Today's demonstrations
There are a number of demonstrations today regarding the "rights" of illegal immigrants. I see this as a great potential backfire for them as before, the visit to the hospital or the child in school was just sorta overlooked but now, with hundreds of thousands of marchers, Congress and the Senate will be forced to act and the fact that these people are illegal immigrants will ensure that they will not get what they were looking for (a free ride).
From what I have read on other blogs, legal Hispanic immigrants are pissed at these people.
And don't forget that the
primary group organizing these reconquistas is A.N.S.W.E.R. - a front for the communist WWP:
A.N.S.W.E.R.’s director, Ramsey Clark, has served as the spokesman for the W.W.P since the early 1990s. Ramsey Clark is currently part of the legal defense team for Saddam Hussein, and was part of the legal defense team for Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Court. Another director of A.N.S.W.E.R., Brian Becker, is part of the W.W.P. Secretariat.
The former FBI Director under President Clinton, Louis Freeh, included W.W.P. in a talk about “domestic terrorist groups” on May 10, 2001 when speaking to Senate committees. He also denounced “Anarchists and extremist socialist groups - many of which, such as the Workers World Party, have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States.”
The W.W.P. does not want to participate within the American political system, it wants to overthrow our democratic form of government and eliminate private property. LeiLani Dowell of the W.W.P. said at their conference in November, 2004, “I think that these elections proved to many that there is no choice between Democratic and Republican–and essentially no choice for working people under capitalism.”
A document on the A.N.S.W.E.R. website entitled “Who is the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition” states, “The global anti-war movement must be a movement of international solidarity against the U.S. empire.”
Peaceful demonstrations? From the
Boston Globe:
Assault underscores tension as Congress weighs immigration reform
PORTLAND, Maine -- Dozens of people pressing for rights for illegal immigrants gathered for a peaceful demonstration on Monday just minutes after a counter-protestor was bloodied by a teenager who hid his face with a bandanna.
The attacker, described as a Hispanic teenager, went after one of three white people carrying signs arguing that illegals have no rights, police said.
Chuck Simmins in Rochester has
posted a number of photos including this chap:
I love the dichotomy between the "Socalist Worker" on the sign and the very capitalist $80 Oakley sunglasses. Lots of the signs had references to various socialist groups... Hmm...
Some
photos from the Dallas protest including this wonderful one:
Here is an
excellent short biography of Che -- what he was like.
And finally, an interesting look at what Mexico would do if a bunch of US Citizens came in and started demonstrating. From
City Journal
What Would Mexico Do with Protesting Illegals?
Deport them on the spot.
The Mexican government constantly hectors the American people about how we should treat its illegal migrants. President Vicente Fox, Foreign Secretary Ernesto Derbez, and Mexican consuls in the United States insist that Americans should be grateful for the hundreds of thousands of surplus Mexicans who break across our border each year. Without them, these leaders explain, the American economy would grind to a halt (never mind that Mexico’s management of its own affairs would seem to undercut the officials’ economic expertise). Therefore, as a token of appreciation for keeping us afloat, say the Mexican apologists, we must grant amnesty to the law-breakers and reward them for illegal entry with a host of rights.
Fine. If Mexico wants to dictate our immigration policy to us, let’s follow their example to the letter. That example is particularly relevant on this further day of protests demanding amnesty for illegals. Among the demonstrators in at least 60 cities nationwide will undoubtedly be thousands of border lawbreakers. What would Mexico do? The answer is easy: deport them on the spot. In 2002, a dozen American college students, in Mexico legally, participated peacefully in an environmental protest against a planned airport outside of Mexico City. They swiftly found themselves deported as law-breakers for interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.
If Mexico was willing to strip these students of their duly-obtained travel visas, imagine what it would have done had the students broken into the country surreptitiously—not just summary deportation but undoubtedly howls of complaint to the U.S. government for winking at this double violation of Mexican sovereignty. Open borders propagandists in the U.S. constantly present deportation as a patent act of cruelty that no right-thinking person would tolerate. Yet Mexico has no qualms about deporting not just illegals but legal immigrants as well whom it deems fractious.
If participation in an environmental protest constitutes unlawful interference in Mexico’s internal affairs, how much more intrusive would it deem mass demonstrations to legalize immigration law-breakers? No issue is more central to a country’s sovereignty than immigration policy. Yet we won’t be seeing any statements by Mexican diplomats today urging its citizens in the U.S. to refrain from efforts to influence American laws.
It is particularly delicious to imagine what would happen if American students in Mexico ran the American flag up a flag pole over an upside down Mexican flag, as students in a Southern California high school did last month. An international crisis! Each participant would be promptly ejected and possibly the American ambassador as well. When President Ernesto Zedillo tried to revise Mexican textbooks in the 1990s to be more favorable toward U.S. foreign policy, Mexico’s pundits denounced him as a traitor. Yet Mexican consuls in the U.S. work mightily to disseminate Mexican textbooks in U.S. schools and they have raised not a peep of remonstrance against Mexican protesters carrying signs such as THIS IS STOLEN LAND and WE DIDN’T CROSS THE BORDER, THE BORDER CROSSED US during the mass demonstrations last month.
It will be interesting to see what happens. I am a bit pissed that the Immigration bill foundered a few days ago, it seemed to be pretty balanced. Partisan politics again.
Posted by DaveH at April 10, 2006 3:45 PM