Thread: Immigration protests get ugly in Fremont

Six people are arrested as fight breaks out between border security group and International Socialist Organization

By Lisa Fernandez
MEDIANEWS

The national debate on illegal immigration has erupted into fisticuffs and legal trouble in an unlikely seat of political activism: a suburban street corner in Fremont.

For three months, a group of seniors, war veterans, blue-collar workers and students has taken to the corner of Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue every other Friday night to decry illegal immigration. But the rallies of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security, as the 30 or so people are called, have drawn ire from members of the International Socialist Organization and Green Party -- mostly idealistic 20-somethings who drive from San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Cruz to counterprotest.

On a recent Friday, a fight broke out between the two groups. Four men on the border security side ended up with black eyes, chipped teeth and other injuries. A police officer's ear was split and started bleeding. Six people were arrested.

Members of the two groups are now engaged in a war of words about who should be blamed for the incident and why. But their clash has broader resonance too, as a reminder of just how emotional the immigration debate remains, even though it has slipped at least temporarily from public attention.

"We are out there, a small group of middle-class Americans, carrying signs that say, 'Wake Up America,' and 'No Amnesty,' and this international group of socialists just comes and attacks us," said Mary Washington, 60, of Union City and spokeswoman for the border security group, which formed in May.

But Michael Smith, 27, an ISO spokesman studying geography at UC Berkeley, says the border security group is not simply a collection of "old, hapless elderly Republicans out there protesting illegal immigration."

The "core of this group and others like them are that they're white supremacists, and part of the reason we're going down to Fremont is to expose that," he said.

Months after the protests that drew hundreds of thousands of people around the country this spring, the immigration debate has changed course -- and demonstrations are infrequent. Aside from a small protest recently in Santa Cruz, Fremont is the only Bay Area city where the border coalition has campaigned -- and drawn counterprotesters.

In some ways, it is a logical battleground. With 210,000 residents, Fremont is a relatively quiet and family-oriented city, home to immigrants from across the world, including populations from India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Afghanistan and Mexico.. It also has pockets of old-timers, mostly white, some who are resistant to change.

Because of the clash, the pro-border group now either wants to make secret future rallies -- or stop rallying altogether. The ISO -- which supports the anti-war movement in Iraq and the rights of all workers -- is now emboldened to help legally defend those arrested.

Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran, who witnessed the scene, said a small group of pro-immigrant Fremont teens started the trouble, egged on by chants from ISO members. Police say at least four of the group were gang members.

David Anaya, 18; Tony Rounds, 18; and two boys, 16 and 17, were arrested on misdemeanor battery charges. Michael Perry, 28, was arrested, too, on an unrelated $1,000 traffic violation. His wife, Priscilla Perez-Perry, 26, was arrested for allegedly making threats and resisting arrest. All are Fremont residents and have been released on bail.

Perez-Perry, who has three children ages 5 to 9, does not defend the violence, but she says she understands why the clash became so heated. She is a fourth-generation Mex-ican-American, born and raised in Fremont. She said she was not interested in the immigration issue until recently, when she began researching it, and then joined when the rallies were happening in her hometown.

Fighting words.

"I just wish none of this would have happened," she said. "Both parties have the right to say what they feel, but when you walk into a Latino neighborhood and make racial slurs, like 'Wetbacks Go Home,' just hearing that is really sad."

Perez-Perry said it may not have been prudent for her husband and his acquaintances to protest on the same side of the street as the border security people, but she also said her friends were being kicked and hit. Her husband was hit on the head, she said, and the border security people laughed.

She said her husband was in a gang 18 or 19 years ago, but is not active now. She does not know if the others are in gangs.

For her part, Washington, who describes herself as a Christian grandmother, said the emotion comes from the threat that illegal immigration represents.

"I feel and think that strongly about the destruction of our nation, and the life of its people," she said.

Washington said she is worried that Muslim proselytizing will enter this country and convert people to "radical Islam" -- even the predominantly Catholic Mexicans who comprise the bulk of the nation's illegal immigrants.

