Activists to cross U.S.-Mexican borders

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By KEITH WALKER

A group of four Virginia activists will travel to Mexico this week and cross back into the United States on Saturday without carrying government identification.

The action by The People United is designed to draw attention to what its organizers see as the base cause for illegal immigration.

"We want people to realize the larger structural reasons for people immigrating to the United States," said Virginia Leavell, an organizer for the People United and member of Mexicans Without Borders. "Immigration to the United States is the direct result of trade policies that the U.S. passes like the North American Free Trade Agreement."

The People United statements say that NAFTA created "vast disparities of wealth and power" between Mexico and the United States.

The group's decision to make the crossing just west of Nogales, Mexico, along immigrant trails, in an unpopulated area of the desert was influenced by the Prince William County illegal immigration resolution, said Leavell, who grew up on a farm outside of Charlottesville.

Organization members attended the 12-hour Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting in October when the resolution was passed. About 200 people spoke at the meeting. The split between those who spoke in favor of the resolution and those who opposed it was about even.

"That was really a spark for us that there needed to be more dramatic action," Leavell said of the vote to pass the resolution.

Leavell said the The People United is worried that other jurisdictions will enact similar ordinances.

"We don't want hate politics and racist legislation to get passed in other parts of the state," she said.

Staff writer Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.

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Reader Reactions

Flag Comment Posted by barnun on April 16, 2008 at 3:21 pm

it would be sad to see these protesters caught up at the border by the drug dealers and slave traders. these people should write their wills and have their affairs in order before proceeding.

Flag Comment Posted by rebelreggie on April 16, 2008 at 1:58 pm

LOS CABOS, Mexico   Gunmen held up a family of U.S. tourists in Mexico on Tuesday and made off with their small plane, police said.

The robbers attacked the plane as the American couple and their two daughters, ages 6 and 8, were about to take off from a hotel airstrip in the Baja California beach town of Mulege.

Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez said the thieves pulled a car in front of the six-seat Cessna Stationair, knocked out one of its windows and forced the tourists out at gunpoint. They then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane.

U.S. officials said they had heard reports about the incident but had not yet been in contact with the victims. The plane’s identification number matched a craft registered to a company in Boise, Idaho.

Small aircraft are commonly used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle narcotics.

Flag Comment Posted by rebelreggie on April 16, 2008 at 11:48 am

There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools,
no special ballots for elections, all government business will be
conducted in our language.


Aqui no va a ver programas especiales bilingual en nuestros escuelas, no boletos especiales para eleciones, todo negocio de govierno va ser conducido en nuestra idioma


Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote no matter how
long they are here.


Las personas no nacidos aqui nunca va a tener el derecho de votar, no importa cuanto tiempo vives aqui


Foreigners will NEVER be able to hold political office.

Las personas no nacidos aqui nunca va a poder tener un oficina politico.

Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare,
no food stamps, no health care, or any government assistance
programs.

Los que no nacio aqui no va ser una duda a los que pagas taxis. No welfare, no estampillas de comida, no cuidado de salud, ni ningun otro tipo de asistencia del govierno.Los que no nacio aqui puede investar en nuestro pais, pero tiene que ser un cantidad igual que 40,000 veses mas de pagos minimos

If foreigners do come and want to buy land that will be
okay, BUT options will be restricted. You are not allowed      

Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an
amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

waterfront property.
That is reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

Los que no nacio aqui y quiere comprar terranos, lo puede hacer, pero nunca puedes comprar a border de las lagunas, mar, rios or otro cuerpo de agua. Estos terranos son solo por las personas nacidos aqui.Bruto? dices?

These are the immigration laws of “.“

Estas son los leyes de pais de   “ .“ 

 

Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving a
foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his
policies, if you do you will be sent home.
Los que no nacio aqui no se puede prtestar en ninguna forma, no se puede demonstar, no se puede cargar una bandera de otro pais, no se puede organizar en modo politico, no se puede hablar mal de nuestro presidente ni los leyes que he hecho, si estas encontrado en algun delito como estos, te vas ser mandado por tu pais.

If you do come to this country illegally, you will be hunted
down and sent straight to jail.


Si entras a este pais illegalmente, nos vamos a buscarte y mandarte derecho al carcel.

Harsh, you say?

 
                Mexico!!

translated for BKWintertime…and one xtra

I hope they now get the message..they are not wanted, needed nor valid!

I doubt that many will even understand this in Spanish as not to many make it past second grade in school..so get a friend to read it to you those that still don’t understand!!

