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Immigration critics, supporters hold dueling protests at Capitol




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By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 10TH, 2006 (THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS).- The U.S. Capitol's West Lawn served as Exhibit A of the intense polarization over immigration as members of the Minuteman Project rallied Wednesday for border fences and tougher enforcement while counterprotesters demanded open borders.

On a chilly, blustery day, a few dozen Minutemen and supporters gathered at the base of the Capitol, pressuring Congress to crack down on illegal immigration and reject a guest-worker program sought by President Bush.

"We are, in fact, being invaded," Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who has fashioned himself into a leading voice against illegal immigration, told the Minutemen. "This problem is something we can't walk away from anymore."

Kept at bay by Capitol Police, counterprotesters loudly chanted " Sin fronteras," Spanish for "Without borders," and accused the Minutemen of being armed vigilantes.

The political theater came as the always-contentious immigration debate is poised to land at the Senate's door, with consideration next month of a border security package that could include a guest-worker program covering millions of illegal immigrants.

"The president and [adviser] Karl Rove are proposing a de facto amnesty, and we're holding our ground," Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist told reporters. "We're not going to buy into yet another gigantic head fake, the illusion that the problem is solved, because we know the problem will get worse until we get it under control."

Lack of border control was the topic of the day for 16 Texas border-county sheriffs, who are in Washington this week seeking help to tackle growing problems with illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence fueled by warring drug cartels.

Ten sheriffs briefed a dozen Texans in the House on Wednesday morning, pressing for more resources for federal, state and local law enforcement. They made a similar case at the White House, where they met with policy aides, and planned meetings today with Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.

Emerging from the House meeting, several Texas congressmen said the federal government is doing too little to address border security and pledged to obtain funds for the sheriffs.

The Bush administration, in a budget plan released Monday, proposed $1.7 billion in new border security funding and 1,500 more Border Patrol agents. And Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told a House panel Tuesday that the administration has a strategy for controlling the border.

While welcoming the proposed funding, Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, said: "It's not quite enough."

Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores expressed impatience at what the sheriffs view as Washington's inattention to a growing and dangerous problem.

"It's just a difficult thing to see and understand that these people are taking it so lightly," he said. "We're talking about national security, for God's sake."

E-mail mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com