Some call them “nativists,” others call them patriots
By
(Courtesy Chicago Minuteman) A counter-demonstrator blocks the camera of Minuteman and blogger Jake Jacobsen during a protest. Immigration enforcement advocates regularly scuffle with counter-demonstrators and immigration advocates during their protests.
Chicago has long welcomed immigrants searching for work and a better life. From Europeans in the nineteenth century to Asians and Hispanics now, the city has long been a port of entry for the world’s poor, hungry and opportunity-driven.
But just as Americans have at times been conflicted about immigrant populations and changing neighborhoods, so have Chicagoans.
In 1855, temperance activists rebelled against German and Irish immigrants by targeting taverns and liquor licenses through local ordinances and law enforcement. The violent immigrant backlash became known as the Lager Beer Riot.
Violence broke out again during the race riots of 1919 when ethnic European gangs and African-Americans clashed over changing neighborhoods.
Almost a century later, an estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants pour across the nation’s borders every year. According to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, at least 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the country. Just over half come from Mexico.
As some Americans see it, those numbers are problematic. They say the growth is unsustainable and politicians, businesses and illegal immigrants are exacerbating the problem.
Immigration advocates are quick to call these Americans “anti-immigrant” or racist, but these so-called nativists don’t see it that way. Immigration enforcement advocates, as they call themselves, include a racially and ethnically diverse cross section. The problem is not immigrants, they say, but rather, undocumented immigration, the people illegally within the borders searching for the American Dream.
Immigration enforcement advocates are ordinary Americans, war veterans, business owners and community leaders. They say they’re frustrated with those who abuse immigration law. They say they’re sick of illegal immigrants and politicians skirting the law and the activists who silence the debate. They say they are the silent majority, that the country they love is in danger and now is the time to protect it.
“I don’t know anybody who’s actually angry at the immigrants,” said Jake Jacobsen, of Avondale. “I keep being told that people are angry at the immigrants, but I don’t know anybody. Myself and everybody I talk with about this issue is upset at the business owners.”
Pointing Fingers
Jacobsen has personally witnessed an entire industry transform into willing collaborators of illegal immigration. He has worked as chef, manager and owner of various restaurants since the 1970s, he said. Over that time, he has seen many kitchens go from predominantly white and black American staff to mostly illegal Hispanic immigrants, he said.
According to a 2007 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, about 1.2 million foreign-born Hispanics work in food service jobs, compared with 1.3 million blacks and 6.5 million whites. The challenge in hiring immigrants, Jacobsen said, was both cultural and linguistic. Some immigrants, he said, had poor hygiene and were more argumentative. Language barriers also caused miscommunication and increased injuries, he said, adding that illegal immigrants were often abused and underpaid.
“If they get hurt, they get thrown out the back door,” Jacobsen said. “That’s not OK.”
The Rev. Anthony Williams says he sees illegal immigration as a threat to the black community. Williams is a black Lutheran pastor in south suburban Robbins and supports immigration enforcement groups. Williams said blacks are being pushed out of low-wage jobs because employers can hire illegal immigrants for lower wages. The blame, he said, falls on businesses and the black politicians who ignore the community. Frustrated with black leaders, Williams ran against Jesse Jackson, Jr. last fall.
“They take a position for illegal immigration for their own selfish motives, knowing that it injures the black community,” Williams said. “Anything they say, I go opposite of, because for the last 40 years, the Jesse Jacksons of the world haven’t been on the black community’s side.”
Several times this decade, Congress attempted to address border security, temporary work and other immigration issues. With each effort, the legislation was stalled, compromised and abandoned.
Picking up where Congress left off
Frustrated with the lack of action, a group of citizen volunteers devised a grassroots solution. Calling themselves the Minuteman Project, volunteer border patrols armed with rifles, cell phones, lawn chairs and other gadgets patrolled the Arizona border in 2005. There, they watched for groups crossing the barbed wire fences between Mexico and America. As groups passed by, the Minutemen would alert the federal border patrol.
Grassroots groups are the most active source on the immigration enforcement front. Most groups are small, local chapters of the Minutemen or the Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement (FIRE) Coalition. Their funding and membership are entirely voluntary, and they work mostly through protests and online networks. They also gain support from national interest groups mostly around California and Washington, D.C.
Some activists are using politics to influence change. Williams and Rosanna Pulido, an Hispanic involved in Chicago-area groups, both ran unsuccessfully for Congress last November. Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, who founded the national Minutemen, have also pursued political office.
Through the Internet, members share information with their community and with each other. Jacobsen and his wife, MJ, now run a blog called Freedom Folks, where they share comments on immigration issues and videos from Minuteman and immigration protests. The FIRE Coalition runs WeHireAliens.com, where citizens can report businesses hiring illegal immigrants.
Rick Biesada, who owns a trucking company in Chicago, was active with conservative blogs and radio talk shows when he joined the Minuteman border patrols. There, the former Marine met other active voices, including Pulido and Gilchrist, another former Marine. When the patrols ended, Biesada and Pulido started a local chapter in Chicago. Instead of the supportive comments they heard in Arizona, the Chicago Minuteman Project found a less accepting response back home.
“In Chicago, people were saying we were racist,” Biesada said.
