By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
A tea party on Wall Street in Manhattan on April 15 this year. (Photo: ajagendorf25/Flickr)
A strategy that has been successful in rallying vocal opposition to the Obama administration will now focus on immigration reform: Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) will hold tea parties “against amnesty and illegal immigration” starting on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The organization created a web site called Against Amnesty to organize the events. It reads,
“President Obama along with Republican and Democrat DC insiders are preparing a mass ‘Comprehensive’ Amnesty for illegal immigrants in America that will provide a path to citizenship and turn illegal aliens into voters even though a vast majority of Americans oppose this.
“This will only bring more ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION to America!”
As Jennifer McFadyen reported at About.com, “the tea parties will ramp up again in Spring 2010, just around the time we expect immigration reform discussions to take place in Congress.”
So far, the organizers’ web site lists 21 events planned in 17 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
The mission of the campaign, the web site says, is “to stop amnesty, stop and reverse illegal immigration, and place America back in the hands of We The People.”
As health care reform appears to have acquired a veneer of inevitability, progressives and conservatives seem to be paying more attention to immigration reform. Debate on the issue has been strident in the past, and all indications are that it will be again this time around. The tea party organizers are gearing up to shoot the right’s first salvo in this upcoming battle.
