***scroll for updates…new photo added below of a student in Dallas screamed at by an angry mob for carrying an American flag…plus fence-hopping at Montebello H.S…unreality-based Ted Kennedy gets the Clueless Blowhard of the Day Award…chanting in Las Vegas: “La raza unida jamas sera vencida,” or “The united (Hispanic) race will never be defeated.”…protests turn violent in Watsonville…FrontPageMag: Who’s behind the [illegal] immigration rallies?…E-mail your Senators…Debra J. Saunders debunks an open-borders myth…Juan Mann reports at The Immigration Blog: Reconquistas inside the federal immigration bureaucracy?***

You will not see this heart-stopping photo on the front page of the NY Times or on the lead story of the major news networks. You should (hat tip: Mika and F/R):

03/28 : Student protest

Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)

More:

Meanwhile: Mexico Cheers Passage of Immigration Bill

Like I said: Welcome to reconquista.

I predict this stunt will be the nail in the coffin of any guest-worker/amnesty plan on the table in Washington. The image of the American flag subsumed by another and turned upside down on American soil is already spreading on Internet forums and via e-mail.

The battle for borders and immigration laws that actually mean something, however, hasn’t even begun.

***

Update 3/29 1030am EST. New photo from the Dallas pro-illegal immigration student rally via the Dallas Morning News:

Click here for full-size.

Caption:

***
Mickey Kaus: “Skipping school to block freeways and flying the U.S. flag upside down under the Mexican flag…Those anti-anti-immigrant student protesters in L.A. know how to win over a majority of ordinary voters!”

Update: My new column this week, “Racism gets a whitewash,” is up. Conclusion:

Apologists are quick to argue that Latino supremacists are just a small fringe faction of the pro-illegal immigration movement (never mind that their ranks include former and current Hispanic politicians from L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to former California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante).

But you’ll never hear or read such forgiving caveats in the mainstream press’s hostile coverage of the pro-immigration enforcement members of the Minutemen Project—who are universally smeared as racists. For what? For peacefully demanding that our government enforce its laws and secure its borders.

Yes, borders. Last time I checked a map of North America, they still do exist.

Unless we give in and let the bullies and their appeasers whitewash those out of existence, too.

Underscoring my point about the media whitewash, most coverage of the illegal alien student protests keeps playing up how “peaceful” the demonstrations were.

***

Feedback:

Lance at Red State Rant - An upside down flag means distress.

Reader Keith M. : “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. I am sure you can see the irony. The folks that think they are showing disrespect for the flag are actually signaling to everyone th[at] the US is in trouble.”

Reader TMJ:

I live in a small farm town in Nelson County, Virginia, and will retire from the Virginia Army National Guard in April 2006, after 22 years. I have spent almost one half of my adult life preparing myself and my soldiers for a time, such as now, that our country might successfully face our enemies, foreign and domestic. Looking at your webpage this morning and seeing the pictures of the high school students raising a Mexican national flag over an upside down American flag saddened me terribly, insofar as there are American soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen currently putting their lives in danger in order to provide these “citizens” the comfort of knowing that their protests will not result in being lined up against a wall and executed for their behavior, as they might in other countries around the world.

What would be interesting to know is if these young men and women are enjoying their educations on the back of the American taxpayer at a public school, while denigrating the country that provides these benefits to them, and so blatantly desecrating the flag that serves as a beacon to draw them to America in the first place.

Blogger Thomas Galvin e-mails:

Liberals and Hispanic provocateurs have deflected criticism of illegal aliens waving Mexican flags at their protests by saying that the Irish flag was waved on St. Patrick’s Day.

These pictures can show that the American flag was the most represented flag at New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.

I have no bias because my dad was Irish and my mom is from Honduras (and as a legal immigrant who became a citizen and votes Republican she is appalled by the protests!)