Washington said she's been interested in the Middle East, and Islam, for more than 50 years and has many Muslim friends.

"At the same time, special groups are given a pass for all sorts of differences," Washington said. Some of those passes, she said, include: "Slamming doors in my face, telling me I was a racist because I have blue eyes and white skin, eating food out of the bins at the grocery store, running red lights, driving badly, not speaking the language of the country, and getting Fanny Mae loans interest-free because their religion forbids usury," since Islam forbids the paying or receiving of interest.

The Fremont debate stems directly from what's happening in Washington, D.C. The House immigration bill, passed in December, calls for building a 700-mile fence, and hiring more Border Patrol agents. It also would make illegal-immigrant status a felony. A competing immigration-reform bill in the Senate also calls for increased enforcement, but provides a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants and for a closely monitored guest-worker program. A compromise bill has not been

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 211650.htm

Originally Posted by AlturaCt

It also has pockets of old-timers, mostly white, some who are resistant to change.

Resistant to law-breakers invading their communities! "old-timers"? Why didn't they say senior citizens pr elderly or something a little more refined. I have a problem with this line.

What difference is the age group might I add? Does older people's opinion weigh less than younger ones? But this way it just sounds like something derrogatory. I don't think it would be just older people anyway. Isn't that like racist and prejudiced? It's agist!

Actually this was from the July 28 protest. Here's a bunch more articles and discussion about it.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=36161

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&p=192955

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=36127

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ht=fremont

The "core of this group and others like them are that they're white supremacists, and part of the reason we're going down to Fremont is to expose that," he said.

And how are they white supremacists? simply because they want to enforce the law? I know we all hear this type of statement everyday. We're racist, xenophobic, nazis, white supremacist, bigots, and anything else I've forgotten.
Mr. Smith, you are an idiot.

Many of the people that show up in support of enforcing the immigration laws are older. I suspect the schools have been working on the children for years. Also the older you are the more looting of the country you have witnessed.

She fails to mention that some of the people that attend the East Bay Coalition for Border Secutity rallies are Hispanic. But then the media has been failing, we the people, in many ways for a long time.

I would also like to add that when I was younger and the government passed a law, I believed them.

After many years of seeing them just pretend to pass laws against illegal immigration and then never enforce the parts about fining employers or deporting those caught, the realization that the government is full of the criminal element has grown.

They will not be able to fool the young people all their lives.

I don't mean to say we don't have young people at our rallies. We have many brave young people that show up and we stand shoulder to shoulder in support of the Constitution and the laws that are the foundation of this country!

Fighting words.

"I just wish none of this would have happened," she said. "Both parties have the right to say what they feel, but when you walk into a Latino neighborhood and make racial slurs, like 'Wetbacks Go Home,' just hearing that is really sad."

The only time I remember of the wetback term being used was on one of the oppositions poster that said something like, " Europeans are the wetbacks here" or something like that.

This community being a Latino community is news to me. It is probably news to all the other ethnicity's that live here also. Next thing you know they will be calling it barrio Fremont.

Originally Posted by StokeyBob

Fighting words.

"I just wish none of this would have happened," she said. "Both parties have the right to say what they feel, but when you walk into a Latino neighborhood and make racial slurs, like 'R******R Go Home,' just hearing that is really sad."

The only time I remember of the R******R term being used was on one of the oppositions poster that said something like, " Europeans are the R******R here" or something like that.

This community being a Latino community is news to me. It is probably news to all the other ethnicity's that live here also. Next thing you know they will be calling it barrio Fremont.

I used to live there about six years ago and one of my brothers still does. If it's a latino community, why is the "downtown" Centerville district known as, "Little Kabul?" I heard on the news just a couple of years ago that Fremont has the largest population of Afghanis outside of Afghanistan! The apartment complex I lived in was composed of 99% East Indians. The Glenmoor area is mostly caucasion. Latino community my butt! It's a total conglomeration of diversity!