Even God...

…doesn’t like these two.
I haven’t written much about that AFLA group but I must say they do have their enemies.

First was the Thanksgiving message from Laurel Bault, a local Democrat who has been involved in numerous community causes and an unsuccessful bid for state rep. Her letter to the editor was one of those “shame on you for not being grateful…and by the way let the illegals stay because that’s the nice thing to do.” (Sorry, that’s not a quote from her letter. It was a quote from my mind after reading it.)

Then ELIPAC took a swipe at them. George Irizzary is a buddy to councilman Juan Figueroa. Some say they are joined at the hip. Allegedly one is the mouth, the other is the brains…but they switch roles now and then to keep people guessing.

George and a group of latino activists showed up at city council the end of November and spoke about the campaign, making light of their 1,000 supporters and warning that C’ville wound up with protests at council meetings when they tried to get tough. And these efforts brought “disharmony”. Maybe they thought ALFA would be there that night to spar with them. They were not.

Next came Shirley, scolding the group for picking on Hispanics. And personally praising Elgin’s diversity as the reason she moved from a white community. Her parting shot at David White was that if he didn’t like the color of Elgin he ought to move, giving new meaning to Elgin’s “White Flight” problem. But a local citizen wrote in to expose Shirley as an immigration lawyer.

Then a couple of city council members engaged in some name calling of their own, saying they were disgusted with the tactics of AFLA and calling them xenophobes.

Then there was Dr. Rosenfeld, Psy.D who psychoanalyzed the group (at no charge) and told citizens to turn away from these haters and manipulators.

And just yesterday there was a letter to the editor from The Church of the Brethren claiming that the group promotes racism and prejudice.

But there are also more than a few defenders of AFLA in town. They write to the papers, they call the Courier’s “Speak Out” line, and I presume they are giving the city fathers an earful as well.

And there are some signs of life over at city hall, presumably because of this group. They are talking about screening for illegals and working with Immigration a bit more. And they are making some overtures about a contractor ordinance with teeth. It’s too early to tell if these attempts will be effective or mere window-dressing.