Linclon NE May 6 rally news story

You can do it in your area. Promote a rally. Even a hand-full of folks devoting a few hours can do it.

Here is a newspaper story from the city where the rally will be held.

Note the comments left by readers at the end of the story.

Follow the link to read everything.


http://www.journalstar.com/articles/200 ... 755613.txt


Immigration critics set sights on Saturday
BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

A recently formed group called Nebraskans Fed-Up with Illegal Immigration is planning a rally Saturday at Antelope Park.

Lincoln resident and coordinator Stanford Sipple said he is responding to recent Hispanic-organized events here, elsewhere in Nebraska and nationally aimed at accommodating undocumented workers.

“There have been all these thousands of illegal immigrants in this state wanting a free pass into this country,” Sipple said Wednesday.

“I think they’re trying to intimidate public officials into going their way,” he added, “and we want to represent the silent majority that doesn’t want them to get a free pass into the country.”

The Saturday event looms as the latest local development to attempts by Congress to choose between harsher or more lenient treatment of an estimated 12 million workers in the United States illegally.

April 10 rallies in Lincoln, Omaha and other Nebraska cities attracted thousands of Hispanic marchers who favor the more lenient approach and a strategy that might allow many from undocumented ranks to remain in the state.

Organizers of an event Monday, called “A Day without Immigrants,” encouraged workers to show their economic power by skipping work and staying out of non-Hispanic stores.

That led to more Nebraska marches and a candlelight vigil in Lincoln.

Sipple, who said he watched the April 10 march here, thinks the time has come for critics to assert themselves.

“I think they have a right to present their views … but they are wrong. And the majority in this country doesn’t want unrestricted immigration.”

The Saturday plan for offering a counter message is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Those attending will recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the national anthem and perhaps hear from people whom Sipple said moved from California to Nebraska to escape the latest wave of immigrants on the West Coast.

Local Hispanic activist Marty Ramirez said later Wednesday he’s not surprised a counter rally is in the works.

There has always been an anti-immigration point of view in the state “and we were very aware that there was going to be a backlash,” Ramirez said.

Woven into it, as far as he’s concerned, is “the concept of race, racism and hatred, that becomes part of the backlash, part of the frenzy, the panic” that Hispanics “are taking over.”

When asked about his motivation, Sipple ruled out any influence from events of three years ago in which he said he was suspended from practicing law by the Nebraska Supreme Court after a dispute with a client over a fee in a worker’s compensation case.

He ruled in, among other things, a visit to a Web site where others who share his views were promoting an organized response. That includes between “a dozen and 20” other people “all across the state” attracted to the same site.

“I was the only one who signed up in Nebraska, at first, as state coordinator. And at least for now we’re taking on the name Nebraskans Fed-Up with Illegal Immigration.”

Why does he feel so strongly about the subject? “Illegal immigration is a national security issue, an economic issue, something that concerns the country.”

He wants Congress to “stop the flood” and to hold accountable any employers who contribute to the problem. “I think we need to have that control and enforcement in place before we decide what to do with the people who are here.”

Ramirez has other thoughts, none of which are likely to result in him trying to witness what happens Saturday.

But he cited plenty of support in Nebraska for an immigrant population, support “that’s going to catch them off guard. Part of me wants to suggest that this will not be as big as they think. But you never know.”