Accusations of racism and anti-immigration rhetoric are often thrown at them by left-leaning civil rights groups and by immigration advocates. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors white hate groups and the “radical right,” dubs them “nativist extremist groups.” According to its official list, nativist groups operate in 39 states, including the southern border states, northern border states, Kansas, Nebraska and Alaska. Its list also includes three from Illinois: the Chicago Minutemen, Minutemen Midwest and the FIRE Coalition.
“They’re also being termed racist, too, and that’s not their format,” Williams said. “I haven’t seen any form of racism and I’ve asked them to come and support me.”
Absent from the SPLC’s list is Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, a California-based organization headed by Lupe Moreno. She is the daughter of a legal Mexican immigrant, a coyote who helped people illegally cross the border. Moreno formed the organization with her sister, she said, and both are outspoken on the issue. She leads protests, speaks before Congress and joined the Minuteman border patrols in 2005, she said.
Heidi Beirich, director of research for the center’s Intelligence Project, said she was unsure why Moreno’s group was not on the list because she has written extensively about Moreno.
Stifling debate
What perhaps frustrates enforcement groups more than illegal immigration or the name-calling is the lack of debate on the subject. In many cases, accusations of racist rhetoric, scuffles with left-wing activists and disinterest from mainstream media stifles the democratic process, they said.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a joke,” said Pulido, now head of the Illinois Minutemen. “It’s not ‘Stop the rants,’ it’s ‘Stop the debate.’ It’s the only bullet in their gun.”
Most Minutemen know a time when they or a colleague were attacked or harassed by counter-protestors. Moreno was attacked by a man at the Mexican Consulate in December 2008. The man fled to the consulate, leaving behind personal identification and other belongings, she said.
During a 2006 protest in Northwest Indiana, Biesada and other Minutemen were protesting a bank that allegedly offered mortgages to illegal immigrants. There they were assaulted by counter-protestors, they said.
Jacobsen and his wife were attacked in 2007 near a protest at the Mexican Consulate, several sources said. The video camera they used for video blogging was destroyed and the tape was stolen.
Pulido, Biesada, Moreno and Jacobsen all cite other incidents where backlash from immigrant-rights groups and other left-wing organizations led to some form of conflict. Enforcement groups said they go out of the way to prevent scuffles, notifying police of the protests and cooperating if something breaks out.
“We always conduct our rallies with a certain dignity,” Biesada said.
A representative for the police department in Santa Ana, Calif., where Moreno lives, said it’s never clear who starts the fighting, but that both parties share responsibility. “I think both sides get aggravated,” she said.
The Cockroach Theory
Despite the attention immigration supporters gain from their parades and protests, enforcement advocates say the enthusiasm is not shared by the general public. Despite smaller numbers and quieter voices, they said, a silent majority of Americans support illegal immigration enforcement. The majority stays silent, advocates said, because of other priorities and because they fear the backlash directed toward the Minutemen.
“They’re trying to protect their own interests,” Williams said. “Right now, most Americans are still sleeping on this issue. They’re trying to survive.”
No survey explicitly corroborates or rejects their conclusion that a majority of Americans approve of reforms to curtail illegal immigration. But according to local politicians, some Chicago-area districts do not support legislation benefiting illegal immigrants.
Representatives from Sen. Roland Burris’ (D-IL) office and a Congressional spokesman who asked not to be named said a majority of their districts have responded negatively to the DREAM Act, which offers amnesty for illegal immigrants in higher education. More than 1,400 callers to Burris’ three offices said they oppose the act, while only 420 callers said they support the act, according to data provided by Burris’ staff.
A representative for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who proposed the act, did not share information on the volume of response, but said the senator would “welcome that debate.”
Several advocates said the response on immigration issues has been so large they’ve flooded Congressional phone lines. Congressional staff members said it is possible.
“It’s called the cockroach theory,” Jacobsen said. “If one person calls, it represents 10. If one person writes, it represents 100. It’s like, if you see one cockroach, there’s 10. I’ve actually had cockroaches; I can assure you it’s true.”
For all their rhetoric on illegal immigration, enforcement advocates are ordinary people who simply believe in their cause. They are war veterans, business owners, blue-collar workers and community leaders. They have friends, churches, businesses and families. It’s the future they’re seeing and wondering what it holds. They hope the freedoms for citizens and immigrants will still exist for future generations.
“We’re not evil,” Biesada said. “The main thrust is to draw attention to the problem of illegal immigration.”
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Stifling the democratic process?
An open debate on illegal immigration is being stifled by left-wing activists, immigration enforcement advocates said. In many cases, their protests and events have been disrupted by counter-protestors.
In the two videos below, cameras captured events where student protestors silenced outspoken advocates of illegal immigration enforcement.
The first was captured in April 2009 during an event at the University of North Carolina. Student protestors interrupted former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Co.) and broke a window, prompting police to use pepper spray, according to a report by UPI.
The second video was captured in 2006 when students at Columbia University in New York stormed the stage during a presentation by Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project.
June 15th, 2010at 1:01 pm(#)
[...] her mark on the world. I saw the quote while reading a story that she recently wrote about the plight of immigrants in Chicago. Several times this spring, she recalled a serendipitous meeting with “Jorge” a teenager from [...]
June 19th, 2010at 8:17 pm(#)
I would like to say THANK YOU to
1- Dr. Philip O’Connor
2- SGT Patrick Haley
I appreciate everything that you did for me and for my family and I’ll never forget it
ZAK