Message to Illegal Immigrants: Protesting Is Un-American

This weekend illegal immigrants staged large protests in Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix and other American cities against laws proposed in Congress that would end illegal immigration once and for all. I don't know about you but I found the images of 500,000 people protesting in L.A. quite frightening. I'm not sure where these people got the idea that we allow this sort of thing in America. As anyone who remembers the massive protests against the Iraq War knows, large demonstrations are usually staged by people with dangerous anti-American ideas. During the Vietnam War protests like these nearly destroyed our country and made it very difficult for us to start other wars until recently. The images of great numbers of people disagreeing with the government give aid and comfort to our enemies. Real Americans, as these immigrants would know if they had made any attempts to assimilate, stay home and write to their congressman or yell things at the TV.

Adding to the anti-American tenor of the demonstrations were the large numbers of flags from foreign countries that were displayed during the protests. Hardly anyone carried American flags. Some people have pointed out that Italians often display Italian flags on Columbus day and Irish people often display Irish flags on St. Patrick's day, but there is a big difference. These days have been specifically set aside for such displays. On the other 364 days of the year these flags are tucked away in closets and stuffed in drawers where no one will ever see them.

I was also disturbed by the fact that some of the signs these protesters were carrying were not in English. These signs could have carried anti-American or obscene messages and no one would ever know. They could even have borne secret coded messages to terrorists. At the very least these signs were confusing to police who did not know who to arrest. I'm sorry but I don't know what such strange foreign words as "Tancredo" and "Sensenbrenner" mean and for all I know they could be foreign curse words that should not be displayed on television or in family newspapers. If these protesters knew anything about America they would know that most Americans are opposed to foreign languages.

Finally, I would like to know who gave these people a day off from work? Who was tending the gardens, bussing tables at restaurants, taking care of children and cleaning houses while these people were gallivanting around some of our major cities frightening Americans who were trying to enjoy their day off? Americans are hard-working people and we don't take this kind of sloughing off lightly.

I think these protests are just going to start a backlash. People who are usually very sympathetic to the plight of immigrants such as Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Mickey Kaus and Lou Dobbs were so upset by the images they saw of angry, ungrateful immigrants that they have turned against them. "We are not a 'nation of immigrants,'" says Malkin, whose ancestors, I believe, crossed the land-bridge from Asia in the Paleolithic era, which would not technically be immigration because this was before the U.S. existed (Note: I need to check this). She goes on to point out that the Founding Fathers were opposed to immigration (except, of course, for immigration from Africa).

I should point out that attitudes against immigration were later relaxed when we needed people to build the railroads and work in factories but now that our economy is completely self-sufficient, we don't need immigrants anymore. And these immigrants from the past were law-abiding citizens, while illegal immigrants now are by definition criminals. People who break one law will no doubt break others. In America only the President has the right to break the law.

These protests have just served to remind us of what a big problem illegal immigration is. In addition to bills in Congress, there are many other reasonable proposals to accomplish this goal put forward by myself and others. If these immigrants want to stage another anti-American protest they should go back to their own countries. They will have plenty of opportunities to join anti-American demonstrations virtually anywhere in the world.

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