PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
A deputy directed protesters Anthony Porrello (center) and Michaela Saucedo (far right) to stand back from the sidewalk outside the arts center.
Posted on 08/12/2005 5:30:37 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
August 12, 2005
CARLSBAD – Police from several jurisdictions, most wearing riot gear, formed a barrier to keep the peace between those attending a forum on illegal immigration and protesters who ranged from Latino activists to Muslim students.
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
A deputy directed protesters Anthony Porrello (center) and Michaela Saucedo (far right) to stand back from the sidewalk outside the arts center.
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"Today we have the worst enforcement we've ever had in the history of our country," Pete Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego, said.
With scores of police guarding the entrance to the Carlsbad Community Cultural Arts Center on the campus of Carlsbad High School, the physical violence anticipated by Carlsbad Unified Superintendent John Roach did not materialize, although the two factions shouted angrily at one another.
Police said that no arrests were made. A sheriff's deputy said one man was held on the ground by protesters and officers extricated him. He did not appear to be injured.
Protesters began lining up five hours before the 7 p.m. forum. Afterward, representatives from immigrant-advocacy groups from Southern California, Arizona and Mexico held a news conference to offer a view of undocumented immigration that contrasted sharply with that expressed by the panelists.
By 3:30 p.m., Carlsbad police requested help from the San Diego Police Department in monitoring the crowd. A mobile field force of San Diego officers was dispatched. Oceanside police and sheriff's deputies in riot gear also came as did police detachments from National City, La Mesa, El Cajon and Chula Vista. All told, about 150 officers were at the scene, a sheriff's deputy said. They formed double lines on the street and leading into the theater.
Chants of "USA! USA!" from the forum attendees waiting in line drowned out Spanish chants of "We want a world without borders."
"Go back home!" one group shouted. "We are home!" the other group responded.
About 250 people who wanted to attend were left outside the forum with an estimated 120 to 150 protesters.
Inside, the forum crowd was of one mind: opposition to illegal immigration.
Tancredo said the issue is not about about racism but about protecting the country for American children of all creeds.
Tancredo received a standing ovation when he said, "All I ask is that once you get here, you disconnect from the old, connect with the new and become American."
All 406 seats in the auditorium were filled, and a few people were standing.
Republican state Sen. Bill Morrow of Oceanside said he organized the forum to discuss how defense of the nation begins at the border, and that he timed it for yesterday based entirely on Tancredo's busy schedule.
Morrow said he has talked to Tancredo for months, even before embattled Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Rancho Santa Fe, announced he will not seek re-election in the 50th District. Morrow said yesterday he will run for Cunningham's seat next year.
"I know what the solution is," Morrow said. "We are not controlling our borders and it's a sea coming through. We are capable of controlling our borders if there is the political will to do it."
James Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, co-founder of the Minutemen project, said that although President Bush and others call the Minutemen vigilantes, they are not.
They are "immigration-law enforcement-advocacy groups" who have had to pick up where the U.S. government has abandoned them, Gilchrist said.
Tancredo attracted a group of protesters last night from the Muslim community in response to his recent comments on a Florida talk-radio show. He suggested on the show last month that the United States might respond to an Islamic terrorist attack by bombing Muslim holy sites. He did not apologize, but later said the idea was part of a discussion on how to defend the United States, not a proposition to bomb holy sites.
Last night, about two dozen Muslim leaders and families carried signs and joined other protesters.
The majority of protesters, however, came from the Latino community. Some called for more open borders, others for humane treatment of all immigrants.
"Go home, racist, go home," protesters chanted.
Other panelists included Los Angeles medical attorney and author Madeleine Cosman, who said illegal immigrants are a dangerous and hidden cost for the country; and Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, who has favored the creation of a state border police force. Conservative radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock was the moderator.
Robert Vasquez, commissioner of Canyon County in southwest Idaho, spoke about the cost of illegal immigration on local governments.
When the forum ended around 9 p.m., those in the auditorium were escorted by police through a back door to their cars to avoid more confrontation with the protesters.
The forum was held on the campus after Morrow sued Carlsbad Unified's Roach for rescinding permission for use of a theater on the grounds. Roach had cited fears that crowd unruliness could jeopardize school property.
After Morrow filed suit Monday, Roach changed his mind and said any questions about freedom of speech were more important than questions about crowd behavior. Morrow's attorney said the senator will go to court to seek legal fees from Roach in the coming weeks.
It was tried and didn't work. See my profile page.
1. Fences only serve two purposes, stopping vehicles and delineating the border. They don't stop individuals. See Inspector General's Report linked on my profile page.
