Immigration critics vent their displeasure
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By ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star
About 50 people gathered in Lincoln’s Antelope Park Saturday for a rally organized by a fledgling group called Nebraskans Fed Up with Illegal Immigration.
Lincoln resident Stan Sipple, who identified himself earlier in the week as the group’s state coordinator, presided over an hourlong program that began with the Pledge of Allegiance and ended with “God Bless America.”
In between, Sipple and several other speakers spoke out against illegal immigration, lax enforcement of immigration laws, and other factors that have contributed to a recent surge in attention toward an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States.
“What we’re here to do today is to honor the silent majority who don’t want illegal immigration anymore,” Sipple said.
Although the audience seated in front of the park’s band shell was small, enthusiasm ran high. Applause was frequent and a mostly middle-aged group responded on cue when Sipple and others gave them a chance.
“Do you think they’re just doing jobs that we don’t want to do?” Sipple asked at one point.
“No way,” responded his listeners.
Saturday’s rally is the latest Lincoln development in several weeks of heightened political activism on the immigration front.
It has taken shape as Congress debates both tougher and more lenient immigration policies.
April 10 rallies in support of more lenient options attracted thousands of marchers to Lincoln and Omaha.
A candlelight vigil in Lincoln and more marches in Omaha and other cities marked a national observance of “A Day without Immigrants” this past Monday.
Its organizers called on Hispanic workers to skip work for the day and to boycott non-Hispanic stores as a demonstration of economic power.
Highly visible events that included Spanish chants and the waving of the Mexican and other foreign flags obviously did not mesh with the attitudes of those who came to Antelope Park Saturday.
Sought out beforehand, 68-year-old Morris Sullivan of Grand Island said it was time for Americans to stand up for America.
“I would like to see a lot of support by concerned people like myself that we’ve had enough,” Sullivan said. “Let’s make our legislators understand that we want to see some strict laws with teeth in them.”
Justin Dobesh, 28, and wife Jessica, 27, of Omaha made similar points.
“Illegal means illegal,” said Jessica Dobesh, who later took her turn at the microphone. “They’re breaking the law. They shouldn’t be rewarded for that.”
She said her father lives in California, where he’s a witness to what she described as children of illegal immigrants overwhelming the public education system. “It’s just ridiculous down there.”
Justin Dobesh said racial origins were not a factor in his thinking. “This could be Canadians coming down and I’d feel the same way,” he said.
Margrit Payne, 66, of Lincoln carried the flags of her native Germany and of the United States when she came forward to speak during the program. As a U.S. citizen, “I will never, never wave this flag here,” she said of the German flag.
“This is the flag I wave,” she said as she hoisted the red, white and blue.
Scott Kelley of Elkhorn, who identified himself as a Vietnam War veteran and as a former California resident, said he left that state in 1993 after living there for more than 30 years.
“I had to leave California to re-enter the United States,” he said.
Although Sipple also portrayed the park event as “not against any ethnic groups or nationalities,” Kelley at one point referred to “invaders who assault our young girls.”
Sipple said afterwards that he did not see that as a racist remark but rather as a reference to the way women are mistreated by new arrivals from other cultures. “That’s a huge issue in western Europe right now,” he said.
Leaflets circulated during the Lincoln event called attention to another immigration protest outside the Mexican Consulate in Omaha May 20.
Sipple said there were no organizational developments with his group afterwards. “We didn’t really discuss leadership, organization, things like that. Another person took down names to create a mailing list later.”
He called the turnout “a great start.”
Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.
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