The group is small, but their message speaks for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Members of the Arkansas Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform were in southwest Little Rock to rally support from U.S. Senators on an immigration bill that if approved could offer legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants.Using a megaphone, one supporter yelled, “We spend $2 billion a year. (most likely a stat made by mixing legal with illegal)We're an economic force to be reckoned with."Coalition member Cesar Compadre says, “Our voices need to be heard. (your groups spend millions on lobbyist and most of the mainstream media cheerleads for you everyday). We need our senators to know that we are concerned that the immigration problem needs to be solved."Elvira Aguirre agrees; “I support immigration reform because I feel that everybody has a right to speak up and come have a better job and be free." (in Mexico?). While the group is in favor of some of the proposed reforms, they're not in agreement with a few of the amendments to the legislation; including one that would require immigrants to return home temporarily to gain lawful status. They say it wouldn't work; the U.S. government doesn't have the money.Arkansas Director for LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens) Carlos Cervantes says; “If they were to pick up 1,500 or 2,000 of undocumented and ship them out (it's every month in the video), it would take 20-25 years to do that."Cervantes continues, “We don't have the funds, we don't have the resources, we don't have the time, we don't have the manpower." (The Swifco raid caught over 1,000 illegals in 1 day, we could ship them out if we ignored the lawsuits from MALDEF and force more to leave by cutting taxpayer funded services)
But opponents are just as vocal. Tuesday, members of Keep Arkansas Legal stood outside Senator Blanche Lincoln’s office protesting the legislation.....arguing it would provide amnesty to illegals.Marilyn Gover says, “But they are taking jobs from all Americans.”But the coalition says---it's not about handouts.Aguirre says, “We don't want to steal anything. We don't want freedom. We just want a chance, a chance to live better."And now that millions of illegals are living in the U.S. both sides say something has to be done. Coalition members say some type of reform is needed very soon.If nothing is done this go-around in the senate, then the numbers of illegal immigrants in the country will more than double--- and then, they say there will really be a problem.
Stefanie Bryant, Reporter
Updated: 6/27/2007 10:46:41 PM
I was called by Stefanie on Wednesday at 3:30pm for more information, but I had work followed by church. Our group appears to be larger than the pro-illegal crowd and would have even been bigger had we had more time to plan. The Minuteman visit to the offices was bigger than both crowds! Channel 11 may have given more airtime to the pro-illegal crowd, but at least they made an effort to get our side of the story.
These two pics are of the pro-illegal alien protesters
This is the pic from the keeparkansaslegal protest:
This is a video version of what showed up on TV at 10pm:
http://www.todaysthv.com/video/news/player.aspx?aid=47563&sid=48094&bw=
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KLRK Fox 16 also showed up and interviewed Bobbie Warner. Unfortunately, they mixed their report of the protest with a sob story about a fool endangering his kids by fathering them with an illegal.
http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5d35cb95-768b-4049-85be-b5603f99bd75
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