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