Thread: Billboard in Little Haiti declares: 'Stop the invasion

Eyebrow-raising billboard in Little Haiti declares: 'Stop the invasion' of immigrants

By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted May 19 2006


A fledgling Internet campaign to close the U.S.-Mexico border to illegal immigration brought its message to thousands of South Florida commuters Thursday, unveiling a billboard that read "Stop the Invasion" along Interstate 95 in Miami.

Looming over a gas station at NW 79th Street near the city's Little Haiti neighborhood, where a heavily immigrant clientele gassed up their cars, the sign was the third billboard erected so far by the Grassfire Alliance. It follows similar unveilings in Dallas and Atlanta.



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The five-year-old group paid for the advertising space with online donations to push for tough enforcement against illegal immigrants and to oppose a hotly debated guest worker plan proposed by President Bush, said Steve Elliott, the group's president.

"I would oppose a caste system worker class," Elliott said of the president's plan. Bush on Monday called for guest-worker visas for millions of illegal immigrants, if they pay fines and back taxes and pass background checks.

Elliott referred to the temporary worker proposal as an amnesty, something the president said the federal government would not offer.

"If the Senate and the president push through an amnesty bill, it is going to divide this nation," Elliott said.

Sitting under the shade of a tarp nearby, while attendants washed her car, Paulette Hopkins, 61, disagreed with the tone of the billboard.

"I think it gives a very negative impression of Miami and the United States," she said. "It's too blunt. I think a lot of people's feeling will be hurt."

Hopkins, a medical technologist, said her father came to the United States from Trinidad decades ago, but chose to live as a legal resident and never claimed U.S. citizenship.

"I think we need more border security, but I don't think sending the illegal immigrants who are here back will solve the problem," she said.

Auto dealer Tony Young, 37, looked up at the sign through his sunglasses and shook his head.

"We're all immigrants," he said. "My mother came from Trinidad and my father came from Venezuela. I was born in England. I find it offensive."

Although Florida is far removed from the nation's porous southwestern border, many of the state's illegal immigrants are thought to have crossed there. Florida also has the third-largest share of foreign-born residents in the United States, after California and New York.

Polls show Americans generally think illegal immigration is out of control and want the government to improve border enforcement. But at the same time, a majority favors some kind of legal status for illegal immigrants already here if they meet specific conditions.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll in April found 63 percent of respondents supported an approach that combined tougher enforcement with a temporary work program. Only 30 percent opted for tougher enforcement alone.

Elliott said his organization's stance is in step with common sentiment on immigration. He said the conservative Grassfire Alliance, which also opposes indecency on television and abortion, received nearly $1 million in donations in 2004.

But in South Florida, the billboard already has raised eyebrows.

"This surprises me a lot. It's not consistent with the environment of tolerance and solidarity I've generally found in South Florida," said Jorge Lomónaco, the Mexican consul general in Miami. "It's probably because they realize they don't represent mainstream America and they're beginning to act desperately."

Floridians have shown a stable and fairly positive view toward immigration over the years, said Hugh Gladwin, director of the Institute for Public Opinion Research at Florida International University.

Although conservatives in other immigrant-rich states prefer tighter controls on immigration, Florida's conservatives include many Cuban politicians, who staunchly defend their countrymen's right to come here to escape communism, Gladwin said.

"Anti-immigration is not an issue that's gotten a big foothold in Florida," he said.

Elliott said recent immigrant marches had shifted those trends. He said the very size of the gatherings -- hundreds of thousands rallied in Los Angeles and Chicago on May 1 -- served as a wakeup call to Americans.

"People were very offended by what they saw in the streets. They want to create a civil rights movement," he said of illegal immigrants who marched, "when by definition a civil right is a right reserved for citizens."

As he hosed down a car at the carwash, Jamaican-born Paul Sutherland, 29, said he could see both sides of the issue.

"A few should get a chance," Sutherland said. But when asked how he would select those few, he paused and smiled.

