Thread: Pro-illegal alien protestors assault our team.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH | THE TIMES Members of the Indiana Federation for
Immigration Reform and Enforcement and the Chicago Minuteman Project tangle
with counterprotesters Saturday morning outside Bank Calumet in Munster.
Federation and Minuteman members were protesting the bank offering home
loans to undocumented immigrants. A fight broke out between several members
of each group, prompting police to separate the two groups of marchers.

Immigration protest erupts in fisticuffs

PROTEST: Slurs, hot tempers highlight countering demonstrations at Bank
Calumet



MUNSTER I Blaring car horns, racist slurs and angry fisticuffs punctuated a
volatile encounter of protesters and counter-protesters Saturday morning
outside Bank Calumet.

"God bless America! Stay out of our business!" yelled members of the locally
based Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.

"Go home (expletive) Nazi racists!" yelled members of an opposing group of
circling counterprotesters.

The federation, a public interest organization advocating what it calls
immigration policies with an impact, demonstrated against bank loans for
undocumented aliens, echoing six similar previous local protests.

Several members of the Chicago Minuteman Project joined the federation,
hoisting protest signs to passing motorists and exchanging verbal jabs with
visibly angry counterprotesters.

"We're not racists, we're LEGAL Americans," Minuteman members yelled under
American flags whipping in a fierce wind. "Those people are Communists."

The counterprotesters -- some from the Progressive Labor Party of Chicago,
others from Purdue University Calumet or there on their own -- chanted in
bilingual defiance: "¡Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!" or, "Workers
united will never be defeated!"

Susana Findley, a Gary native whose parents were born in Mexico, said
illegal immigrant workers arrived here for the same reason federation
members' ancestors arrived: To find work and a better life.

"But those racist immigrants forget about that," said Findley, nodding
toward the federation's camp.

Several counterprotesters arrived earlier than the scheduled 10 a.m.
federation protest, setting up shop at the corner of Calumet Avenue and
Ridge Road.

When 63-year-old Chicago Minuteman member Rick Biesada arrived and pulled
out his protest sign, he claimed that two counterprotesters yanked it from
him. When he yanked it back, the men assaulted him, knocking him to the
ground, he said.

The Lindenhurst, Ill., resident was treated by paramedics at the scene for a
gash over his eye and dizziness, spending a few minutes inside an ambulance
before returning to the protest.

"I wished he fell to the ground harder," Findley said.

Munster police Sgt. Nick Hudak, one of several officers showing up to stand
between the opposing groups, said no arrests were made and no other injuries
occurred.

Protesters on both sides said the escalating debate over U.S. House Bill
4437, the so-called Border Security bill, may have inflamed the controversy
of offering bank loans to illegal aliens.

The bill, which would strengthen enforcement of existing immigration laws
and enhance border security, has already passed the House and could be voted
on by the Senate as early as this week.

Federation co-founder and Valparaiso resident Cheree Calabro, while passing
out fliers to motorists, said similar demonstrations at Bank Calumet had no
such problems with counterprotesters.

"I think they're feeling more emboldened with all the national protests
(supporting illegal immigration)," said Calabro, whose group is the Indiana
chapter of the national Minuteman Project.

http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/ ... b86321de08
29538625713d0001758b.txt

Those pro-illegal people are violent thugs, aren't they? But what should one expect of people who support breaking the law: decent, civil behavior? I think not.

Your link for the article isn't working. Posted the article last night with a couple of pictures added showing the fight.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-20079.html