UNT Conservatives' Mock Illegal Alien Hunt Stirs Resentment
by Jim Brown
February 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - Scores of angry Latino students and others at the University of North Texas are demanding that something "be done" about a Young Conservatives' demonstration called "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day."The demonstration featured Young Conservatives members wearing bright orange shirts that read "Illegal Immigrant" on the front and "Catch me if U can" on the back. Passersby were encouraged to track down the mock "illegal aliens" around campus to win a prize.
Members of Latino fraternities and sororities were among those on the campus who were offended by the demonstration and confronted the conservative group members, accusing them of racism and hate speech. However, UNT Young Conservatives president Chris Brown says his group was simply protesting the violation of federal immigration laws.
"Our main goal was to educate our school and our community about immigration policies," Brown says, "but also to make people aware that it's a growing issue, a problem, and to get it on the forefront of debate not only in our school and our state but in the country."
Latino students and groups from other area universities, along with representatives from the League of United Latin American Citizens, are calling on the University of North Texas to ban the Young Conservatives from the schools so-called "free speech zones." But according to Brown, his group is being attacked, incredibly, for holding a protest against lawbreaking.
"People said we shouldn't have our free-speech rights," the UNT Young Conservatives spokesman notes, "that we should have more restrictions on the free-speech areas, and that what we said was hate speech and racist." But all the campus group is guilty of, he insists, is "simply stating facts, stating figures about people breaking a federal law."
Michele Connole, publicity director for Young Conservatives of Texas, has also stated that the mock illegal alien hunt was intended to bring illegal immigration to the forefront of campus debate. According to a North Texas Daily news report, participants who caught the "immigrants" were rewarded with a candy bar and encouraged to ask the captive why the Young Republicans do not support President Bush's policies regarding illegal immigrant "guest workers."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
