Congressman Luis Gutierrez was there, along with my rep in Washington, Jan Schakowsky.
BC writes:
Immigrants and their supporters gathered today at Chicago's Navy Pier. Organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), the convention brought together people from a melting pot of ethnicities and backgrounds to cheer on immigration reform, judiciously substitute the word "undocumented" for "illegal," and repeatedly call for "justice" for all immigrants.
After a number of speakers had made their way to and from podium, I lost track of how many times I was greeted and addressed in Spanish. One speaker was introduced as "a German-American with a Mexican spirit." (???) Another speaker opened with a "buenos tardes" to the cheering crowd, made several statements about making our country a better place, then closed with "Viva Mexico!" Rather confusing to the untrained, (American) flag-waving patriot, I must confess. Just whose country does he want to make a better place?
Groups of students were trotted out. Some stepped forward to speak, including a couple who passionately lamented the way they were being denied the right to succeed in this country because they and their parents are undocumented. Rep. Janet Schakowsky announced that Sen. Dick Durbin reintroduced his Dream Act yesterday to address students in limbo because of their and their parents' immigration status.
Then there is this bit about Illnois' Democratic Governor, Rod Blagojevich:
The governor commented that...
Only in America could the fifth largest state have a governor with a name like Blagojevich." (Much audience laughter and applause.)"Only in America could the largest state have a governor with a name like Schwarzenegger." (Loud booing from the audience.)
What an idiotic (but nasty) statement. The nation's third largest state is New York, who's governor is George Pataki, by the way Rod. Pataki, like Schwarzenegger, is a Republican.
Bald Chick was not alone in documenting, from a conservative perspective, the Immigrant Justice Convention. I'm not sure who is behind this site, but it's a good one. I'm not even certain what the proper name of the site is. But I'm going to excerpt from it all the same.
How 'bout this frightening passage?
I think the absolute most disturbing comment came from a woman (yes....another bold "illegal Mexican Immigrant"), who actually made the statement in English first, then in Spanish:
"Hey......you know, half of the United States used to belong to Mexico.....I think it's about time we took it back!" (as the crowd cheers...)
Does this woman really want to be a citizen of the US? And were Blagojevich, Schakowsky, and Gutierrez in the room when the bile was poured?
Technorati tags: Immigration Mexico Blagojevich Jan Schakowsky Luis Gutierrez Open borders
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