March For Illegals Today In Chicago

[Annie]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004739.htm

ILLEGAL ALIENS PROTEST IN CHICAGO
By Michelle Malkin · March 10, 2006 08:57 PM

Nothing like a true immigration enforcement bill to bring illegal alien activists out of the shadows. The crowd protesting the House GOP border security and interior enforcement bill H.R. 4437 in Chicago today was massive--estimated at 75,000:

Quotes from the march:

"What are Americans going to do without the Latin people? We do the jobs white people don't want to do." - Mario Leguizamo, 21, of suburban Cicero.

"As indigenous people, we are not immigrants. ... When we talk about homeland security, we really needed that in 1492." - Alma Montes, a member of an Aztec dancing group that performed near the rally.

Bloggers at Freedom Folks report on the march:

"Si, se puede!" was the cry of the crowd in Chicago today -- yes we can. Thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens and their supporters gathered in Union Park, then marched down Jackson Street to The Loop. Jamming the plaza, as well as the surrounding streets and sidewalks, they rallied to cheer on those who had come to speak.

They demanded legalization for all immigrants. They patted each other on the back for working hard and having dreams. They lauded politicians who devote themselves to representing "the people," which evidently, in their minds, includes "the people" who have come here illegally and don't get to vote. They demanded justice. They jeered HR4437, the House bill passed last December that would make coming here illegally a criminal offense, rather than a civil one, that calls for a fence on the border, and that would penalize anyone who hires and/or helps someone to come or stay here illegally.

Mayor Daley even got up to add his support, which made no sense:

"Don't let anyone tell you you're an immigrant," he shouted. "We're all immigrants!"

???

Next stop: The Gold Card Express.

Here's more on the bill:

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_feb06nl01

Sensenbrenner's Immigration Enforcement Bill Passes the House
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Approval Challenges Senate to Match Effort at Protecting Homeland Security and American Workers

By a 239-182 vote the House of Representatives approved the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act, H.R. 4437, on December 16. The legislation, authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), would make improvements in this nation’s ability to control rampant illegal immigration.

H.R. 4437 calls for a variety of steps to rein-in mass illegal immigration. At the southern border, the legislation authorizes construction of an additional 700 miles of security fencing, similar to the highly effective barrier already in place in the San Diego area. The bill would also require implementation of an electronic verification system to be used by all employers to ensure that the workers they hire are legal residents. Failure to comply with the verification procedure could result in fines of up to $7,000 per violation for a first offense and as high as $40,000 the third time an employer gets caught hiring illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens themselves would also face stiffer penalties for violating U.S. immigration laws under H.R. 4437. Illegal entry, now considered a misdemeanor offense, would become a felony and illegal aliens could receive jail time for immigration violations.

Sensenbrenner successfully resisted efforts from open borders advocacy groups and cheap labor interests to include amnesty and guest worker provisions in his bill. Some provisions, favored by FAIR and other immigration reform advocates were also omitted from the final version of the bill. An amendment introduced by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) that would have denied birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, and another one that would have denied businesses that employ illegal aliens the right to deduct those workers as a legitimate business expense on their taxes, were stripped from the final language.

The focus now shifts to the Senate, which must also pass an immigration enforcement bill before it can be sent to the president for his signature. The Senate is expected to take up immigration matters in February, but the prospects for an enforcement-only bill are less favorable than in the House. While Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has offered legislation similar to the Sensenbrenner House bill, it is widely believed what comes out of the Senate will look more like the McCain-Kennedy legislation that includes a massive guest worker amnesty program. The plan among open borders Senators, who also have the backing of the Bush administration, is to pass their guest worker amnesty bill then combine theirs with the Sensenbrenner bill in a conference committee.

The House bill, H.R. 4437, is significantly weaker than the True Comprehensive Reform measure introduced by Representatives Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Virgil Goode (R-Va.), favored by FAIR.

FAIR will steadfastly oppose any effort to approve a guest worker amnesty bill in the Senate committee. Any legislation that bestows legal status on millions of illegal aliens, even in the guise of a “temporary worker” program, is an amnesty that most Americans oppose on principle. Moreover, a massive guest worker program is unwarranted by current economic and labor conditions and will harm American workers.

An immigration enforcement bill that is “balanced” by guest worker amnesty provisions is inherently dishonest. As in every instance in the past, what will inevitably happen is that illegal aliens will get their amnesty, cheap labor employers will get access to millions of low-wage foreign workers, while the American people will get a pack of empty promises.

 

[Emmett]

But they didn't ask for more church vans to transport voters to the polls. Oh that's right, they can't vote.

 

[Annie]

But they didn't ask for more church vans to transport voters to the polls. Oh that's right, they can't vote.

Ahemmm, we are speaking of Chicago. They only get to vote twice!

 

[007]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004739.htm

That would have been a good place to drop a bomb. The INS and the National Gaurd should have taken advantage of that opportunity to surround that crowd and round up all the illegals that had volunteered themselves for deportation.

 

[Gunny]

That would have been a good place to drop a bomb. The INS and the National Gaurd should have taken advantage of that opportunity to surround that crowd and round up all the illegals that had volunteered themselves for deportation.

The only arrests we'll likey see will be anyone protesting the march. How backwards-assed is THAT?

 

[Nuc]

That would have been a good place to drop a bomb. The INS and the National Gaurd should have taken advantage of that opportunity to surround that crowd and round up all the illegals that had volunteered themselves for deportation.

Good idea. Hopefully nobody in Chicago wants to eat in a restaurant or shop in a grocery store after that bomb is dropped.

