Marching Through Georgia
Articles
Since writing in VDARE.COM about my experience in trying to report illegals to the Atlanta ICE office, I sent several e-mails to the ICE office asking about its plans to enforce our immigration laws at the nauseatingly-named "Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride" that was scheduled to make a stop in Doraville—a close-in suburb, now mostly Mexican—on Monday, September 29.
It should be noted that Georgia has the fastest growing Hispanic population in the country. My metro Atlanta home county, Cobb, has had an increase of 1554% in Hispanic population since 1980. Here, as in the rest of the U.S., most Hispanics come from Mexico. Estimates are that nearly 70% of Mexicans in this country are illegal. I leave it to the reader to do the math—and to form a mental image of the Atlanta area.
ICE did not respond to my emails. But I was one of 15 counterprotesters at the “Freedom Ride” rally and accompanying “March for Dignity” in Doraville. In a town with a population of 7000, the local police estimated the mostly-Hispanic demonstrators to 1,500-2000.
I got the sense that I had left the country of my birth and been transported to some Mexican village, completely taken over by an angry, barely restrained mob. I was relieved to see the twenty-five or so Doraville police and Georgia State Patrol officers present.
As an American citizen, I could only stand, sign in hand, (“BEING ILLEGAL IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHT!”—greeted with cries of “RACIST!”) and marvel at the enormity of what I was seeing.
My inexperience as a writer prevents me from conveying the profound feeling of dread, rage, and sadness for my country’s future that I experienced while Mexican citizens, here illegally, demanded “Civil Rights” and driver’s licenses, and screamed obviously-rehearsed slogans at our small group—Americans asking only that our government enforce our laws.
(Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “Civil Rights” as “the non-political rights of a citizen: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress” – my emphasis).
My first act on a safe return home was to take a shower.
The demonstrators carried signs including “The Red Brigade of the Communist Party,” complete with hammer and sickle, and the large, banner of the local U.A.W. union, whose hall was the final destination of the eight-block march. There the U.A.W. hosted a chicken dinner for all, followed by more speeches before the departure of the “Freedom Ride” busses several hours later.
Ever present and visible was the flag of Mexico.
The mostly jean and sneaker-clad marchers were led by more well-attired bullhorn-carrying Hispanic “platoon leaders,” who were in turn led and instructed by non-Hispanic looking U.A.W. members with larger bullhorns, complete with logoed caps and polo shirts. Less than three years ago, the AFL-CIO abandoned its opposition to illegal immigration, for lowering the wage scale and taking American jobs. Big Labor has apparently made the treasonous calculation that illegal membership is better than declining membership.
There were no arrests in Doraville—despite the three-month lead-time from the event’s announcement to its actual occurrence.
I saw no ICE agents, no wire-meshed windowed buses emblazoned with “Immigration Enforcement” across the side.
However, the local police chief, John .F. King, made it clear to our band of American counterprotesters—six of whom were women, one in a wheelchair—that any attempt to “antagonize” the mob of defiant illegals and their enablers would be met with our arrest.
The local TV news painted a picture of the “immigrants” as victims of intolerance and racism.
There was no mention of the federal law being trampled.
Professional victim and civil rights veteran of the 1960’s, Joseph Lowery saw, and took, a well-televised chance to speak in support of the illegals saying that “….we may have come over on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now…..”
One headline on the front page of the next days Atlanta Journal-Constitution, our immigration-boosting local newspaper: “FCC vows to start enforcing registry”—referring to the very public signing of the do-not-call law that day by President Bush.
Imagine the howl if that law is ignored.
