Posted on 04/02/2006 10:45:08 AM PDT by digger48
SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - Manuel Aguilar feels uneasy in supermarkets and other public spaces, and he's careful not to drive over the speed limit for fear that a traffic stop could lead to his deportation.
But the 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico feels so strongly about a proposed overhaul of national immigration policy that he plans to join a protest next weekend in a San Diego park and is even helping organize the event.
Aguilar, who makes $380 a week at a flower nursery in the ultrawealthy San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe, speaks with anger and disbelief about the House bill that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally.
"It's not a crime to work," said Aguilar, who has been in this country about five years. "We are not criminals."
He is hardly alone in his move from the shadows to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have demonstrated in cities across the nation in a rare burst of activism that surprised even organizers.
Aguilar, living in a part of Southern California suburbia where sentiment against illegal immigration has been rising, was moved to act by the blessings of the Roman Catholic Church and the comfort of protesting in large numbers.
It's unclear whether the protests will influence Congress or if this is the beginning of a social movement with staying power. But Eliseo Medina, a prominent union official, considers it a pivotal time because the marches have drawn people from all ages and economic backgrounds.
"People finally said 'If that many people are going out, I'll go out too and make my voice heard,'" said Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union and an early leader of the United Farm Workers.
David Locher, a sociologist at Missouri Southern State University who studies crowd psychology, suspects the street action will fade.
"A true social movement builds up gradually over time," he said. "As far as I can tell, this is more a spontaneous thing."
Like many of the new activists, Aguilar appears uninfluenced by established politicians or immigrant advocacy groups. But something changed last week when he attended St. Leo Mission Catholic Church in Solana Beach, a small oceanfront suburb of multimillion-dollar homes north of San Diego.
It was the day after enthusiastic reports about a large Los Angeles rally, which the Catholic Church supported.
A church worker invited parishioners to stay after Mass to plan a demonstration. Organizers expected 20 people, but about 100 showed up, including Aguilar, who attends services three times a week. Many of the participants live in northern San Diego County, a stronghold of activism against illegal immigrants.
The church members plan an April 9 protest at San Diego's Balboa Park.
"We stayed quiet for a long time, but the water rose above our necks," said Arnoldo Marin, a handyman who moved to the United States from the Mexican state of Jalisco in 1986 and became a legal resident. "If you feel yourself drowning, you have to do something."
No one on welfare would take a $10/hr job, they would lose over 2/3 of their income!
Response: Higher taxes. Longer hours of work to pay for the higher taxes. An increase in crime particularly assaults. More illegals voting their own into office resulting in Mexican gouvernance. Greater corruption. An increase in communicable disease. The 'dumbing down' of our society. Increased filth in our cities.
its not so much degraded laws, it is the lack to enforce them that has degraded, we were promised by laws of the amnesty of 1886 that employer would be penalized for hiring those without valid work permits or citizens. Since that time our politicians and greedy business lobbies have flaunted the law, so now when we ask it to be enforced these people seem to think it is their right to keep flaunting laws by arguing the are laws are to confusing ?
What is so hard to understating that one needs a work permit, and has has to pay income tax, and state disabilities insurance to work like everybody else?
maybe if they went to school here and had 20 years to learn the failure and destruction of our tax base and neighborhoods by not enforcing labor laws of the last amnesty like the rest of us had to , it would be a piece of cake to understand.
-"It's not a crime to work," said Aguilar-
When will one of them just come out and say "It's not a crime to be here illegally"?
They see only the relative merits of the illegals being here. They see that being here, doing the work "that Americans don't want to do", which is a crock btw, is better than anything they have in Mexico, Guatamala, etc. It may be, but supporting them here illegally also supports them being here as a second class of human being. The thinking they won't admit to is, "Yeah, they're at the bottom of the classes, but at least it's better than Mexico." The point is that they don't mind seeing them as a bottom class.
If they really cared about these people they would urge them to go home and work to institute change within their own failed governments.
"he'a afraid of a speeding ticket, for crying out loud."
Because of the "fear" they drive like a blind 90 year old and really mess up traffic!
You bsn also bet his pay is cash/no deductions, especially since the place he works deals in almost all cash.
Apparently the rule is: if you disagree with a law, breaking it is not a crime. At least one would think this from reading alot of these FR threads on illegal aliens...
susie
"When will one of them just come out and say "It's not a crime to be here illegally"?"