 

[NATO AIR]

We need the existing laws to be enforced, as well as reforms.
I found this interesting:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...94.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

A show of strength
Thousands march to Loop for immigrants' rights

Workers, students unite in opposition to toughening of law

By Oscar Avila and Antonio Olivo
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 11, 2006

In a show of strength that surprised even organizers, tens of thousand of immigrants poured into the Loop Friday, bringing their calls for immigration reform to the heart of the city's economic and political power.

What started as a word-of-mouth campaign, then spread through the foreign language media, grabbed the attention of the entire city by midday, as a throng 2 miles long marched from Union Park on the Near West Side to Federal Plaza.

Police estimated the crowd as large as 100,000, making it one of the biggest pro-immigrant rallies in U.S. history, according to national advocates.

Observers said the turnout could galvanize both sides in the immigration debate, launching a grass-roots pro-immigrant movement while provoking a backlash among those who want stricter controls.

The trigger for the rally was a controversial federal bill that would crack down on those who employ or help illegal immigrants. But the broader message--carried mostly by Mexicans, but also by a smattering of Poles, Irish and Chinese--was that immigrants are too integral and large a part of Chicago to be ignored.

The rally drew some of the state's most powerful politicans, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard Daley, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and dozens of aldermen and state lawmakers.

But the men and women who pushed baby strollers and waved homemade signs, the workers who clean hotel bathrooms and landscape suburban lawns, flexed their muscle too.

American flags bobbed overhead while also decorating shawls, placards and the scarf on a baby's head. That dominant motif was set off by the colors of Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and, of course, Mexico.

Urgent chants of "Si, se puede," or "Yes, you can," echoed off the walls of downtown skyscrapers, with drums adding a festive backbeat.

Despite the density of the crowd, shoulders and elbows rubbing from one sidewalk to the other, police said there were no incidents or arrests. But the event shut down traffic in parts of the Loop, and snarled the evening commute as marchers competed with office workers for space on jammed trains and rerouted buses.

As they transformed the Loop with their presence, immigrants made a powerful statement elsewhere by their absence.

Without his immigrant employees, a Northwest Side body shop owner gave up and closed for the day. An Italian restaurant in Downers Grove relied on temps to cook and managers to bus tables. High school students walked out en masse. "I have never been prouder to march, to show my commitment to a cause, than I have been today," U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told the crowd. "We have brought together the true fabric of what Chicago is, of what our country is."

After a moment of silence for soldiers in Iraq, a young girl led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jose Soberanis, 21, led a group with a poster of Martin Luther King Jr. that he had sketched with his 11-year-old sister, Cecilia. He equated his fight with the civil-rights movements of the 1960s.

"As the saying goes, `I have a dream.' Well, we have dreams, too," Soberanis said. "African-Americans were looking for social acceptance. That is what we want too."

Hundreds of high school students were no-shows, and officials speculated that most of them attended the rally. At Farragut Career Academy in Lawndale, about half the 2,500 students walked out after attendance was taken at 10:40 a.m.

Josue Martinez, a Tilden High School senior who attended, said: "We're supporting our parents and our parents' parents, who came here and worked hard. A lot of classrooms are empty today."

Whole shifts of workers left their jobs to underscore the importance of immigrant workers. One server from an Italian restaurant came in his work tie and apron, draped with a U.S. flag. Construction workers, still wearing hardhats, came straight from their job sites. Clerks from the El Guero market in Aurora piled into the store's delivery van, riding on produce boxes.

Alex Garcia and about 10 co-workers from a Joliet commercial sign company rode a Metra train to Chicago's Union Station, walked out to Union Park, and then retraced their steps as they marched back to the Loop.

"Most people don't realize how much work we do, but it's part of their daily lives," he said. "We are putting up all the buildings and cooking all the food. Today, they'll understand."

 

[Annie]

We need the existing laws to be enforced, as well as reforms.
I found this interesting:

That's in Chicago, I can't imagine what AZ, NM, TX, CA are facing. Sorry, but that so many should be marching on 'behalf' of illegals, well...we have a very serious problem.

 

[NATO AIR]

That's in Chicago, I can't imagine what AZ, NM, TX, CA are facing. Sorry, but that so many should be marching on 'behalf' of illegals, well...we have a very serious problem.

Yes, but I think its more about the tone of the debate. People are also very poorly educated on what it means to be an American and a citizen. The fight has to be won in the schools, the courts and the churches. We need to educate folks and thin out the ranks of these people who blindly support this in the name of multiculturalism, a dying myth that must be killed.

 

[Annie]

Yes, but I think its more about the tone of the debate. People are also very poorly educated on what it means to be an American and a citizen. The fight has to be won in the schools, the courts and the churches. We need to educate folks and thin out the ranks of these people who blindly support this in the name of multiculturalism, a dying myth that must be killed.

I agree. What you are saying applies to the majority of what most here would say are 'libs' and also to those that know they are illegals, but think that the fact that we are 'richer' means we 'owe' the less fortunate, ignoring our legal immigration laws do take that into account.

 

[Trigg]

Observers said the turnout could galvanize both sides in the immigration debate, launching a grass-roots pro-immigrant movement while provoking a backlash among those who want stricter controls.

The trigger for the rally was a controversial federal bill that would crack down on those who employ or help illegal immigrants. But the broader message--carried mostly by Mexicans, but also by a smattering of Poles, Irish and Chinese--was that immigrants are too integral and large a part of Chicago to be ignored.



I pulled this part out because I think a lot of people miss the point, especially recent immigrants. YES, immigrants are important in our society and they always have been. BUT, those immigrants came here LEGALLY and that's the big issue today.

I welcome immigrants. I don't support illegals coming into this country and using our health care, schools and social programs and giving nothing back.

We need to have stricter controlls along our border.