HEY MEXICAN ILLEGAL ALIENS…...SPREAD THE WORD…....YOU PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MEXICO IN U.S., ...... YOU’RE TO FOLLOW MEXICO’s LAWS.

Hey Mexicano illegal..diga a todos Mexicoas illegales que ustedes ama a Mexico y les da todo tu loyalidad a Mexico mientras que estas aqui en Estados Unidos..TUstedes tiene que sigir los leyes de Mexico!

BY FLYING THE MEXICAN FLAGS IN AMERICAN,  .....  “ICE” WILL HAVE NOT ANY TROUBLE IDENTIFYING YOUR ILLEGAL STATUS.

En volar las banderas de Mexico,... “ICE” no va tener ninguna problema identificando tu estatus como illegal.

not a perfect translator as I am not Mexican nor Latina at all..I am a proud Ogalala-Lakota Sioux!

Flag Comment Posted by cobra on April 16, 2008 at 11:07 am

And they just keep coming and we are supposed to sit back and do nothing. Lets just welcome everybody regardless of where they come from. Just how many uneducated and unskilled people do you think we can absorb? They don’t end up in Mclean or Potomac. They end up in a house next to me in Manassas. First course of action is for them to have an anchor baby which they believe will allow them to stay in the US. But at least they will now think about settling in PW County.

Flag Comment Posted by jtime on April 16, 2008 at 9:48 am

Good job, proving that the borders are open enough that you can just stroll across might have more communities enforce laws the PWC now has on the books. The best way to show the goverment that they have screwed up by sticking it in thier face that you can just come and go across the border will really show them, won’t it? Once again, Bravo.

Flag Comment Posted by Valerie on April 16, 2008 at 9:42 am

This isn’t about hate or about race.  It is about law enforcement.  There is an immigration policy.  Bypassing the process is illegal.  It is that simple.  Want to immigrate?  Apply and wait in line (worked for my ancestors).  Otherwise let’s drop all the laws.  Let me drive down the median when traffic is moving too slow on the roads.  Let me hop over the counter when the line is too long at the DMV.  Is that how we really want it to work?  No.  Laws exist for a reason.  So apply, wait in line, and go through the legal process.  Those with a criminal background should not be allowed in (we have enough criminals already).  If you have a clean background and show respect for the laws here (including immigration) then enter in an orderly and legal fashion.  Why should immigration law be any less respected than any other?

Flag Comment Posted by Vic on April 16, 2008 at 9:33 am

Coming soon to a county near you:

CONCERNING THE BORDER CROSSING AT NOGALES, the Arizona Daily Star published a great article on Monday about the current state of play in and around the area. 

It sounds like open warfare on the border—with regular exchanges of gunfire, financed by illicit drugs, involving numerous sex offenders, and all sorts of other activity in human trafficking and its consequences. 

With their misguided sense of purpose, “our” group of activists should fit right in—and return to PWC with an even better sense of how our own fair community can evolve to a similar environment. 

See:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/234297.php

Flag Comment Posted by scottfree on April 16, 2008 at 9:16 am

The race hustlers at Mexicanos sin Fronteras can try as many noisy stunts as they want, and receive fawning attention from the pro-illegal alien media. The majority of voters prove time and again that they want illegal immigration stopped, and they want illegal immigrants forced into a path to legality that doesn’t involve amnesty. Nothing that the illegal alien lobby does will change that. It’s the same reason that it doesn’t matter when thousands of illegal aliens demonstrate for their “rights.“ Voters and politicians should ignore them and go about the business of the American people.

Flag Comment Posted by kgotthardt on April 16, 2008 at 8:33 am

“The split between those who spoke in favor of the resolution and those who opposed it was about even.“  Yeah, but the BOCS entirely ignored the thousands gathered in protest outside and the votes submitted via Stewart’s little invite.  The whole decision making process was more than just undemocratic! 

Good luck to the activists.  I do hope someone is there to bail them out of jail.  Thoreau lives!

Flag Comment Posted by Dittyman8 on April 16, 2008 at 8:23 am

The “activists” can stay in Mexico.  The USA, as a soveriegn nation, has the right by international law to control and regulate who can cross it borders.  Mexico does the same thing.  As people from the nations to Mexico’s south if they can freely just come in?  Such a self-serving and hypocritcal attitude they have. 

On another note, the economic problems in Mexico existed long before NAFTA.  The more likely causes is government corruption and the existence of monopolies in many industries.  For example, try to make a phone call in Mexico without going through a company own by Carlos Slim, who is the world’s second most richest man on some days. 

Some people forget that we’re a nation currently at war and we must control the borders at all costs for our security and protection.

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