Standing vigil in Murrieta: Immigration opponents, advocates wait for what comes next
Standing vigil in Murrieta: Immigration opponents, advocates wait for what comes next
http://www.presstelegram.com/apps/pb...h=400&maxw=667
Anti-illegal immigration protesters wait outside the Border Patrol Center in Murrieta on Wednesday. Will Lester — Staff Photographer
By Ryan Hagen, San Bernardino Sun
POSTED: 07/09/14, 8:54 PM PDT | UPDATED: 41 MINS AGO
http://www.presstelegram.com/apps/pb...h=400&maxw=667Members of the Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California (JFIC) join with faith leaders and community members from throughout the region in a vigil on Wednesday.Micah Escamilla — Staff photographer
MURRIETA >> Lounging in lawn chairs and chatting quietly about mutual friends, work and just a bit of politics, the handful of men and women by the side of the road could almost be neighbors on any street anywhere.
Two American flags billowing above their two shade canopies suggest this is more than a social gathering, as do the few Border Patrol and local police cars parked nearby and the Fox News van parked across the street in front of the Border Patrol station.
Yet the biggest sign comes every few minutes, when a car drives past on Madison Avenue, normally a lonely two-lane road.
Nine times out of 10, it blares its horn, showing support for the protesters’ cause or drops off ice or drinks to help out. In contrast to earlier days of dueling hundred-strong immigration protests here, members of a group that varied from six to 10 people over the course of a few hours midday Wednesday all say they’re “anti-amnesty.”
And those cars remind the impromptu group that they’re in the eye of a hurricane of national attention.
The middle of the day had immigration attention focused on President Barack Obama, who reiterated a call for $3.7 billion in increased funding to deal with the border crisis.
They expect a bus with immigrants caught crossing the border illegally in Texas to come by again Thursday, and they plan to turn it around like they did a week earlier. They’ll be out in force then, they pledge, and they expect counter-protesters and the national firestorm to return as well.
But those here in the middle of a workday — some retired, some with flexible job hours — said they were willing to sacrifice hour upon hour — or jail time, some said — to keep what they consider a constant vigil for their city and a broader principle of law and order.
“My husband’s in the Army and my dad’s in the Navy,” said Murrieta resident Samara Digiovanna. “This isn’t what they fought for.”
In protests here on other days, protesters on the other side of the issue had passionately argued the opposite – that American and Christian compassion did obligate care for those the estimated 57,000 unaccompanied minors who’ve fled gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala since October, overwhelming Texas and prompting the government to transfer some to California.
Just miles from the site of the immigration protests, about 200 people gathered outside of Murrieta City Hall for a different reason. A prayer vigil was held Wednesday evening to promote peace and ask what can be done for the immigrants being targeted.
Faith leaders, immigration advocates, Murrieta residents and children came carrying signs and American flags, pushing strollers and wheeling wheelchairs to listen to a long list of rabbis, pastors and priests talk about unity and how to treat fellow human beings, on all sides of any border.
At the Border Patrol site, the initial turn-back of the bus because of the immigrants presumed to be on it put Murrieta at the center of rising national attention to immigration, with some residents worried the town’s reputation suffered.
Mayor Allen Long, who didn’t return calls Wednesday, defended the 103,000-person city in southwest Riverside County on CNN earlier.
“We’re a very small town here in Murrieta, and all the sudden we have a national problem at our doorstep,” Long told CNN. “We had some local residents with some legitimate concerns. I think most of the angry people you saw were from out of town.”
Unprompted, several residents Wednesday pointed to what they said were a few of countless examples of a culture of compassion.
“In my car I have four to five bags of women’s clothing, and that’s not at all unusual,” said Eileen Barner, a real estate agent who also works in special education for the Murrieta Valley Unified School District. “I go to the Catholic church, and they’re always helping people — this isn’t a religious thing, but that’s an example. We sent Easter baskets into San Diego County because so many people were already helping out here.”
The concern, they said, is communicable diseases and hopeless people dropped into the city as their case is considered, with little resort but crime.
“It has nothing to do with them being Mexican,” said Jennifer Bryan, a Murrieta resident. “If they were dropping off hundreds of homeless people from L.A. it’d be the same. I do have compassion, but how compassionate is it to leave someone in our backyards? They’ll be in our backyards, hungry, and that’s dangerous.”
That might sound intolerant, said Kelly Conrey, 36, but whether it portrays Murrieta negatively probably depends on the person hearing it.
“Everyone has their own lens,” she said. “A lot of people from out of town see what we’re standing for and don’t like it. But I know there are a lot of people looking here and saying, ‘Great. Finally.’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
http://www.presstelegram.com/governm...hat-comes-next
