A crowd of some 40 people showed up to the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday to protest proposed reform of US immigration law. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration was pushing for immigration reform that would create a pathway for the legalization of undocumented immigrants.
Napolitano said she would like to see a "tough, fair" plan that would allow illegal migrants to gain legal status if they pay a fine, pass a criminal background check, pay all back taxes and learn English.
That idea brought 40 anti-immigration protesters to Saturday's protest, as well as 30 pro-immigration reform counter-protesters, according to FightBackNews in Minneapolis.
One of those protesters, going by the alias "Robert Erickson," got a speaking spot at the rally and used it to argue for the eviction of all descendants of European immigrants -- in other words, that contingent of white Americans who these days see themselves as "real" AmericansBut some of the demonstrators didn't seem to notice that the angry speech was targeted at them.
"In Minneapolis where I'm from, we have a huge immigrant population that has been causing a number of problems," Erickson began. "With the economy in recession and so many people laid off and unable to find work, immigrants should not be competing for the few jobs that are open. It's just not fair to the folks who have a claim to this country and have a right to be here."
That was met with with applause, but soon it became clear that "Erickson" had a different notion from the Tea-partiers as to who actually has "a claim to this country."
"Let's send these European immigrants back where they came from," he said to wild cheers. "We need to send every one of them back home. ... They stole this land through genocide and ethnic cleansing."
Even after that comment, some of the anti-immigration protesters didn't seem to notice that "Erickson" was standing up for the right of Native Americans to reclaim their land from the Caucasian population -- even though, as FightBackNews noted, the pro-immigration reform crowd had joined in the cheering.
"Erickson" walked off the stage leading the crowd in a loud chant of "Columbus go home! Columbus go home!"
Political mockery has been gaining steam as a tactic of progressive activists. Last month, the Yes Men held a phony press conference pretending to be representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce, and tricked major media outlets into reporting that the group had relented and now supported climate change legislation.
In August, a farcical group calling itself Billionaires for WealthCare mocked opponents of health care reform with slogans such as "“If God loved the poor people, he wouldn’t let them get sick,” and “Healthcare rationing, that’s our job!”
The following video was filmed Saturday, November 14, 2009, and uploaded to YouTube by FightBackNews.
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