Thread: Taking immigration to the streets in Vista

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Taking immigration to the streets in Vista

By: LOUISE ESOLA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Hundreds of demonstrators, fueled by the Minuteman anti-illegal immigration movement and countered by pro-immigration and peace activists, rallied Saturday morning at an outpost known to be a pickup location for immigrant day laborers in Vista.

On one side of the corner of Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues, protesters in support of ending illegal immigration waved American flags, donned red, white, and blue, and held signs that read "23 million illegal immigrants in the United States" and "Go Home!"

In the distance, a crowd of similar size waved Mexican and American flags, shouted in Spanish, "We're here, and we are not leaving," and held up signs that read "permanent residents and U.S. citizens are day laborers, too."


Divided by a line of San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies in riot gear, both sides touted racism and unfair American business practices that exploit cheap labor. Drivers along two of the city's busiest streets honked horns, waved flags and middle fingers, and shouted obscenities and praise at both groups of demonstrators.

Minuteman founder and candidate for Congress Jim Gilchrist, who drove down from Orange County to attend the rally, said the group only wants people and the government to follow the law by not hiring illegal immigrants and by controlling the U.S. border.

"We have to get this issue addressed," he said. "For 10 to 15 years, this area has been a platform for illegal aliens to be employed by modern day slave traders. (The day laborers) are just as much a victim as U.S. taxpayers."

Gilchrist said the system is bogged down with footing the bill for illegal immigrants, from hospitals going bankrupt to schools funding education of a non-English speakers.

"This isn't racism," he said. "It's the law."

Gilchrist admitted that, if he were a Mexican and could not find work in his country, he would migrate illegally to the United States to feed his family.

"I would do the same thing," he said. "But that doesn't mean it should become the Americans' problem."

A parking lot away, counterdemonstrators said the Minuteman rally tossed a blanket over all Mexicans, calling them all illegal immigrants. That rally was organized by the Vista-based Coalition for Peace, Justice, and Dignity, but was attended by both Mexican and Mexican-American residents, and peace activists who all called the Minuteman group a racist one.

Chuck Lowery, a protester with the North County Coalition for Peace and Justice, said the Minuteman group is in denial in not regarding themselves as racist.

"I was over there earlier today and you should hear them, they say 'those people' and pointing over here," Lowery said. "Saying that is racism.

"The Minutemen want to preserve the perceived whiteness of our country, but they can't," he said. "It's not a justice issue, it's a racist one."

"These workers are just trying to make a living," added Mario Moreno, a Carlsbad resident and member of the Coalition for Peace, Justice, and Dignity. "We are all people of the same race, the human race."

Minutemen members fired back, saying that racism is taking place on behalf of those waving the Mexican flags.

"If they want to wave the flag for their country, why don't they go live there?" remarked one Minuteman protester who did not wished to be named.

Meanwhile, 14- and 15-year-old sisters, Abby and Diocy Almeda, donned their soccer jerseys: a mesh shirt of one-half American flag, one-half Mexican flag. Their team ---- "Dos Naciones," or "Two Nations" ---- is based in Vista. Both sisters said they were born in the United States of legal Mexican immigrant parents.

"They came here for a better life," Abby said. "We don't understand what the problem is. Everybody in the United States is an immigrant. We are one nation, under God."

In agreement was Mark Day of Vista, dressed as Uncle Sam in a red, white, and blue top hat, waving a sign that read: "Uncle Sam to the Minutemen: Immigrants Made America."

Day said he wished the counterprotesters waved more American flags and not that of Mexico. "A lot of these people out here are legal," he said. "I am not in favor of illegal immigration, but I am in favor of humane immigration. I think if we all sat down with a moderator, I think we would all agree on a few things."

So says Fredi Avalos, another counterprotester waving the American flag. As a intercultural communication lecturer at Cal State San Marcos, Avalos said many Americans have historical amnesia. The Irish, for example, were once targeted as illegal immigrants, she said.

"As a United States American, I want people to follow the law," she said. "We need to be in Sacramento, in front of lawmakers and the White House. Targeting the workers is not the answer."

Later in the day, Minuteman members headed to Congressman Darrell Issa's office.

Issa, a Republican who represents parts of San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties, was on the scene to talk to demonstrators about his push for more border security. Issa helped draft a bill to strengthen border security and halt illegal immigration that is now making its way to the U.S. Senate.

Before leaving, Issa said the demonstrators' hearts were in the right place and that he is doing his job to help stop the free flow of illegal immigrants. "These are people who don't trust the system in Washington," he said. "I came here to be in solidarity with what they are frustrated with."

Contact staff writer Louise Esola at (760) 901-4151 or lesola@nctimes.com. To comment, go to www.nctimes.com.

Here is a link to some pictures.

https://www.alipac.us/ftopict-16662.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Minutemen make a stand in Vista


Jose Gonzalez used a megaphone as Mark Day
played Uncle Sam among immigrant supporters
who countered the Minutemen protest in Vista
yesterday.


Raymond Herrera, a San Diego Minutemen supporter
from Victorville, shouted at counterprotesters yesterday
in downtown Vista, where activists tried to prevent
migrant hiring.



San Diego Minutemen and their supporters protested
along South Santa Fe Avenue south to Escondido Avenue
(below) yesterday as day laborers sought work nearby.
More than a dozen sheriff's deputies kept peace between
the activists and the counterprotesters.



By Adam Klawonn
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 5, 2006

VISTA – The San Diego Minutemen's first public attempt to stop employers from hiring migrant workers drew about 200 people to downtown yesterday, but it did not prevent day laborers from being hired at the site.

Organizers for the group and the national Minuteman Project Inc. called the turnout “outstandingâ€

Pictures:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-16662.html

http://www.fox6.com

Labor Protest

Activists on both sides of the debate over illegal immigration held dueling demonstrations Saturday at a spot in Vista where day laborers gather to find jobs.

Supporters of the Minuteman Project, which seeks to stop illegal immigration, rallied at South Santa Fe and Escondido avenues.

Supporters of immigrants also showed up with signs and bullhorns, as sheriff's deputies in riot gear kept watch.

"They come into the country, the companies hire them and they're in. We have to put pressure on the companies as well as the border to protect our nation," Minuteman supporter Steven Shine told reporters.

Rick Dudley, Vista's assistant City Manager, said information from immigration officials indicate that most of the workers who gather at the site are in the United States legally.

"People can think anything they want. We are nonviolent, we are non-confronting, we don't even want to go near them," Minuteman supporter Dottie Dalton told reporters.

"They are sick and tired of all these freebies given to these people who want to do nothing more than hurt us, rape us, murder us, steal from us. They bring nothing," she said.

Dressed up as Uncle Sam, immigrant supporter Mark Day said immigrants help America.

"There are people who want to build walls on the border, who want to attack those who help immigrants, who are attacking them on the basis of their race, and this has to stop," he told reporters. "Immigrants made our country. The immigrants built the bridges and the tunnels and mines and the canals. The immigrants sowed our fields. Without immigrants, America would be nothing."

San Diego local news has their heads up their arses again on this issue. One station, when reporting on the protest, didn't call this a protest against illegal immigration or a protest against illegal day laborers, but they referred to it as a protest against "immigrant's rights". Can you believe that? Does this mean if people were out protesting against drug dealers on the streets of their neighborhoods, the media would say they are protesting against drug dealer's rights? A protest against immigrant's rights? What rights do illegals have anyway? Other than a one way ticket back home, they have no rights, but the local media, once again, looks out more for them than they do the legal immigrants and American citizens. What a friggin joke, now you know why we call San Diego Mexico's Finest City.