says that “the issue is one of law enforcement, not race.”

twoods@wacotrib.com

757-5721

Way to go LAIR !

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