Originally posted at the America’s Voice blog.
By Tania Del Angel, Communications Specialist at Casa de Maryland.
Last week, a conglomeration of anti-immigrant groups, led by “Help Save Maryland” and FAIR (recognized a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), organized a rally against my organization, CASA de Maryland.
The heavily promoted rally, which was announced in CAPITAL LETTERS on the website of Help Save Maryland, was supposed to draw the anti-immigrant forces from around the state. Their website implored:
JOIN HELP SAVE MARYLAND, PEOPLE FOR CHANGE IN PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM (FAIR) AND OTHER CITIZEN GROUPS!
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 12-1 PM, AT CASA OF MARYLAND’S LAWLESS DAY LABORER CENTER, 734 UNIVERSITY BLVD E (NEAR PINEY BRANCH RD), SILVER SPRING 20903.
LIVE COVERAGE OF OUR EVENT BY WFMD 930AM FREDERICK RADIO!
Don’t let the threat of a few raindrops and snowflakes scare you off.
The Rally Against CASA of Maryland and Illegal Immigration in ON!
HSM Members are driving in from Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Washington Counties.
Now, before I go on, it’s important to note that many political-types in Washington actually believe that the anti-immigrant forces are vast and numerous— not just noisy. Because of this, conventional wisdom on how immigration is hard to change. Well, for anyone in DC who missed how badly anti-immigrant candidates lost in 2008, please turn your attention to Maryland.
A funny thing happened on the way to that big rally against CASA, which, as noted above, was supposed to include both HSM members and anti-immigrant groups from across the state: One person showed up.
Washington would be hard-pressed to find any definition of a successful rally or a successful movement that included one person.
But, it gets better. The sole protester even denied being a protester! As it turns out, a colleague of mine told him that she recognized him from an event (where he had actually said some very nasty things right to her face.) If he hadn’t been found out, a grand sum of zero anti-immigrant protesters would have materialized.
Zero.
On the other hand, CASA de Maryland organized its own event – a toy drive with Santa Claus.
So, the allegedly all-powerful anti-immigrant movement showed its impotence once again. FAIR and HSM could only muster up one person for its hate-based protest. But, in keeping with the spirit of the season, a lot of very adorable children did show up to meet Santa Clause at CASA. They are pictured above.
Maybe, Santa will be the subject of the next HSM/FAIR protest—he did meet with these children at CASA without checking anyone’s papers, after all.
However, even if Help Save Maryland triples turnout amongst anti-immigrant scrooges, Mr. Clause clearly doesn’t have much to worry about.
Cross-Posted at Free State Politics and the Sanctuary.
Categories: Maryland, comprehensive immigration reform
Tags: CASA de maryland, FAIR, immigration
