Hundreds of Thousands in Immigration March: The Truth About the Protests

 
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other cities turned out for the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. The "scope and size of the marches have astonished politicians on Capitol Hill as well as the churches and immigrant advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations." The rallies were "largely festive rather than angry," but that has not stopped the right wing from turning its sights onto the protesters. As people took to the streets, right-wing chatter about the marches has been "burning up the airwaves on talk radio and cable news networks and has appeared in Internet blogs and conservative publications." Their myths have already begun to spread.

MYTH #1 - RALLIES MEANT TO 'BLOCK ANY EFFORTS TO SECURE OUR BORDERS': In the face of yesterday's massive protests, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs continued to use a straw man argument to defend his radical positions on immigration and attack the peaceful protesters. "The marchers and demonstrators [are] also trying to block any effort to secure our borders," he declared. "They want to defeat efforts in Congress to secure our borders." The truth is that many of the demonstrators support comprehensive reform with strong border enforcement. The catalyst that "sparked protests nationwide" was HR 4437, the House bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and passed last December by the House. That dranconian "enforcement-only" bill contains "sweeping language" that "would make giving even humanitarian assistance" to undocumented workers a "crime punishable by up to five years in prison." The bill does not contain other components of real, comprehensive immigration reform, including stricter penalties for businesses who hire undocumented workers and a path for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status. "We want to stop HR4437," said one protest organizer, "and we are demanding the Senate go back to the drawing board and develop an immigration reform bill and really fix the problem." Even in the face of the protests, the right wing is not backing down. "I don't think we ought to be talking about a more comprehensive approach," House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday.

MYTH #2 - ALL THE PROTESTERS ARE MEXICAN: To fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, some commentators are labeling all those attending the rallies as "Mexican." Last week, Fox News's John Gibson said cities would be hosting "major demonstrations by Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants...carrying the Mexican flag." Gibson would be surprised by the thousands of immigrants from around the world who came out to protest. While the crowds were "mostly Latino," "people representing other ethnic groups also participated." In New York, "the thousands who converged at City Hall Park were greeted in Spanish, Chinese, French and Korean, and heard invocations by a rabbi and the leader of a Buddhist temple." "Yes, we were strangers in this strange land," said Boston City Councilor and Korean-American Sam Yoon, "but now we are part of this land and we are proud to be here." Alan Coleman, a teacher in Washington, DC, held a sign "decorated with green shamrocks" that read, "We Were All Immigrants Once."

MYTH #3 - THERE'S A 'TRUE DIFFERENCE' BETWEEN PROTESTERS AND 'THOSE THAT BUILT THIS COUNTRY': Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA) summed up the view from the radical right when he wrote on the RedState blog that "there is a true difference between those protestors filling the streets today and those that built this country." Collins argued that, unlike the protesters, "immigrants like our forefathers embraced the American dream." But the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson points out that "many fully enfranchised Latino citizens" took part in the protests, many of whom turned out to represent family members, friends, and their cause. Latino military vets were also present at the rallies to show their support. "We just want what's fair for us and good for this country," one Hunter College student said. "We've been Americans all our lives. We know the Star Spangled Banner and we don't know the Argentine national anthem. We pay our taxes and we want to contribute to this country, which is the only place we know."

MYTH #4 - PROTESTERS CAME OUT TO 'INTIMIDATE': "I'm going to have probably several thousand people outside my office today in New York," Rep. Pete King (R-NY). "I mean, you can't allow that to intimidate you." Meanwhile, the "marches were peaceful, and many of them had a picnic-like atmosphere." The Associated Press described them as "peaceful protests that some compared to the movements led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and farm-labor organizer Caesar Chavez." In fact, many on the right have been trying to intimidate the protesters. Fox News asked if rallies were the "perfect chance to arrest illegal immigrants." Rush Limbaugh wondered if his listeners were asking, "'Where's the INS? ... Some of you might say, 'Surround them with INS agents.'"  Radio host Brian James of KFYI in Arizona even recently threatened to "randomly pick one night - every week - where we will kill whoever crosses the border." [MORE]

• Pictured above:  Jorge Hernadez holds Ernesto Martinez on his shoulders, as they pose for a portrait during an immigration rally in Homestead, Fla. Monday, April 10, 2006