Monday, April 10, 2006

Immigration Action Day in Texas

Send a message to Congress that immigrants make important contributions to American life that deserve lawmakers' respect. A rally for immigrant rights takes place today at 4 p.m. at the Texas state capitol building on the south steps in Austin. See a flyer promoting the event. Here's a list of other, related events scheduled around the state:
  • AMARILLO – 9 am Civic Center , with walk to City Hall
  • AUSTIN – UT – 11 am – 2 pm West Mall , UT campus
  • AUSTIN – State Capitol – 4-6 pm
  • CORPUS CHRISTI – 6 pm Memorial Coliseum
  • EL PASO - 10:00am (Sunland Park City Hall), 12:30 pm (Chamizal), 4:00 pm (Plaza de los Lagartos)
  • HOUSTON – 1:30 pm Guadalupe Plaza , 3 pm Allen’s Landing
  • HOUSTON – 7-8 pm, University of St. Thomas , Student Life Mall
  • SAN ANTONIO – 2 pm – Student Walk Out – Incarnate Word, Dubius Lawn
  • SAN ANTONIO - 5 pm from Milam Park to the Federal Building
  • TYLER – 8-11 am at the Super 1 on 271

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was an interesting flyer you posted, regarding the illegal alien support rally. What did you think of the more popular one, that showed Mexico and Texas as one entity and advocated that illegals vote Democrat?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

You'll have to provide a link to the document, I don't know what you're talking about.

Also, of course, non-citizens can't vote.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=126025429&size=o

I'd quibble over your choice of words, though - I'd agree that non-citizens aren't supposed to vote, but neither are deceased citizens, and they do pretty well in some precincts.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Well, you shouldn't blame rally organizers for THAT thing, though admittedly it's pretty ham handed, isn't it? For starters, I don't see any group affiliation listed, while the rally organizers' flyer listed more than a dozen groups, some elected officials, etc. specifically supporting the event.

I also haven't seen Democrats promoting an immigration plan I'd be proud of, so I'm not even sure how the whole immigration issue would connect to voting for Democrats. It's possible HB 4437 will merely teach Latinos to vote against Rs, like Prop 187 did in California, but more likely to me, on the national stage, Democrats must come up with their own immigration agenda before Latino voters flock to their banner over it.

Anonymous said...

Well, it's true that whoever created that flyer suggesting that the only way Hispanic voices would be heard would be if they voted democrat failed to include the "political ad paid for by..." tag line, so I suppose it forever will be unknown who did it.

I'm intrigued by your interest in this issue, and in particular how it plays in with other topics on your site. How does this mesh with the "report illegal activity" threads?

For example, I suppose if you encountered an illegal alien while you were at those political rallies, you'd have to report the illegal to the proper authorities? Or if you were to discover a non-profit organization supported by tax deductible charitable contributions using its funding to advocate political positions or attempt to influence legislative activity, you'd have to report that?

It's the same situation as an employee or a police officer witnessing illegal activity, I suppose.

I'd agree with your assement of the democrats and their obstruction on the border security issue. They've decided it's better for them not to have a workable solution, so they're going to see there isn't one. It may be that they're not playing to Hispanics at all. Democrats generally are of the opinion that they own the minority vote already, and that's with the border broken as it now is. Their political calculus may be to leave things just as they are. In theory, Hispanics would be no more dissatisfied than they are now, and democrats get most of their votes now; blacks would not see the democrats participating in legitimizing Hispanics, leaving blacks as the politically dominant minority group for the moment; and they get to try to split the conservatives by hammering them for failing to deliver a solution.

Or, I suppose they could be back to their "no progress until we're back in charge" mind set; I'm not sure how we'd ever know, one way or the other.

If they're thinking, though, they have to oppose anything that admits any minority into the economic mainstream. Hispanics don't seem to leave the democrat paddock and vote Republican over border security, but they certainly do so when they start running small businesses and raising families in the mainstream.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Actually, my writing on snitching has emphasized the moral gray area around when to report someone, arguing that to ask people to snitch for low-level offenses that harm no one (years-old immigration violations would fall into that category) undermines the justice system by harming its credibility with significant portions of the public. See, e.g., this item from today.

I've also argued that to maximize public safety, everyone who lives here whether they arrived legally or not must be free to report crimes to police, come forward as witnesses, and cooperate with the justice system in order for it to effectively fight violent and other serious crimes. So I don't think it's inconsistent at all - I'd rather not sacrifice public safety on the altar to a futile, counterproductive goal that's bad for the economy and for human rights.