S.C. - Protestors rally on border security
Ron Barnett, The Greenville News 4:31 p.m. EDT August 23, 2014
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Nelson Waller stands at the corner of Washington and Church streets for a rally against illegal immigration outside the federal courthouse in Greenville on Saturday. (Photo: Heidi Heilbrunn , Staff )
Holding signs calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama and waving Confederate and American flags, about 40 protesters rallied in front of the federal courthouse in Greenville on Saturday to draw attention to their concerns about border security.
"This is about a literal invasion of the United States," said William G. Carter, state chairman of the South Carolina Conservative Action Council and organizer of the rally. "The face of the United States will never be the same if Barack Obama has his way."
He said he believes the immigration reform proposed by the president — which has stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress — would result in adding millions of illegal immigrants to the rolls of Democratic voters, in effect turning America into a one-party country.
The bill, passed by the Senate, would give 11 million who came here illegally an opportunity to earn citizenship.
Not everyone at the rally agreed with the organizers.
William David, a 30-year-old Clemson University student from Greenville, held a sign that said "Jesus was a refugee" and tried to convince some of the protesters that they were not following the Christian way by taking such a hard line against people who came here seeking a better life.
He quoted a passage from the Old Testament book of Exodus about being kind to strangers and said the anti-immigrant attitude expressed by group members goes against "the whole message of the Kingdom of God, which is to be kind to the least of these."
Carter said America can't afford to take on a new wave of immigrants who he views as dangerous.
He blamed an outbreak of tuberculosis in Greenwood a few months ago on illegal immigrants and claimed that Obama "wants to flood the country" with immigrants who hope to live off government handouts.
"We need to demand a wall on our southern border to protect us, our health, our families, our children from criminal gangs, from drug violence that's prevalent in Mexico," he said.
A handful of protesters who showed up in camouflage said they were members of a new group called the Upstate Arm Militia. They said they're training to protect their Second Amendment rights in case the government comes to take away their guns.
Nelson Waller, vice chairman of the Conservative Action group, told reporters he believes the U.S. border with Mexico should be militarized.
"What are our troops doing defending the borders between foreign countries on the other side of the world when ours doesn't exist anymore?" he said.
Waller, who was wearing a necktie emblazoned with a Confederate battle flag, said it is an internationally recognized symbol of freedom and self-determination, not racism.
Shell Suber, spokesman for Partnership for a New American Economy, a group of business and industry organizations in South Carolina that is pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, said the group that organized today's rally is "far afield from the rest of society" in its views.
His group includes the S.C. Farm Bureau, the S.C. Restaurant & Lodging Association, the Homebuilders Association of South Carolina, the S.C. Agribusiness Council and several Chambers of Commerce.
"These legitimate, widely respected organizations directly represent literally hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians and billions in economic impact for our state," he said.
"Oh, and no widely supported immigration reform proposal doesn't have border security as its first priority anyway."
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