Peaceful Protests Don’t Stop Immigrant Program

INDEPENDENCE — Protesters peacefully carried signs and sang ballads about the blight of illegal immigration Saturday during an event put on by the Mexican government.

Meanwhile, employees from the Mexican Consulate for Oregon, along with representatives from several Oregon state departments, were undaunted as they provided documents and resources to the more than 200 Mexican nationals who arrived at Henry Hill Elementary School.

Protesters, organized by Oregonians for Immigration Reform, decried the state’s participation in the event.

Among the services offered at the daylong event were matricula consular cards, Mexican birth certificates to children born in Oregon and information about paying taxes, receiving health care and getting a driver’s license in the state.

The president of OFIR, Jim Ludwick, said the group’s goal was to make Oregonians aware of the state’s accommodation of illegal immigrants.

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Illegal immigrants create crowding in schools and drain social services, Ludwick said.

“The Oregon Health Plan is bankrupt,” he said. “The reason is quite obvious here.”

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“They are selling drugs to our kids and raping our kids,” said Daniel Miglavs of Sherwood. “Our public officials, our state employees, are in there right now aiding and abetting them.”

He defended his statement by waving a stack of papers that showed the high rate of incarceration for Hispanics in Oregon.

“They’re disproportionately committing crimes versus the general public,” Miglavs said. “It really is an underlying crime syndicate.”

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