Ozarkers protest amnesty for illegals

Demonstration falls on Cinco de Mayo and days after pro-immigration rally.

Melissa DeLoach and James Goodwin
News-Leader

Garland Johnson said that if he can spend a year in Iraq, he can devote an afternoon to a cause that he supports.
Johnson, a former sergeant in the Army National Guard, joined forces with other Ozarkers on Friday in a protest against granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.



In uniform, Johnson waived at passing motorists at the southwest corner of Battlefield Road and Glenstone Avenue. Some honked back. A few waved American flags out of their windows.

And a few questioned the group's intention.

"I like the support, but less talk and more action would be better," Johnson said.

Vincent David Jericho of News Talk KSGF, himself an immigrant from Canada, led the call for the rally.

The hope, he said, is that others would be inspired and organize similar movements across the country.

The efforts came just days after immigrants staged a nationwide "Day without Immigrants" — and Friday's protest fell on Cinco de Mayo, no less.

The Mexican holiday celebrates the anniversary of the Mexican victory over the French in the 1862 Battle of Puebla.

Jericho, who became an American citizen last fall, acknowledged it's a long and expensive process becoming naturalized — it took Jericho nine years.

It would be a "grave mistake," he said, if the country started granting amnesty and citizenship to illegal immigrants.

"There hasn't been a strong stand on legal immigration," Jericho said at the start of the three-hour rally.

Some of Jericho's listeners heeded his call. More than 100 gathered to show their opposition to amnesty.

Opinions expressed at the rally were intense.

For Suzanne Ashby, legal immigration is OK, but illegal immigration isn't. "Do the process just like everyone else," she said.

The timing of Friday's protest discouraged Hortencia "Tencha" Vasquez Wilcox of Nixa, who is state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

She had just finished cleaning up after a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Springfield Friday night — an event that drew about 200 people — when she was asked about the rally.

"I think it's like having a protest on the Fourth of July," she said. "I don't know what their intent was, whether it was to hurt people."

Even as the protest took place, tougher laws on immigration pending in Missouri appeared to be in jeopardy.

In the Missouri General Assembly, two bills related to immigration are on life support.

Senate Bill 1250 would require the Missouri State Highway Patrol to train members to enforce federal immigration laws while patrolling U.S. and interstate highways.

The measure also would bar businesses that employed undocumented workers from working on public works projects for three years.

The legislation passed the Senate last month, but state Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, chairman of the House committee considering the bill, has told the Associated Press that it likely won't move forward this year.

Another measure would recognize English as the language of "all official proceedings" in the state, though American Sign Language could be used when necessary.

House Bill 1814 passed the House last month by a vote of 122-30, with one lawmaker voting present. But with only five working days left this legislative session, the measure has yet to receive a Senate committee hearing.



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