Posted on 01/21/2008 6:53:14 PM PST by forkinsocket
PAWTUCKET Racism and xenophobia are contributing to a Rhode Island social climate in which immigrants are regarded as the villains, speakers at a pro-immigration rally said yesterday.
We build walls for people who have to leave their country for economic reasons, said Gladys Gould of the Providence Presbyterian Church, one of a number of organizations that took part in Unite for Fairness, held at the Pawtucket Visitors Center. You dont see them going after the Irish. The difference is, the police will stop us because of the way we look. It is all about race, said Gould, a native of the Dominican Republic.
About 90 persons attended the rally.
Gould said, This is a nation of immigrants. Its part of our history. But immigration trends have changed in the last hundred years. The global economy, driven by U.S.-based corporations and free trade agreements like NAFTA, has created a new reality in immigrants countries of origin. These agreements have hurt workers on either side of the border and have created conditions of poverty and urgency for people to migrate.
I think it is time we talked about what is the Rhode Island we want to be in and live in, said Ellen Gallagher of the International Institute, in Providence. We think its a Rhode Island that values communities and all Rhode Islanders, including immigrants.
Gallagher said that many immigrants do not understand that if their spouse is a U.S. citizen, they might be able to acquire legal status or citizenship for themselves. Unfortunately, she said, due to serious backlogs in processing immigration and citizenship applications, many people seeking legal status have been unable to achieve this goal.
Patrick Crowley, of the Rhode Island National Education Association, said, The real problems in Rhode Island are about job creation, not immigration.
He said immigrants in the Ocean State pay taxes, invest in real estate and contribute to the states economy.
And yet there are unscrupulous employers who use peoples immigration status as a means to exploit workers and abandon wage and hour laws. For a strong Rhode Island, we need to enforce our states wage and hour law, not take federal immigration law into our own hands.
Ivette Luna, of Ocean State Action, said Rhode Island is filled with fear and anti-immigrant ideas. She said statements of hate are frequently expressed on talk radio shows.
The people on the hill, she said, referring to the state government, are feeding into anti-immigrant statements. The key is education. We need the true facts. Its all about human. We all are people. We are all immigrants. An injustice to one is an injustice to all.
Get the h*ll out of my country.
If you are here illegally, you are a CRIMINAL INVADER not an “immigrant”.
Ha ha. Now leave.
Show me an Irish protest demanding citizenship and money for Irish illegals and I'll go after the Irish.
What a stupid argument they have.
I am stationed in California where it is literally over ran with tax sucking illegals. Now California is in the hole $18,000,000,000 (yes billions) this year alone. Meanwhile, our schools are failing, streets crowded, hospitals in bankruptcy, gangs everywhere, and billions in government aid to them all so that some businesses can have cheaper labor. Go ahead Rhode Island, dig that grave.
Why don’t these immigrants find the countries that have the jobs Rhode Island doesn’t have and then go to those places?
Not if you're here illegally, then you're a criminal.
Immigrants come flooding in to a state and then complain there aren’t enough high paying jobs. DUH. People this dumb we don’t need.
They could only get 90 people to show up? I could find 90 illegals on a street corner in Central Falls. Rhode Island is overrun with illegals.
She'll change her tune when she or someone she loves is gang raped by the misunderstood members of MS-13. Those poor dears! /sarc
Yep, there’s a few here in Houston too. Last time I saw most of them; they were sitting down in the middle of the streets in a demostration here in Houston.
That's because we wisely drove out the Irish after they tried to swarm our nation and declare the areas they infested as historical Ireland. They claimed it was taken from the original (racially pure) Irish by the English by force of arms and that they were there to reclaim the land for true Irishmen. And they drunkenly swarmed the streets waving Irish flags and shouting, "Yes, we can! (Hic!)". And left empty whisky bottles and Harp lager bottles everywhere at the rally site.
That's the liberal playbook 2008. Republicans are "anti-immigrant". I must have missed the single example of a republican who is that. Anti-ILLEGAL immigrant, yes.
There are a lot of Irish here illegally..and I want them gone as well. Illegal is illegal. White, black, yellow or brown..if you are illegal we want you out.
“We build walls for people who have to leave their country for economic reasons, said Gladys Gould of the Providence Presbyterian Church, one of a number of organizations that took part in Unite for Fairness,
.....and this is why I don’t go to the Presbyterian church much any more....it’s been hijacked by moral exhibitionists....they started in the 60s with civil rights; then VietNam; then nuclear disarmament; then the Sandinistas; then gays&lesbians and now it’s illegal aliens....they’re always pissed off about something....always looking to demonstrate their pious anger.
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