Reader Lawrence Kent:

I read your entry this morning regarding the student protests that were covered by the Whittier Daily News. I was appalled and disgusted to see how ignorantly and bllissfully these students displayed their disrespect for their own rights and freedoms. When I saw that these pictures were captured in front of Montebello High School in Montebello, CA it made me even more disappointed. My father is a Montebello High School Alum (Class of ‘60). My father was raised in Montebello, my grandparents lived in Montebello for almost 50 years, I spent many a day in Montebello as a youth while visiting my grandparents in my youth. The community has always been predominantly Hispanic, and most were proud to be Americans above being of Mexican ancestry.

I called the high school and spoke with Barry Schwartz, the Activities Director and mentor of the Student Leadership Cousel. Mr. Schwartz vehemently denied that any Montebello High School Students participated in that free-for-all of disrespect that was captured by the Whittier Daily News. Mr. Schwartz claimed that all those student captured in that photograph, hoisting the Mexican Flag above the upside down American Flag were from El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, the neighboring town.

He gave me the telephone number for El Rancho High School and urged me to cantact their administration regarding these transgressions. The phone number for El Rancho High School is (562)801-5355. Mr. Schwartz said that during this entire ordeal the Montebello High School Students were in “lockdown” and kept away from this melee.

As the Whittier Daily News photos show, however, many Montebello students defied the “lockdown” by–yup–hopping the school fences:

Caption: Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. This Montebello High student climbs out of school to join the protestors. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)

More details. Another reader e-mails:

I had a long talk with the Montebello High school officials and have asked the school contact you. It was the El Rancho HS that did this to the Montebello flagpole. Their students were in class at the time! There were almost 1,500 students there and since MHS only had 6 police officers—they could do nothing.

Also, be advised that it is almost for certain that one of El Rancho’s board members and their acting administrator were there to incite the students…they were at the OTHER school when the flags were taken down and encouraged it. Why?

Contact info for El Rancho HS is here.

12noon update. Just in:

My name is Barry Schwartz, Activities Director at Montebello High School. I would like to correct the information on your web site. The students that took done the American flag and put up the Mexican flag were NOT from Montebello High School…they were from El Rancho High School (Pico Rivera) and from the Whittier area high schools (app. 800- 1000 students were involved). Our students were in class at this time. If it weren’t for these students, our students were not have left school…Our school is getting a bad rap…the Administration, Staff, and students do not condone this action.

***

Rob Port is reminded of Teddy Roosevelt’s words:

In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…

…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

***

From Bill Frist’s blog:

Today the Senate will begin debate on my Secure America’s Borders Act (SABA) bill and tomorrow the first amendment offered will be the bill approved by the Judiciary Committee on Monday night.

In the coming days we will debate the merits of each. This debate will give Americans the opportunity to hear all sides of this important issue.

I believe this is an important debate for us to have, and equally important for us to act. For too long this problem has gone unaddressed and is now threatening our national and economic security.

As we enter into this debate, let me be clear with you where I stand:

We are a nation of immigrants built upon the rule of law. And so many legal immigrants have played by the rules when coming to this country and making a life for themselves and their families. We should not break faith with those who played by the rules, so I will not support amnesty. We respect the rule of law and those who made it here the right way, and are trying to make it here the right way, rather than reward those who came here the wrong way.

America needs to secure her borders and we need real interior enforcement. Which is why the bill I introduced prioritizes both as well as increases legal immigration, and in doing each, honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants who value the rule of law.

I am pleased that the Judiciary committee bill has strong border enforcement mechanisms - the inclusion of those in this bill is a big step in the right direction.

But we have much more work to do.

No kidding.

***

Ed Morrissey:

The rallies in Southern California only ripped the lid off of a well-known dynamic in the culture that mixes native guilt with radical illegal-immigrant activism to fuel the La Raza dream of Aztlan, the reconquest of the the Southwest and its return to Mexico or existence as a separate nation. This radical notion has been around since 1969 and plays a part in the fringe politics of the Southwest. However, the increasing sense of entitlement for illegals in the area has led this impulse out of the shadows and into the forefront of the amnesty movement by enabling people to argue that the illegals are returning to their own land and that the US lacks the sovereignty to declare otherwise.

