The advocates for illegal aliens are taking their cause to a whole new level of audacity as they attempt to identify their agenda with the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Hijack might be more accurate.
One of the turning points of the struggle for civil rights was a 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, during which hundreds of courageous men and women faced hostile mobs and hostile police. Now organizations like the National Council for La Raza (NCLR) and other illegal alien advocacy groups are seeking to exploit the legacy of that struggle, by staging a “reenactment of the march from Selma to Montgomery to protest Alabama’s law to discourage illegal immigration, HB 56.
As the statement below indicates, the illegal alien activists are attempting to draw invidious comparisons between the effects of Alabama’s immigration enforcement law and the suppression of African American voters. The march itself is an attempt to promote the idea that illegal aliens are victims of the sort of injustices that black Americans had faced for centuries.
“[HB 56] has deported a lot of potential voters, and we’re pushing back against that,” said Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
Ms. Rubio argues that by enforcing federal immigration laws, Alabama is causing illegal aliens and their U.S. citizen children – potential future voters – to leave the state and even the country. Seems pretty weak, especially considering those U.S. children would not be in the country if their parents had not illegally entered or overstayed.
Alabamians and other Americans who support enforcing immigration laws know that the comparisons are not only false, but an insult to the people who risked their lives to promote civil rights for black Americans. They understand that HB 56 is about protecting the rule of law and preserving jobs and limiting taxpayer funded resources for Americans and legal residents. To compare these Americans to the proponents of segregation and racism who attacked African Americans on the original march from Selma to Montgomery 47 years ago is shameful.
The marchers’ goal is to manufacture racial division where none exists in order to coerce every politician, bureaucrat, police officer, and businessman to hesitate when attempting to fairly implement and adhere to laws passed by Congress and their state legislatures. In their relentless pursuit of amnesty for people who broke our laws they are even willing to co-opt the important symbols of those who fought to overcome racial injustice in our country.