Vol. 73/No. 29      August 3, 2009

The rightists were outnumbered 10 to one. The counter-protesters, with chants in English and Spanish, drowned out the sound system used by the rightists throughout the two-hour event.

The pro-immigrant rights rally was largely Latino and included a lot of meat packers. One of the first groups to arrive was from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local at the Quality Pork Processors (QPP) plant in town. They brought signs in English and Spanish and union buttons for participants.

One worker from QPP, Antonio Hernández, found out about the action at a basketball game. He came to the rally to “show them we are no danger, we come here to work.” He said he was pleased to see a substantial number of U.S.-born people at the counter-protest. Another worker said, “We have rights like them; they need to respect us.”

This was the second such action the rightists have held here this summer and it follows other anti-immigrant actions in recent years. Last year a public meeting was organized by an anti-immigrant group to ask why the Hormel plant in Austin had not been the subject of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That group flew a banner over local county fairs saying “Keep America Great, Deport Illegals.”

The National Socialist Movement’s Web site states that it is committed to “defending the rights of white people everywhere” and that membership is “open to non-Semitic heterosexuals of European Descent.”

Signs held by the rightists at the action here said, “How long before ICE comes to Austin?” and “Say no to amnesty for illegals.” In their speeches they blamed immigrants for lack of jobs, health-care problems, and crime and attacked organizations they said benefited immigrants.

Among the demonstrators opposing the rightists was J.T. Murdock, who works at Select Foods in Albert Lea. She said that immigrant workers “are not here to hurt anybody. They are here to work. This makes me sick.”

Marsha González, who grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, said she was at the protest because “my husband is Mexican and my two children are Mexican.” Her husband works at QPP. She thought the protest “turned out pretty good.”

Some of the main organizers for the protest in support of immigrant rights were high school students. They had also organized a counter-protest at the rightist action earlier in the summer. Toni Howg, one of the organizers, told the media, “We want to make it known—we don’t support the deportation of workers.”

Two other students, Wendy and Jessica Torres, said this latest demonstration was “a lot better, more people, more community, more Mexicans. It showed we aren’t afraid of them.” They said they had spoken to QPP workers to tell them about the protest and learned that they already knew, because they had received flyers about it at work.
 
 
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