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.
Hopefully, she will be forced to do just that. In my opinion, Hillary is a better politician than that. Remember, she will be running for prez and most of these illegals can't vote. She will also run the risk of losing the black vote. Most Democrats don't like what is happening regarding illegal aliens.
"Hillary will filibuster"
And she will lose... ...again.
And it will upset the DUmmie trolls... ...again.
Whenever you have a government state a number on illegal immigrants, double it to get close to the real number.
24 to 30 million illegal immigrants easily.
i think teh question to you should be why hasnt it....with birth rates at roughly 1/2 replacement level, there wont be enough europens in 50 years to form a majority in most european countries....
the majority of babies born in AMS and BRU are muslim...12% of France is muslim, as is 10% of Sweden...already the entire city of Malmo, Sweden is majority muslim and swedish police and to oscared to partol there....the is talk of creating little emirates in France that would be beyond French civil and criminal law and subject to Sharia....we are lucky to be invaded by Mexicans rather than Muslims
Does anybody remember how the huns got into the Roman empire?
so you think there are 60 votes for cloture on 4437? I doubt there are 50 votes for passage.
Actually it's already started, and guess what, unlike your democRAT/Socialists friends over at D.U. we will win.
Oh, and brush up on your ENGLISH spelling and grammar a little.
it is improper protocol to answer a question with a question and i am having a real hard time typing without capital letters. how do you do this all the time? so. answer my first question. thank you very much.
The one thing I'm skeptical of though, is the voter fraud element. I don't trust the RATS, in every precinct.
B-1 Bob Dornan, former Rep from CA could tell you all about it.
So, just out of curiousity...how many times have you been banned from FR?
And these uneducated foreign born knuckle draggers are supposed to keep Social Security afloat! Europe has a Muslim immigrant problem and we're starting to get ours own. Blame the multi-culti left and our big businesses addicted to illegal alien labor.
never...i am not pro-illegal, i am just stating my opinion that the time for effective action passed us long ago
where is the civil war?
The jackels are becoming bolder.
Well, we can depend on the police and the proper authorities to keep order, that's for sure and for certain.
And WHY, pray tell, should we be as happy as you are to be INVADED by anyone??
"The warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron which they possessed into strong and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and manners; and the feeble policy of Constantine and his successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valour of the Barbarian mercenaries." -Gibbon
Kinda like we're doing with China. Giving them all of our manufacturing technology and know-how.
And we've certainly trained millions of folks from south of the border. If they'd all go home, they'd know how to build a real country...
Reid has promised to filibuster 4437...there arent 60 votes for passage...my guess is there will be no immigration reform
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