If the illegals and their support groups think this will win over the American people, they are very much mistaken. If they think they can intimidate Congress into action with these demonstrations … that may be another thing entirely, I’m afraid.

Excellent round-up of news and opinion on the latest developments in the Senate at A Certain Slant of Light.

Reader Adrian C.:

I am a Hispanic male born in Texas (3rd generation) but I must tell you I am totally disgusted with what I have seen recently here in LA and across the country. My wife and I were watching a movie on HBO the other day called Walkout and I turned to her and said “History will repeat itself” sure enough within a week this happens. I do not understand what part of “illegal” people do not understand. I am just blown away at the stupidity of some of fellow “raza”.

Reader Ethan:

I was on the BART system not long ago and noticed a advertisement for a radio station called “La Raza” which touted that it played “our music for our people.” It is yet another sign of the chicano separatist movement. Imagine a radio station entitled “The Race: White Music For White People.” It highlights something you have long pointed out, that there is a glaring double standard in the way different ethnicities are treated. White pride is a taboo while multiculturalists everywhere applaud the black power and chicano power movements as noble advocates for social justice.

I know this is a disgusting fact, but because you are an ethnic female you are allowed to say many things that ‘white guys’ are booed and hissed out of the
public forum and dismissed as bigots for saying. Multiculturalism is the new McCarthyism and ideas are categorized as racist or stereotypical without being
considered. I hope you know what I’m trying to say.

I am a carpenter, handyman, and day laborer who has been competing with illegals for years and lost many contracts because as I have been told many times, “I could hire two Mexicans for your wages. I appreciate the spotlight you are putting on the issue and the insidious social forces behind it. Thanks.

The Minuteman Project website is here.

Val Prieto of Babalu Blog weighs in, and I’m quoting his eloquent response in full:

I hadnt wanted to cover this subject here on Babalu for fear of opening up a great big ole can of worms, but I feel I have to clarify a few things regarding the recent protests by “latinos” or “hispanics” throughout the US.

First, there is no such thing as a “latino” race. There is no such thing as an “hispanic” race. Both terms are contrived and used solely for census purposes. There is no such country as “latinolandia” and Hispaniola is technically half of an island in the Caribbean.

Second, I am not nor will I ever be part of “La Raza.” Nor do I agree or support their current protests. Some of you may, but I do not.

Third, I have never and will never, despite having many issues with the government of the United States throughout the years, burn a flag of the United States of America. I am Cuban by birth, American by the grace of God. And a darned proud, dignified, thankful and respectful American.

Fourth, while I certainly sympathize with the Mexican people for their country’s economic and social troubles, I refuse to be lumped together as a class or a race simply because we speak a similar language. If Mexicans and Mexican-Americans had wanted my support, then they should have supported the cause of a free and democratic Cuba, instead of the majority and at times the Mexican government having sided with and legitimizing the government of fidel castro.

Fifth, there is a difference between a Cuban living in the United States and a Mexican living in the United States. One is a political refugee and the other is an immigrant, respectively. When Mexicans are being oppressed and have their basic human rights trampeled on by their government as Cubans do, then perhaps my opinion will change, until then, the aforementioned difference stands.

Mexicans and Mexican-Americans may very well have legitimate gripes with the government of the US, but as La Raza, the flags they are burning and flying up-side down below the Mexican flag do not speak for me. I aint Mexican, I aint Latino and I aint Hispanic. I am an American of Cuban descent. And damned proud of it.

***

Previous this week:

Free rides for student protesters
How ’bout media guest workers?
Welcome to reconquista
Teddy Kennedy is very happy
Bush’s shadow boxing
Minutemen attacked
Bush’s open-borders platitudes