Posted on 03/26/2006 5:54:35 PM PST by EternalVigilance
Blaring car horns, racist slurs and angry fisticuffs punctuated a volatile encounter of protesters and counter-protesters Saturday morning outside Bank Calumet.
"God bless America! Stay out of our business!" yelled members of the locally based Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.
"Go home (expletive) Nazi racists!" yelled members of an opposing group of circling counterprotesters.
The federation, a public interest organization advocating what it calls immigration policies with an impact, demonstrated against bank loans for undocumented aliens, echoing six similar previous local protests.
Several members of the Chicago Minuteman Project joined the federation, hoisting protest signs to passing motorists and exchanging verbal jabs with visibly angry counterprotesters.
"We're not racists, we're LEGAL Americans," Minuteman members yelled under American flags whipping in a fierce wind. "Those people are Communists."
The counterprotesters -- some from the Progressive Labor Party of Chicago, others from Purdue University Calumet or there on their own -- chanted in bilingual defiance: "¡Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!" or, "Workers united will never be defeated!"
Susana Findley, a Gary native whose parents were born in Mexico, said illegal immigrant workers arrived here for the same reason federation members' ancestors arrived: To find work and a better life.
"But those racist immigrants forget about that," said Findley, nodding toward the federation's camp.
Several counterprotesters arrived earlier than the scheduled 10 a.m. federation protest, setting up shop at the corner of Calumet Avenue and Ridge Road.
When 63-year-old Chicago Minuteman member Rick Biesada arrived and pulled out his protest sign, he claimed that two counterprotesters yanked it from him. When he yanked it back, the men assaulted him, knocking him to the ground, he said.
The Lindenhurst, Ill., resident was treated by paramedics at the scene for a gash over his eye and dizziness, spending a few minutes inside an ambulance before returning to the protest.
"I wished he fell to the ground harder," Findley said.
Munster police Sgt. Nick Hudak, one of several officers showing up to stand between the opposing groups, said no arrests were made and no other injuries occurred.
Protesters on both sides said the escalating debate over U.S. House Bill 4437, the so-called Border Security bill, may have inflamed the controversy of offering bank loans to illegal aliens.
The bill, which would strengthen enforcement of existing immigration laws and enhance border security, has already passed the House and could be voted on by the Senate as early as this week.
Federation co-founder and Valparaiso resident Cheree Calabro, while passing out fliers to motorists, said similar demonstrations at Bank Calumet had no such problems with counterprotesters.
"I think they're feeling more emboldened with all the national protests (supporting illegal immigration)," said Calabro, whose group is the Indiana chapter of the national Minuteman Project.
Heh...
no, and I dont have to..
the CPUSA is not a serious threat to the USA or our way of life.
Oh, I'm an enforcemen-first, assimilate or go home, do it legally type, but I won't tolerate being called a coffee-colored mongrel.....
You're right. I hit abuse on that post.
i cant find his original post i think it was removed.
I believe there have been something like 50 murders in Nuevo Laredo since this past January.
Yeah, it was removed at my request.
Now, if I had my druthers about you....
actually mexico i believe is the 4th wealthiest nation in the western hempsphere and 2nd wealthiest in latin america
So you admit to being from Mexico! Wealth does not stop a nation from being a craphole, corruption and crime are part and parcel of Mexico. The wealth is concentrated in a few elite families while the rest of Mexico comes to the US to keep from starving to death while the elites live in guarded communities with bodyguards, which is what will happen here.
Cancer survivor since August 6, 1985.
The way to stop a cancer is to aggressively cut it out and follow up with ruthless treatments to destroy anything you missed on the first pass. I endured 3000 rads and weeks of barfing after the surgery. I'm equally aggressive in pursuing my other objectives.
where do i admit to being from mexico...yes mexico is very corrupt, it is wealther than Argentina but far more currupt..and yes it is the whites in Mexico who are screwing up the country..we dont disagree
Sounds like solid immigration policy to me!
;-)
Again, here is the point, genius historian. The Islamofascists are a great threat to the nation and the stability of the entire world. They want us to convert or die. We also, however, have another significant threat. We are being invaded. Mexico is importing its poverty to this nation in incredible numbers. Unlike both of my grandfathers, who came to this great nation to become Americans and embrace what it meant to be an American, this wave of invaders has little interest in becoming Americans. They are bringing their language and culture here and are telling us to hell with our culture. They are tearing apart the fabric of this nation. Islamofascists are a threat. The wave of illegals is a threat. We have had enough.
Glad to hear you're better!
Fall back on the same BS that all of your ilk do and start the *racist* crap. It won't change anything. Any further argument with you is futile.
I'm glad you did. Thanks! I don't live in a big city, so I doubt very much that we will have any problems around here. We've already got 48% Hispanic in NM, but they are the legal ones, and they don't like it either.
That said, I expect the big sellout to come down the halls of Congress tomorrow in the approving of the McKennedy bill. Those sorry POS Congress critters will be too intimidated by the huge demonstrations to do the right thing.
i dont think they are all telling us to hell with our culture(hispancs have high enlistment rates in teh miliraty)...of course i am sensitive to your plight as you live in that craphole known as San Berandino county, so i can see hehre youre coming from
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