Fox's John Gibson: "Let me clear things up. The May 1st protests failed." [View All]

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

May Day Immigration Protests Failed
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
By John Gibson

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194043,00.html

Some people have gotten the misimpression that I am anti-immigrant because I have done some carping about the "Day Without Immigrants" protests. So let me clear things up. The protests failed. They turned out fewer people than the big demonstration of late March. By the standards of that day — and the ambitions of the organizers — there should have been five million people on the streets Monday. Instead there were one million. That means 90 percent of illegals in this country did not protest. They either went to work — which is why they are here in the first place — or they took the day off and stayed home.

Why would they stay home? Because they get it. They understand that asking the majority of this country for something like legal status and citizenship is not something that should be done in the streets by millions. It looks too much like a demand. And illegal immigrants are smart. They see no upside in offending the majority of the country. One of the other reasons the protest failed as promised was that the whole movement for illegal immigrant rights has been co-opted by a crowd of political leftists who are hoping to ride illegal immigration into power on election day in November.

Over and over, the leaders of the immigration protests I have talked to on this show and on the radio have been self-described socialists, or key figures in groups like ANSWER, a leftist anti-war group. Many of the so-called organizers of the big "Day Without Immigrants" protest have a long string of quotes on their record in which they promise the day of a Hispanic takeover of this country is coming, or telling "old, white people" to get out of the way. So immigrant rights were being kidnapped by a group of anti-Republican, anti-conservative ultra liberals or, as I said, self-described socialists.

I don't think that's what illegal immigrants want. The ones I know don't want that. They want to work. They want to have legal status. And they want to be left alone, especially by political troublemakers. And Monday those illegal immigrants spoke out with silence when they stayed home and let the political power grabbers lead a much smaller crowd than had been predicted. Like I say, I'm for immigrants. And I'm glad the majority of illegals made the right choice Monday.