Pro-amnesty and anti-amnesty activists held separate demonstrations on Wednesday commemorating the one -year anniversary of protests that blocked buses of illegal immigrants from overcrowded Texas detention facilities from arriving at the Murrieta, California Border Patrol station. Many amnesty advocates singled out Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate and business tycoon, for criticism, along with anti-amnesty conservative author Ann Coulter.
Lawyers, a priest, a United Farm Workers activist, illegal alien rights advocates and amateur radio hosts held a program at a park over a mile from the station to a small audience. A separate rally of 30-40 law enforcement advocates was held in support of Border Patrol outside the Murrieta station.
Last year’s Murrieta protests swelled by the many hundreds, with pro-amnesty protesters clashing with border security protesters. The controversy began when Brandon Darby of Breitbart Texas broke leaked images of illegal alien children being housed at border patrol facilities, triggering national awareness of an ongoing flood.
A number of speakers at Wednesday’s “immigrant rights” event attacked Trump for his recent comments related to illegal immigration, in which he accused Mexicans of bringing crime to the U.S. (though he allowed that “some, I assume, are good people”).
Ivan Ceja of UndocuMedia said, “Unfortunately in America we have people like Donald Trump and Ann Coulter.” He implied that illegal immigration opponents area racist, saying he wonders if they would have reacted in the same way had those in the buses been lighter skinned. He said the delay of President Obama’s executive actions granting legal status to illegal aliens “pisses [him] off.”
Founder of the National “Tequila Party,” an anti-Tea Party effort, DeeDee Garcia Blase spoke to the crowds, comparing Tea Party protesters to “bullies” like Saddam Hussein and calling them bigots.
“Those who forgot about authentic American history continue with their ignorant rhetoric such as the Donald Trump, the Republican Tea Party pawns and tokens like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas who are used as tokens to divide and conquer us.”
Last year, Blase and others wrote to then U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey, asking them to investigate the Tea Party and others for their part in the blocking of buses in Murrieta.
In the audience at the event, one woman distributed material promoting “a call to white people” for “black liberations and reparations to the African community.”
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