"That's such a good question," he said.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines

Well I hope all those in Miami choke on that sign. I know ALIPAC does not agree with grassfire and that is fine but I like the billboard nonetheless. The reason no one in Miami likes the sign is because most of them are illegal or the forefathers were. I was born and raised in South Florida and had to leave. There are not many there who are loyal to America.

"This surprises me a lot. It's not consistent with the environment of tolerance and solidarity I've generally found in South Florida," said Jorge Lomónaco, the Mexican consul general in Miami. "It's probably because they realize they don't represent mainstream America and they're beginning to act desperately."

We are acting desperately but it not because we do not represent mainstream America, and who decided to ask the Mexican consul general anyway.

And to the woman who thinks it does not represent Miami and thinks it makes the USA look bad and that she is afraid peoples feelings will be hurt. Just wait how the USA is going to look in a few years, then everyone will be hurting.

What's the disagreement over?



Most of my conservative friends, that know of it, support Grassfire. In fact, one of my friends even has a picture of those billboards on her Live Journal.

I'll say this much. I think the generic right wing positions dilute the anti-illegal message. I'm pro-life, but stopping abortion doesn't seem to have a place in this debate, which is about keeping America America. And the whole "fighting indecency on TV" theme seems a bit nonsensical, if you ask me. I never believed in the Fairness Doctrine, and I certainly don't believe in the FCC's right to monitor the "objectionable" content of television or radio broadcasts.

That being said, on immigration this group is doing a great job. Keep up the good work, Grassfire!

I'm not an authority on Grassfire, although I heard that they're pushing for increased Legal immigration. {3rd hand info not verified}

However, the BILLBOARDS, imo, are fabulous. It gave me quite a smile when I saw the pics. Love them.

After all, who can drive by and miss it

Everyone is not an immigrant. I wish people would stop
saying that.

Don't you just love some of those saying that people proclaim with such gravity - but when you take them apart - they absolutely have no meaning or are simply untrue.

But they sound soooooooo good!!

What exactly is an immigrant?

I live in Miami and I am not going to choke on the sign because I am AGAINST amnesty to the illegal aliens, AGAINST a guest-worker program, AGAINST citizenship to aliens and their children.

I AM for DEPORTATION of these illegals, TO BUILD a fence, TO PENALIZE employers, and TO DEPORT Congress to Tijuana and Bush to Tapachula.

I AM for ENFORCING our laws!

I AM for BANISHING Spanish from our everyday life!

I AM for a THIRD PARTY with Tancredo for President!

I AM for ENGLISH as our OFFICIAL language!

IA AM FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Originally Posted by sealyon

I live in Miami and I am not going to choke on the sign because I am AGAINST amnesty to the illegal aliens, AGAINST a guest-worker program, AGAINST citizenship to aliens and their children.

I AM for DEPORTATION of these illegals, TO BUILD a fence, TO PENALIZE employers, and TO DEPORT Congress to Tijuana and Bush to Tapachula.

I AM for ENFORCING our laws!

I AM for BANISHING Spanish from our everyday life!

I AM for a THIRD PARTY with Tancredo for President!

I AM for ENGLISH as our OFFICIAL language!

IA AM FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Well said sealyon

Its interesting that although the sign was in little Haiti none of the quotes from people in the neighborhood were Haitians! Haitians (and Africans) are big losers in an amnesty grant. Mexicans are the big winners. Although Haitians have the lowest income in the Americas Mexicans, with the 4th highest income in the Americas, dominate. Shouldn't justice and charity demand that if the USA does need more workers that the poorest (not the wealthier) folks should get priority?

Originally Posted by sealyon

I live in Miami and I am not going to choke on the sign because I am AGAINST amnesty to the illegal aliens, AGAINST a guest-worker program, AGAINST citizenship to aliens and their children.

I AM for DEPORTATION of these illegals, TO BUILD a fence, TO PENALIZE employers, and TO DEPORT Congress to Tijuana and Bush to Tapachula.

I AM for ENFORCING our laws!

I AM for BANISHING Spanish from our everyday life!

I AM for a THIRD PARTY with Tancredo for President!

I AM for ENGLISH as our OFFICIAL language!

IA AM FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

I second that motion!!!