Thread: Phoenix immigration rally turns testy

Phoenix immigration rally turns testy

Migrant-reform opponents, foes face off at protest

By Daniel GonzálezThe Republic | azcentral.comWed May 22, 2013 7:43 AM

Opponents of the sweeping immigration-reform bill pending in the Senate held protests around the country Tuesday, including one outside Sen. John McCain’s Phoenix office that turned tense when counterprotesters, described as “anarchists” by police, swept in blowing air horns and yelling slogans.

The opponents of reform had just started their news conference to denounce the immigration bill as a repeat of the 1986 bill that granted amnesty to nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants when the counterprotesters walked directly into the gathering chanting, “No borders. No nations. (Expletive) deportations.”

Some pushing and shoving ensued between the counterprotesters and the opponents of the bill, a few of whom were armed with handguns. Several Phoenix police officers already on hand rushed in, standing between the groups to keep the situation from escalating.

Then, as the five or six counterprotesters continued trying to disrupt the event, opponents of the immigration-reform bill, among them former state Sen. Russell Pearce and former GOP Party Chairman Randy Pullen, began singing “God Bless America.”

No one was arrested during the 30-minute confrontation, Phoenix police Detective Al Ramirez said.

Later in the day, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill 13-5, clearing the way for a full vote on the Senate floor.

For the past several months, supporters of immigration reform have held events outside McCain’s Phoenix office on Camelback Road. McCain, R-Ariz., along with Arizona’s other senator, Republican Jeff Flake, is one of a bipartisan group of eight senators, known as the “Gang of Eight,” that crafted the bill.

But on Tuesday, several dozen opponents of the bill took a turn demonstrating outside McCain’s office.

Rusty Childress, the local founder of a new group called Remember 1986, said he believes the immigration-reform bill threatens to repeat the mistakes of the 1986 bill by allowing illegal immigrants to gain legal status before the border has been secured. Pearce, the architect of Arizona’s immigration-enforcement law, Senate Bill 1070, pointed at Sunday’s hit-and-run accident that killed a Phoenix police officer as proof that the border is still not secure.

Jesus Cabrera Molina, 24, the owner of the SUV police believe hit Officer Daryl Raetz, is a non-citizen who was deported in 2011.

Police had not yet determined who was driving the SUV when Raetz was hit. Cabrera Molina was charged with possessing a small amount of cocaine, but he has not been charged with any crimes related to Raetz’s death.

In March 2012, Cabrera Molina was placed in removal proceedings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was in the Maricopa County Jail. He was released from ICE custody after an immigration judge granted him a $5,000 bond.

The 1986 bill was the last time Congress passed legislation aimed at solving illegal immigration. Millions of immigrants crossed the border illegally or overstayed their visas in the years that followed. Members of the Gang of Eight have said their bill would reduce illegal immigration by beefing up border security and improving the legal immigration system.

But critics such as Childress are opposed because immigrants in the country illegally would be able to apply almost immediately for temporary legal status.

That, Childress said, amounts to granting amnesty to people who broke immigration laws and will encourage more illegal immigration in the future.

Following the event, Childress said he gave McCain and Flake’s staffs copies of a petition signed by 10,056 citizens of Arizona opposed to the immigration bill.

“People want (border security) first before we deal with the 11 million here illegally,” Childress said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politi...rns-testy.html

“No borders. No nations. (Expletive) deportations.”

If this bill passes, we will have no borders, no nation, and no (expletive) deportations!

W