Look at the signs from their protests, there are a lot of them proclaming just that.
Response Continued: Loss of jobs for marginally skilled American citizens thus increasing poverty. Overt discrimination and insults. Increased hiring by governmental agencies of Mexicans. Courts staffed by Mexican judges who will not discriminate against their own as everyone knows blood is NOT thicker than water-(When one crosses a border all that one has previously learned is immediately shed). Spanish only spoken here!
Until we get rid of the welfare state and fix some other internal problems, we're going to have this illegal immigration problem. A lot of people want the illegals out, but are they willing to also willing to go back to a freer society where the federal government takes care of only what the constitution says it is to take care of? I somehow doubt that a majority of Americans would get behind returning to constitutional governance. They'd have to give up their favorite pet gov. handout. Americans are fat, lazy, immoral, stupid, yet mostly content and happy house slaves. The republic has been dead a while. The empire is being given away by calculating politicians.
I wouldn't mind amnesty so much IF there was a clause that said they MUST repay the two or three trillion dollar debt incurred by American citizens for their welfare.
I just read that the organiziers are planning a May 1 economic boycott for all of Calif. Good!, Now we can inform them they will have no jobs to come back to if they join the boycott and march. We have many Americans who can take over the jobs in a week. This must be a widespread warning to them. Its nothing but a "strike", and as Reagon did, Fire them all!
He csn't have a DL therefore he can't buy insurance even if he wanted to.
At least in CA they won't do anything to an illegal since they know that they can't inforce it, the cops just say sorry about that and let the illegal go.
Manuel, the illegal alien, can thank the Democrats for that amendment designed as a poison pill to kill the bill.
Manuel and others who entered this country illegally have no stake in America. Go back to Mexico and wave your flag there Manuel. American citizens wave the Stars and Stripes here.
Yep, I am - and, as a Catholic, I fully believe that the Bishops who are supporting this are utterly and completly wrong on every level and I WILL NOT obey them on it. They are not qualified to speak "ex cathedra", but are only speaking as politicians of sorts.
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? ( links, blogs, quips, quotes, aggravating pictures ) is located here- click the Pic, and scroll backwards:
"Thunder on the Border," click the picture:
( PS- my personal prediction? That picture will become one of the most widely distributed, and most hated, pictures on the internet. The Illegal lobby could not have done more damage to themselves with that "Mexican Flag Superior, America in Distress" photograph if they had tried... )
it's a hoot:
Families are suffering because of the system
Everyday my husband sets off for work, I pray that nothing happens to him and that he arrives home safely.
The heated immigration debates have my nerves in knots and our hopes of living the "American Dream" quickly slipping away. I am scared for my safety and that of my family.
I am a true American. I am white, Mexican and Native American. My family has been here for generations. I am college educated, with a master's degree. My children are American. My husband, who has been here for 10 years and who came here to work, is still an illegal alien.
We have been married for many years and have done our due diligence to fix my husband's immigration status. Our petition for "status adjustment" has been approved. So what is the problem? My husband entered illegally as a minor and we are now being punished.
He cannot hold a driver's license. He cannot be insured. He cannot help me buy a home. We cannot go on family vacations out of California. Heck, we cannot even take the kids to Sea World because we might be checked at the Oceanside revision. My children and I are being held hostage here in Orange County - and why? Because I married an illegal alien.
The government is taking away my constitutional rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
I have mixed feelings about the "temporary work visas" that are being discussed by the Senate because they do not discuss the ramifications this might have on those individuals already immersed in the immigration process. We need an amnesty, not a temporary work permit. We have four children. Our livelihood depends on both of us working - working hard.
There are thousands of immigrants who have no desire to permanently settle here - they work hard, save money, send money back home to mama, and then when they are tired and have saved enough, they go. They go home to visit their wives, their mothers and their children. My husband has not seen his mother in 10 years.
I don't know if there is an answer that will suit everyone. In fact, I highly doubt it. One thing for sure is that we do need tighter border security, but we also need an avenue for legal immigration and we need help living the American dream.
So, I married an illegal alien - now what?
Aubrey Escobar
Mission Viejo
It's a crime to be in my country illegally, you idiot. And yes, you are a criminal.
Lady, your a nut. You caused you problem, not the Government.
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