'Day Without Gringos' a Flop [Day Without Illegal Hispanics A Success]

The boycott of U.S. businesses dubbed "A Day Without Gringos," and aimed at supporting migrants in the U.S., appears to have had little impact, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico said Tuesday.

Monday's protests were timed to coincide with "the Great American Boycott" in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants stayed away from jobs and schools across the country.

"Even though we don't have conclusive numbers, I think there wasn't a lot of negative effect," Chamber President Larry Rubin said by telephone from Washington, where he and other business leaders are lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform. "We basically ... think it was more symbolic."

Rubin said the boycott unwisely targeted some of immigrants' best allies — U.S. corporations that have actively lobbied Congress for immigration reform, including legalization for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

It was hard to measure the boycott's impact because business is normally reduced on the May Day holiday. Businesses in Mexico City appeared to be operating as usual Monday, with customers streaming into Wal-Mart stores and McDonald's restaurants — though there were reports of people passing out leaflets and briefly blocking the entrance to at least one U.S.-owned store.

Several hundred pro-boycott protesters in the border city of Tijuana blocked traffic on a bridge leading into the United States, waving flags and shouting slogans and forcing many drivers to turn back. The action converted the world's busiest border crossing into an empty parking lot for about two hours.

In the central city of Toluca, 35 miles west of Mexico City, a group of Mazahua Indian women entered a McDonald's on Monday with homemade food, encouraging customers to eat it instead of ordering hamburgers.

From Polipundit, and I couldn't agree more.

Well, it’s over. That big international series of rallies and protests to show America just how much it needs illegals had it’s day in the sun, sponsored by more than a few major Socialist and Communist organizations, just in case the selection of “May Day”, long favored for 5-year-plans and parades with the same missiles on trailers rounding the block a few times while speeches extolling the virtues of the proletariat droned on, seemed a coincidence to you. Of course, the speeches had to be re-tooled to promote the virtues of people who flout laws, equal responsibility, and any sense of obligation to the people who built the hoems and businesses they seek, but at least the speeches have the usual enemy: America. Like the anarchists and domestic insurgents of old, the mobs of ‘La Raza’ pretend they love America, and just want to be accepted as ‘immigrants’, a claim made clearly false by the arrogance which demands they should not be made to obey the rules which built this nation, or respect the generations of immigrants who sacrificed and assimilated into the American culture for their children’s sakes. They have no respect for the Irish, the Jews, the Russians, the Chinese, the Blacks, or even the earlier Hispanics who held their culture but learned English and became part of the community as contributors. Today’s “undocumented immigrant” demands access to every sort of public service and convenience, but refuses to pay his way. I had to laugh when a LULAC representative assured the crowd in Houston that the undocumented alien somehow is cheated, even though he pays no income tax, no property tax, and does not follow common obligations like carrying liability insurance for his car. Permit me to doubt you, Johnny Mata.

But to Monday. A great day, actually. I had no trouble getting to work or doing my job. I found plenty of stores with staff and stock to sell me what I wanted and needed, none of it made in or produced by anywhere or anyone in South America. In a strange irony, I got my gas at the station I always do, which is run by an Indian immigrant, who saw no reason not to work today, and who is legal in every sense. I bought a collander from an asian store, whose owner is either an immigrant or the son of an immigrant, and again someone who obeyed the law and made his way here by the rules. I talked about politics over lunch with an immigrant from Kenya, and when I rode the bus home, I exchanged pleasantries with the native-born driver, whose family came here legally from Venezuela.

The lessons for the illegals? Three of them:

1. We do not need you nearly as much as you think. A lot of us want to give folks a reasonable opportunity, but if you refuse to work with us, we will get rid of you.

2. You need to pay better attention to your own best interests. Racist groups and chants in a foreign language come across as attacks and hostility. The geniuses who thought that was a good tactic had better remember that we have a lot more guns, and threatening us only makes us more determined to defend ourselves. Demanding a “right” to steal public resources, to excuse the flood of drugs, violent criminals and gangs, or to have a special set of conditions just for your race is not going to fly, and will only set you against the hundreds of millions of real Americans who will judge you by the standards your own conduct sets.

3. A lot of things can be discussed or negotiated. Equal rights come with equal responsibility. Right about now, you guys are not showing any sense of responsibility, and all that does is work against Latinos.

So thanks for Monday, amigo.

Consider cheap tomatoes

This email is from a retired former teacher friend whose wife is a teacher in the Riverside area, and has been for many, many years. The attached is first hand knowledge...

As you all listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration there are some things that you should be aware of. My wife is in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at large southern California high school, which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower socio-economic and income levels.

Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc. where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.

My wife tells me that 100% of the students in her school and other Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast, free lunch program. When I say free breakfast I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll... but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten.

She estimates that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight.

About 75% or more DO have cell phones.

The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for baby-sitters or having family watch their kids.

She was ordered to spend $700,000 on her department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; her budget was already substantial. She ended up buying new computers for their computer learning center; half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America.

She has had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them Putas? whores and throwing things that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical, free education, free food, day care etc., etc., etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements? To my conservative friends: I hope you're really proud of how George W. Bush has helped to sell-out this country with his pro-illegal policy. I voted for him too, but on this issue he is a disaster.

To my bleeding-heart liberal friends who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.

Higher insurance, Medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc., etc. For me, I'll pay more for tomatoes.

We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won't have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will leave and return voluntarily?

There are many hardworking Hispanic/American citizens that contribute to our country and many that I consider my true friends. We should encourage and accept those Hispanics who have done it the right and legal way. It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate ... and an American culture that has become so weak and politically correct that we don't have the will to do anything about it. If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know.

Paul Walker

DEPORT ALL ILLEGALS! WAKE UP PRESIDENT BUSH, YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!

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