OpEdNews - Article: Si, SI PEUDE / YES, WE CAN !

They came by the thousands demanding recognition and justice and in the process they reminded America of our deep Democratic roots of rightful protest and dissent.

There are those on the right who attempted to marginalize these protests as the acts of illegal Mexicans or not true Americans but I see them as true Americans who are reminding us of a great truth ~ that we, the people, can indeed make a difference when we take to the streets and make our voices heard in rightful protest and dissent .

The Center for American Progress sorts out the truth from the myths regarding these important democratic demands for Immigrant justice.

Allen L Roland

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PROTESTS

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin / Center for American Progress report 6/11/06

Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other cities turned out for the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice.

The "scope and size of the marches have astonished politicians on Capitol Hill as well as the churches and immigrant advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations."

The rallies were "largely festive rather than angry," but that has not stopped the right wing from turning its sights onto the protesters.

As people took to the streets, right-wing chatter about the marches has been "burning up the airwaves on talk radio and cable news networks and has appeared in Internet blogs and conservative publications."

Their myths have already begun to spread. The Progress Report does a fact-check:

MYTH #1 - RALLIES MEANT TO 'BLOCK ANY EFFORTS TO SECURE OUR BORDERS':

In the face of yesterday's massive protests, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs continued to use a straw man argument to defend his radical positions on immigration and attack the peaceful protesters. "The marchers and demonstrators [are] also trying to block any effort to secure our borders," he declared. "They want to defeat efforts in Congress to secure our borders."

The truth is that many of the demonstrators support comprehensive reform with strong border enforcement. The catalyst that "sparked protests nationwide" was HR 4437, the House bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and passed last December by the House.

That dranconian "enforcement-only" bill contains "sweeping language" that "would make giving even humanitarian assistance" to undocumented workers a "crime punishable by up to five years in prison."

The bill does not contain other components of real, comprehensive immigration reform, including stricter penalties for businesses who hire undocumented workers and a path for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status.

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