2. We tried assigning 32 guards per mile to a 66 mile border of double fences. Illegals still climbed over the fences and made past the guards at a rate that extrapolates into 1.2 million per year just for the two thousand mile Mexican border.
3. According DHS there are 102,000 miles of land borders and shoreline (including the Great Lakes) that would have to be patrolled. Even at 32 guards per mile (which isn't enough) that would be over 3 million guards, an impossible number to hire.
4. Even if we could magically seal the border, it would not prevent illegal immigrants. About 1/2 of the illegals in the country now originally entered legally as tourists, students, on business, etc... and simply didn't return to their homeland.
During my lifetime, liberals have been emotionally driven while conservatives have grounded their positions in reality. People who say that we can seal the border if we just believe hard enough are not grounded in reality. They are driven by emotionalism.
We probably bumped into each other several times! Next time, I'm wearing some FR type badge.
For once, just come out and honestly state your reasons for wanting to keep open borders.
Not one freeper believes your cover story, rod.
I could post some links to the allies of yours, but this post would be deleted.
By the way, have you ever found a credible study that shows how the border can be sealed without immigration reform? Or do y'all just have some Peter Pan type belief that "if we can send a man to the moon, we can seal the border"?
The media is unbelievable in their reporting. They went out of their way to try and say that there were almost equal numbers on each side. There isn't one article or TV report that was honest about the numbers that actually showed up. Of those that showed up and left turned away because the autorium was filled by 5:00 they outnumbered the protesters at least 50-1. When I arrived at 6:00 there were a couple of thousand standing in line not knowing that they were an hour late, including me, and they kept arriving and departing until 7:00 the stated start time.
"My allies are President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, the Republican National Committee, and the leadership of Congress."
That figures, they are the problem not the solution!
Trav, in that sign they're carrying, right under "No Borders in the Workers' Struggle" is a line in red. Can you read what it says? I think it's "International Aztlan Center" followed by a phone number.
President Bush stood before the entire nation, made his position on immigration crystal clear, and let the nation vote for or against him.
Your side lost. Get over it.
This is no joke. The Hispanic gang bangers and other violent Hispanics, illegal aliens and leftists forced the Minutemen to curtail their peaceable border patrol in California. The police refused to control the protesters last week
"Your side lost."
Only because the alternative was so much worse.
Bush was born and raised in a family that has been against the US being an independant nation since before the Revolution, he's been raised to be the One World Socialist that he is.
Here's hopoing that when the crackdown, jail time, and massive fines against employers happens that you're among them.
Why should our men and women even fight in Iraq if what they come home to is an America where decent jobs are decimated by illegal alien labor? Allowing this invasion from Mexico/Central America is the most extreme form of class warfare against the middle class and lower class. Our elites and country club Republicans have been waging class warfare via exporting jobs and importing this serf class of 3rd world illegal aliens. Who are often criminals, fraudsters and welfare rip off artists. All the automobile insurance fraud in California is done by illegal and legal immigrants. Same for most of the MediCal Medicaid fraud.
You have your opinion, backed up by your information.
I have mine.
You also seem overly eager to associate all of us who want to defend our country from illegal invasion with racists. That is a Jesse Jackson class of tactic.
If the entire southern border were sealed and we actually defended the border, there would be no way for millions to cross.
We are not dependant on illegal labor, that is a sham perpetrated by those who profit at the expense of the citizens of this country.
I am not willing to give up so quickly and I am not buying your argument.
Moved away from Carlsbad in 2000 because of steady congestion and increased pollution. Lived in lovely area called Rancho Carlsbad with security gate. The aliens living in the hills surrounding would come down to the tennis courts in the Evening to fill their water jugs. The small grocery store a few blocks away became a haven for laborers to gather. The farmers rented spaces for them to put up shacks and enriched themselves in cheap labor. I don't know if this has been remedied but I did not wait around to see it. Of course the town I moved to in Arizona is becoming crowded with white flight.
Your allies are the aclu, the extreme left, vicente fox, and all the little foxes. All wanting to force their way in and take from others. Look at the pics of your allies.
This should be enough information for most folks.
BTTT
Incorrect. The United States has a border perimeter of just under 20,000 miles. By reducing your inflated numbers by 80% to reflect the actual border perimeter of the United States, that would mean that the number of guards necessary to patrol our border would be about 600,000.
I could post some links to the allies of yours, but this post would be deleted.
Your allies in maintaining the flow of illegal aliens coming into the United States are La Raza, LULAC, MALDEF, and MEChA, among others.
I could post some links to the allies of yours, but this post would be deleted.
Which "side" would that be, exactly - the "Buchanan/Tancredo/DeLay anti-immigrant mob" side?
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