Houston hosts an anti-immigrant billboard

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/4053377.html


'Stop the Invasion' billboard put up here
The sign is part of a nationwide campaign against illegal immigration
By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZACopyright 2006
Houston Chronicle

A national campaign to urge securing the U.S. borders has unveiled its mark on Houston with a new billboard off Interstate 10 that reads "Stop the Invasion."The anti-illegal immigration billboard campaign, which is now on 13 roadsides in seven states, is "in response to what we saw happening. Citizens started waking up to the crisis of illegal immigration," said Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org (http://www.grassfire.org/7042/Houston.htm), the conservative nonprofit group behind the campaign.Although the immigration debate "ebbs and flows, this is the number one domestic issue in the country for this year," Elliott said.Juan Alvarez, head of the undocumented immigrant-rights group Organizacion Latinoamericana Pro-Derechos del Inmigrante de Houston, said the new billboard makes the group "sad and sometimes angry.""For us, this is something racist," Alvarez said.Elliott said he doesn't see it that way."What we want to accomplish is to help engage citizens in this debate," Elliott said. "The vast majority (of citizens) agree on the issue of border security," he said. In addition, his group opposes amnesty, he said.The billboard campaign will be in four Texas cities: Houston, Dallas, College Station and Liberty. Elliott did not disclose the cost of the campaign, but said it was well into the six figures and funded by donations.Houston was chosen as a billboard site because it is one of the epicenters of the immigration debate due to its size and the number of illegal immigrants who reside here, Elliott said.Alvarez, who is originally from Guatemala, said part of the problem with groups that have an anti-illegal immigration message is that they ignore the issue of foreign policy, and the role the U.S. has played in inciting immigration in some cases.

cynthia.garza@chron.com

THANKS TO ALL WHO SHOWED TO YESTURDAY'S DEMONSTRATION!!!
Your spirit and presence was strong and well recieved. I've post the article in today's chronicle below and the stories on Univision and Telemundo were a success. We must keep it in the forefront of our mind that this battle has only just begun and that there is much work to do to ensure the future of HB 1403 as well as the future of countless students and their families.
Thank you again for your heart and your determination!

pictures to be posted soon!!

July 3, 2006, 11:09PMHCC rally backs tuition breaks for illegal immigrantsGroup protests efforts that would deny federal money for such programs
By ALLAN TURNERCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle


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Standing in graduation caps and gowns with their mouths taped shut and their hands tied, 20 young people rallied at Houston Community College Monday to protest legislative efforts to cut tuition breaks for illegal immigrants attending Texas colleges.
"They are here with mouths taped and hands tied because that will be their future if HB 1403 is taken away," said Mike Espinoza, spokesman for the group calling itself Young Immigrants for a Better Future, as he gestured to the silent line of protesters standing in a light midday rain.
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Texas House Bill 1403, authored by state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, and passed in 2001, allows immigrant students who have lived with their parents or guardians, spent three years in Texas and either graduated from high school or obtained an equivalent diploma in the state to pay lower, in-state college tuitions.
Espinoza, a University of Houston sociology graduate student, denounced efforts by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, to keep Texas and nine other states from using money to assist students who are in the country illegally.
While HB 1403 was not aimed specifically at illegal immigrants, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board says some of those who have benefited are in the U.S. illegally. Texas and California were the first to extend tuition breaks to undocumented students.
Coordinating board figures show 212 students attended three University of Houston campuses under the program last fall. UH's tuition and fees for 15 hours of classes are $6,450 per year for in-state students and $12,326 per year for out-of-state students.
Culberson recently tacked an amendment onto an appropriations bill that would prohibit spending federal money on such a tuition-break program.
Culberson, who could not be reached for comment Monday, argued that HB 1403 broke the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which prohibits extending benefits to illegal immigrants that aren't available to all U.S. residents.
Coordinating board figures show that 5,300 students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in Texas under the program last fall. It was not known how many were in the country illegally.
One of them was a 20-year-old protester who identified himself only as Antonio.
One of three children of immigrant parents, he was 12 when he arrived in Houston. He now is a junior photography student who maintains a 3.25 grade-point average and hopes to enter medical school.
He works to pay tuition, receiving limited assistance from his parents.
"I wouldn't be able to afford to go to college," he said of the prospect of paying out-of-state tuition. "It's difficult enough to come up with the money for a semester now. It would be still harder."
"We're not cheating the government. This is something we earned," the student said. "We put in the efforts to get the grades. We came here as minors. We became what we are right here."