The
influx of thousands of Central Americans into the U.S. has energized
anti-illegal immigration activists who organized rallies across the country in
recent days.
"How can we
afford to take care of other countries' poor? Americans are going hungry
without jobs and no one is attending to them," said Herbert Baker, a
chiropractor standing atop a highway overpass in Los Angeles hoisting an
American flag and a sign that read "Stop Illegal Immigration."
The Los Angeles protest was among 40 in southern
California and hundreds held in the U.S., part of a national call for a
crackdown on illegal immigration coordinated by a coalition of anti-illegal
immigrant groups. Some rallies, including those in Little Rock, Ark., Dallas
and Philadelphia, drew counter protesters.
Since October, about
57,000 unaccompanied minors have entered the country illegally, many fleeing
poverty and violence or hoping to reunite with family in the U.S. The flow
slowed this week, but reports of migrants swarming the border and being
transported to towns in the country's interior have attracted new supporters of
grass-roots organizations that fight illegal immigration.
"This is
reaction to a border that seems out of control, of people showing up uninvited
and of federal officials scrambling to respond, " said Roberto Suro,
director of the University of Southern California's Tomás Rivera Policy
Institute.
"What remains
to be seen is whether the [Obama] administration can get a handle on it before
the negative reactions escalate," Mr. Suro said.
President Obama has
asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to respond to the crisis
and lawmakers are weighing whether to amend a 2008 law to expedite
deportations. The House and Senate are moving forward on separate bills with no
clear deal in sight. On Friday, Mr. Obama is scheduled to meet at the White
House with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to discuss
ways to stanch the flow.
In Texas' Rio Grande
Valley, the main entry point, federal officials and aid workers have reported
that fewer than 100 minors a day were apprehended by border agents last week,
compared with as many as 300 a day recently.
Most children
willingly turn themselves in.
Experts predict that
the number of illegal entries this year will be small compared with levels
reached during the heyday of illegal immigration more than a decade ago, when
about 900,000 people were caught trying to sneak in. "Fifty thousand is a
lot of people, especially unaccompanied kids, but the numbers a decade ago were
much bigger in terms of total number of people coming," said Jeff Passel,
a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center.
That doesn't ease
the concerns of people like Tressy Capps of Fontana, Calif., who recently
raised her voice. "These people are being dumped in our communities. They
might have diseases, be criminals; it's all very shady," said Ms. Capps, a
49-year-old mother of three, who joined an anti-illegal immigration
organization called We the People Rising.
The southern
California group reports a surge in interest since the border crisis erupted.
Some communities
have passed resolutions or written letters to officials in an effort to stop
migrants from being temporarily housed in their jurisdiction while awaiting
deportation or asylum proceedings.
Arzella Melnyk,
coordinator of a group called Ohio Grassroots Rally Team, wrote to Gov. John
Kasich saying, "Ohio should not be allowed to be used as a dumping ground,
nor should the residents of Ohio be forced to bear any part of the burden of
the ongoing border crisis."
Public support for
offering undocumented immigrants who have been living in the U.S. a path to
legal status slipped to 68% in July from 73% in February, according to a Pew
survey released last week.
"People have
just had it," said Jo Wideman, executive director of Californians for
Population Stabilization that calls for tougher immigration policies.
Ms. Wideman, of
Santa Barbara, Calif., said that traffic on her organization's Facebook page
has soared and that its donor base has jumped 88% since early June.
"People who normally would have strong opinions but didn't participate are
coming forward."
Reminiscent of a
decade ago, self-styled militiamen are preparing to position themselves along
the U.S.-Mexico border to combat the "invasion," said Barbie Rogers,
who runs the Patriots Information Hotline, which helps those interested in
volunteering. She said most participants were licensed gun owners. "Our
goal is to get enough guys down there to get the border closed
permanently," she added. "It doesn't matter if it takes days, weeks
or years."