Rallies could play into hands of opponents

Some see protests generating backlash

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 1, 2006 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - Be careful what you wish for.

That's the advice immigration-rights activists are hearing from both friends and foes in Washington as they gear up for a new and more intense round of demostrations for comprehensive immigration reform.

If today's planned work stoppages, business boycotts and mass rallies are too successful, too disruptive, they could provoke a political backlash just as Congress is struggling to reach a consensus on immigration, observers on both sides say.

That prospect cheers opponents of a proposed guest-worker plan such as Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who believes recent pro-immigrant rallies already are bolstering his arguments for strict border enforcement.

"I wish they'd have one in every city, every day or every week," Tancredo said last week. "Few things have happened that have galvanized the American public as much. I believe they are totally counter- productive to their organizers."

But others say that if peaceful protests are done right, they could keep up the pressure on lawmakers to pass some form of reform this year.

"I don't know that it has an impact on the points of view that people have," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. "But I think it sends a strong message that it's an issue that needs to be addressed by the Congress and the president."

The goal of today's demonstrations, called "A Day Without Immigrants" in some places, is to show the importance of immigrants to the economy and society, and to bolster a Senate bill that would grant legal status to millions of people who entered the country illegally. Protesters also will denounce a bill passed in the House of Representatives that would toughen border enforcement and crack down on illegal immigrants and their employers.

Wade Henderson, executive director of the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said protesters are borrowing a few pages from blacks who used civil disobedience to seek equal rights in the 1950s and 1960s.

Monday's theme even echoes playwright Douglas Turner Ward's 1965 satire, Day of Absence, which pondered what would happen if black servants abandoned their white masters.

In the 1950s and 1960s, as now, some protests provoked a backlash, Henderson said.

"Demonstrations were often met with anger and derision," he said. "It represented a direct affront to the status quo."

The initial immigrant-rights rallies this year have brought a surge of angry phone calls to congressional offices. Lawmakers can expect more as the protesters' tactics intensify.

"The first demonstrations were met with some degree of amazement and some degree of support because they far exceeded the number of people anticipated," Henderson said. But, he added, "There's a potential for backlash associated with boycotts, or asking kids to stay out of school."

Some of that already has happened.

In recent days, critics have been mailing bricks - actual bricks - to congressional offices, demanding that they be used to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"I think the immigration rallies have had a mixed impact," said Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo. "They've provided pro-immigration forces with an opportunity to organize and make their voices heard, but they've also mobilized the anti-immigration forces."

Udall and fellow Colorado Democratic Rep. John Salazar both voted for the enforcement-only bill that passed the House last year, though both say they still hope a guest- worker provision will be added to the final package.

"America is divided," Udall said, "and the division exposed by the rallies demonstrates the need for calm and principled leadership from the president and members of Congress."

Even President Bush, who has angered some fellow Republicans like Tancredo for backing a guest-worker plan, told reporters Friday, "I'm not a supporter of boycotts."

"I think it's very important for people, when they do express themselves, they continue to do so in a peaceful way, in a respectful way - respectful of how highly charged this debate can become," Bush said.

The president also expressed his displeasure with a new, loosely translated Spanish-language version of The Star Spangled Banner, saying that if immigrants want to sing the national anthem, it needs to be in English.

Critics portray the issue as a sign of some immigrants' unwillingness to assimilate into U.S. society - the same way they saw the waving of foreign flags during earlier protests.

On Friday, Bay Buchanan, who leads the Tancredo-founded Team America PAC, sent a message to opponents of illegal immigration, urging them to flood Senate offices with angry calls about the protests.

She ridiculed The Star Spangled Banner controversy, saying it plays into opponents' hands.

"They say it is a sign of solidarity!" Buchanan wrote. "Who is doing the (public relations) for these guys? The Minutemen?"

Pollster Scott Rasmussen has charted the immigration issue's surge up the list of national priorities in recent months.

"If the protests move to another level, yes, the potential for backlash is there," Rasmussen said. "I believe that would be more helpful to a Tom Tancredo view of the world than some other view. Exactly how that plays out, I don't know."

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