Thread: Immigration Rallies Fail to Impress

Immigration Protests Fail To Impress

Last year, millions of people marched in the streets to push for comprehensive immigration reform. Holding signs that demanded open borders, telling Southwestern cities that the land underneath them was really Mexican, and flying Mexican flags, the demonstrations had the short term effect of publicizing their agendas -- which had the long-term effect of strengthening anti-immigration hardliners. Congress never passed the comprehensive reform they demanded, and instead passed a border fence intended to restrict illegal immigration.

Not surprisingly, the immigration rallies this year did not come close to the scale seen last year:

Waving U.S. flags and demanding citizenship for undocumented immigrants, tens of thousands of jubilant protesters marched through the streets of Los Angeles on Tuesday during a mostly peaceful day that ended with clashes between police and demonstrators in MacArthur Park.
Fifteen police officers were among those hurt. About 10 people were taken from MacArthur Park by ambulance to hospitals for treatment, said d'Lisa Davies, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. She said the injuries mainly were cuts, including head and neck wounds. None of the injuries were believed to be serious. Police reported that one demonstrator was arrested.

About 35,000 people turned out at two Los Angeles rallies, far fewer than the combined 115,000 that organizers had anticipated and greatly fewer than the roughly 650,000 who turned out at rallies last year.

Turnouts were light across the country compared to last year, when millions of marchers in 150 cities took to the streets.


It wasn't light enough to keep the Los Angeles event from turning into a small riot. It's unclear how it started, but protestors began throwing bottles and other items at police. The police responded by attempting to clear the park, and then escalating to foam bullets and gas. After the Rodney King riots, the LAPD has a strong inclination to respond early and in force when it sees a demonstration getting out of hand, and Chief William Bratton now has to see whether they acted too quickly and with too much force.

People had a number of theories for the lack of turnout yesterday. Two of the more hilarious explanations were that (1) people feared deportation, and (2) there were too many events and they diluted the response. The first is patently absurd; nothing has changed in the year since the huge rallies, except that amnesty-favoring Democrats control Congress. They were more at risk for arrest and deportation last year than this year, and even then it was highly remote, as events proved. As for the number of events, there may possibly have been more yesterday, but millions of people didn't show up for them.

The best explanation is probably that Congress hasn't tackled illegal immigration yet. In fact, they haven't tackled much of anything so far, preferring to posture for almost three months on funding the troops in Iraq. John McCain has dropped out of leadership on this issue, and Republicans look less inclined to support normalization before border security than they were last year. Without a bill pending in Congress, they have no inspiration for massive protests.

And, just perhaps, illegal immigrants may have realized that they did themselves no favors with their arrogant demonstrations last year. The McCain-Kennedy bill may have passed if they hadn't shouted their reconquista slogans on every news channel in America. That display cost them the moderates, and the immigration bill they wanted died on the vine of the pushback from hardliners. This year, they may have just decided that quiet lobbying works a lot better for their aims.

Posted by Ed Morrissey at 07:02 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

And, just perhaps, illegal immigrants may have realized that they did themselves no favors with their arrogant demonstrations last year.

Best thing that ever happened to the anti-illegal immigration movement. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot

Originally Posted by pjr40

And, just perhaps, illegal immigrants may have realized that they did themselves no favors with their arrogant demonstrations last year.

Best thing that ever happened to the anti-illegal immigration movement. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot

PJR, that's the best "self inflicted" wound I've ever seen!!!
Maybe it's just me, but displaying the country's flag you are in upside down with their home country flag on top, isn't always a good idea to gain support from that paticular country.