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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."
"So, I married an illegal alien - now what? "
Why don't you and your family move to Mexico, i'm sure that since your illegal sperm doner is a legal mexican that that government will accept all of you as mexicans!
Sounds like a place that needs to be visited by ICE for a little workplace enforcement...oh, wait...that doesn't happen much anymore, does it?
I have a couple offerings as a solution to all this. As anyone that dislikes America will tell you, the US is imperialistic. And of course, we are supposed to let everyone in from countries that would NEVER consider letting illegals enter their own countries in the same way.
The solution? Let's be imperialist, and at the point where a foriegn nation admits that they cannot care for their own citizens and wants us to, inform them that their nation has been accepted as a territory of the United States of America. Our laws, our president.
At the very least, we need a legal guarantee from the likes of hugh chavez and v. fox(they are insignificant, so they do not need their names capitalized) that their own borders will from this day forward be open to all comers from any country seeking to better themselves with the opportunities that thier nations provide. Not just passers-through to the US, but those wanting to buy mexican or venezuelan land and homes and take their citizens jobs from them.
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant!
I know, all I got out of this LTE is whine,whine,whine,I need help the Goverment is being mean to me and mine
In some states,having no insurance is the second worse offence,behind a DUI.I believe all states should have that.
Good one!
These are foreign citiizens demanding special rights on US soil. They have no business being here and should be deported. Their next step is violence if they dont get what they want. Bush looks the other way while Rome burns.
Is that 350 a week, take home?
10 bucks an hour isn't so bad, if you don't have degree. I'd take it if I could work right now. I would have jumped for joy a couple of years ago : ( ( I do paper pushing, clerical, and customer service. Being a stay at home mommy and an Avon Lady, impresses no one on a resume)
This whole deal of letting illiterate, desperate, evacuees(well, they are being chased out of their own country aren't they?) feed both the US coffers and the Mexican Government makes me very ill. It is a sin.
Who cares!
Aguilar is an idiot. It's not about working, it's about being in a country illegally and smooching off the taxpayers. He's taking home around $1600/mo but is he paying taxes on any of it since he should not have a social security number and the flowershop owner knows he's illegal? Of course we don't have to ask if the shop owner is paying him on the books or sending in FICA and insurance.
Actually, it'd be $1,652.29. There's 4.34812141 weeks in a month - yeah, I know, but I wanted to know how much that little punk was pulling in.
I love this "I/we breached the border 'fair and square.' Now we demand our rights!"
Signs at yesterday's Costa Mesa march demanded "Justice and Dignity." I could hold that sign as well ... only I want Justice at the border for our sovereign nation and Dignity for the American worker who has not only seen wages decline but is supporting the invaders through public subsidies.
With American employees the employer has to pay FICA and insurance and other benefits and hire a bookkeeper to figure w/h tax and print out the employee paychecks and file truthful state and federal income tax and .... Yep, so much easier and profitable to hire illegals.
We need pro-American rallies
BUMP!
And we can't possibly ever entertain the idea of maybe just getting rid of all the government regulations and taxes. There are tens of thousands of government employees whose livlihoods depend on shuffling the paper generated by them.
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