A close up of plaques

Here are a couple of examples of the plaques. One is the story of Kris Eggle, a park ranger who died while assisting the Border Patrol. The one on the right tells the story of the four school children killed in Cottonwood, Minnesota when an illegal alien from Guatemala slammed into their school bus.

More pictures from the ECC exhibit

Here are some photos from the exhibit last week at ECC. Thanks to DC and EE for the pictures.

AFLA friends

Spending time at the exhibit last week helped me apprciate what great friends we have in AFLA.

First thing Thursday morning I was met by a man from St. Charles who had come up to see what he could do. He's a retired phone company executive who brought me some articles he had clipped out about crimes in the Fox Valley.

He spent about three hours with me that morning. When things were slow (during class time) he kept me company. He had quite a story. His father died when he was 19 so he went to work full time to provide for his mother and three younger sisters. What a guy! And he came back on Friday morning to spend more time with me.

Then there was Dean Knopse's friend who came down to say "thank you" and tell his story.

An amputee toured the exhibit in his wheelchair.

One fellow from up in Antioch drove down to see the display. He was accompanied by his 90-year-old mother. He wants to make arrangements to do it at College of Lake County.

And who can forget the two AFLA folks who came in on Friday to relieve me while I went to a wedding? They were a great source of support and encouragement.

Last but not least, a single mom who has been with us from the beginning came walking in after work at about 4:15 on Friday. She stayed through to the end and helped me pack up the exhibit. Her son even helped carry things out to the car for me.

So, from start to finish we had AFLA help. The first person I saw on day one and the last person I saw on day two were both good AFLA friends. Most of the help was spontaneous. All of it was heartfelt. We are indeed blessed to have good friends in this cause.

For more information about victims

You might be interested in these web sites. They have information about some of the victims killed by illegal aliens. Unfortunately, our display of 25 victims is only a small sample.

We suggest you take them in small doses. The stories are very sad.


http://www.ojjpac.org/memorial.asp

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html

http://www.victimsofillegalaliens.com/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SpomTIkv0V8&feature=related

http://www.yourdeathtube.com/2007/08/in-memory-of-three-students-at-delaware.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/08/photos_from_the_scene.html

http://illegalaliensrunningamuk.blogspot.com/2007/02/ariel-sellouk.html

http://www.azconservative.org/Hugeri5.htm

http://www.nfpa-info.org/

Disclaimer: These groups are not affiliated with AFLA and our opinions and purposes may or may not coincide. We have included them because they have compiled victim lists.

Hits close to home

I met some great people during the display at Elgin Community College. Peter Ropinski came down from Crystal Lake after hearing me talk about it on Jerry Agar’s Show (WLS) Thursday morning.

Peter worked for the airlines until he retired more than a few years ago. He was friends with Dean Knopse, another retired airline employee. One of the things that Dean wanted to do after he retired was ride a motorcycle. And he was on his bike when an illegal alien ran him over and killed him.

What made things worse was the fact that the perpetrator had a criminal history. So many “what-if’s” surround this and other cases. And they all eventually lead back to the failure of government.

What if our borders were more secure?
What if our perks and benefits weren’t so enticing to the illegals?
What if we didn’t grant automatic citizenship unless BOTH parents could prove they were here legally?
What if police were in the habit of checking immigration status when they arrested someone?
What if Immigration picked up all the criminal aliens; not just those who committed the very worst crimes?
What if the Illinois Secretary of State followed the law and actually checked for valid insurance coverage before issuing plates and stickers?

Just maybe Dean Knopse would still be riding his motorcycle. I’m a religious person and I suppose there are times when “your number is up”, but I also believe that God doesn’t direct cars to crash into each other.

Dean died because the other driver made some foolish choices and crossed paths with him. God wasn’t driving.

Peter Ropinski reminded me why we are doing this. Each death is symbolic of how government has let us down by allowing the number of illegal aliens to grow while ignoring enforcement. There are laws on the books that were simply neglected since 2001.

We showed a picture of Patricia Henneken at the display. I didn’t know her but it was her case that sent me down this path in the summer of 2006. Her killer had a couple of previous DUIs and he was out on the street.

I met Patricia’s mother a couple of weeks after she died. She couldn’t understand why our government didn’t protect her daughter. Neither can I.

Here’s a podcast interview with Patricia’s mother from late last year. It’s about 30 minutes long but I think you will enjoy it.
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=52866

Making "cheap political points"

The Daily Herald coverage of our display “Empty Shoes – Empty Hearts” included this comment: "The display is taking advantage of families' grief to make cheap political points," said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Here’s a link to what his organization is all about. (You’ll need Acrobat Reader to open it):
http://www.icirr.org/outreach_files/factsheets/undocumented%20fact.pdf

The ICIRR not only has no problem with illegal aliens, they are paving the way for them! The frightening part of it all is that this group wrote Governor Blagojevich’s policy on immigration. He used them to create his New Americans program.

And, lest we forget, it is Hoyt’s group in the yellow t-shirts at all the pro-amnesty marches. It is the ICIRR that bused in people from Chicago, Waukegan, and Aurora to protest in Carpentersville in October of 2006. It is Hoyt and company who are setting up organizers in towns throughout Illinois to continue to march for amnesty.

Now, as to his allegations that we are using these tragedies to make “cheap political points”, I disagree. These families have suffered a great loss. In many cases the perpetrator of the crime had a previous criminal record, but NO ONE BOTHERED TO CHECK THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS! If they had, these victims would not have died.

Our whole point is to shed light on the fact that our government has failed to enforce immigration laws and people are now dead as a result!

I find Hoyt’s flippant comment offensive.

Some say we are sending a false message that illegal aliens commit more crime than other people. Hoyt even quoted a study saying that immigrants are less likely to commit crime. (Notice he said “immigrants”, not illegal aliens. We don’t have data about the illegals because few agencies bother to check and even fewer report their data.)

But, let’s examine Hoyt’s complaint on the face of it. People die every day. It is not an illegal alien problem. More citizens commit those crimes than anyone else. And he’s right about that.

Now, let’s talk about the breast cancer campaign in this country. There are walks and ribbons and pink soup cans. Breast cancer is NOT the #1 killer of women. It isn’t even in the top five. Using Hoyt’s logic, is the breast cancer campaign a “cheap” trick?

Of course it isn’t. Breast cancer is a terrible disease that touches thousands of lives each day. It deserves to be addressed so more can be done about it.

We are saying the same thing about criminal illegal aliens. They are not causing all violent deaths but they are causing death and heartache every day in America and we want government to protect us by enforcing the law.

USC Professor Paul Gray observed, “Nothing gets done in America until somebody dies.” We’ve seen it with OSHA laws, seat belts, child-proof medicine caps, 9/11, disaster planning…All we are doing with this exhibit is demonstrating to government that dozens of people are dying each week and they have an obligation to fix the problem of unlawful presence.

AFLA goes to college

(And I can hear some of you saying, "It's about time!")

AFLA had a display at Elgin Community College today about the illegal alien problem.

First, a big THANK YOU to the college staff. They handled the arrangements in a very professional manner. I'm sure not everyone was happy that they booked the display, but our rights as citizens were upheld at the state-supported school. Thank you Dr. Sam!

Here are some photos. We'll be back again tomorrow for the second (and last) day. My feet hurt!