Jim Gilchrist, the Aliso Viejo founder of the Minuteman Project, sent a letter to supporters announcing the group's push to bring an “Arizona-type law” to Rhode Island.
“The
Minuteman Project,” he writes, “is going to do everything they can to proclaim Rhode
Island and New England as the new frontier for State Immigration Law
Enforcement.”
]
Partnering with Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, Gilchrist vows to unveil “The Providence Project” in the next three months because the state is among the few to admit “that all 50 states are now 'border' states.'”
Considering there are more than 2,100 miles between Providence and the Mexican border, some may see the Minuteman Project effort as silly.
But it makes perfect sense when you consider the following 13 reasons (compiled in honor of Rhode Island being among the union's original 13 states):
- The state's full name, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is the longest in the union. Do you know who else has long names like Eduardo María Carlos García de la Cal Fernández Leal Luna Delgado Sanz Galván? Mexicans!
- Roger Williams is a theologian who began the colonies of Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations to advocate freedom of religion,
separation of church and state, abolition of slavery, and equal
treatment to Native Americans, who had been forced out of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Do you know who else attracts desperate people
seeking new lives in free lands? Employers of Mexicans!
- Speaking of Providence Plantations, do you know who works modern-day plantations? Mexi– . . . errrrr . . . check that: Providence Plantations do not refer to the agricultural fields that spring to mind when thinking of the old South, whistling “Dixie” or planting a Confederate Flag on your F-150. “Providence” here means divine providence and “Plantations”
comes from the British term for colonies, whereby people left one place and were
“planted” in another. Do you know who else left one place and planted themselves in another? Mexicans!
- The Blackstone River Valley is known as the “Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” Do you know who crosses rivers to work in American factories? Mexicans!
- Rhode Island had traditionally been one of the leaders in textile manufacturing in the U.S.
before those factories moved first to the South and then you know
where. Do you know who now works those factory jobs? Chinese slaves! (After Mexicans did!)
[
- Following World War I, Rhode Island was hit hard by the Spanish
Influenza, which is the nickname the Minutemen use for the affliction
they believe currently infects the land, an affliction they claim is carried by
Mexicans!
- In the 1920s-30s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan
membership, largely in reaction to the large waves of immigrants moving
to the state. Back to the future isn't just a Michael J. Fox movie, people.
- Just a hair under 50 percent of Rhode Islanders identify themselves as
Catholic, the highest percentage of any state in the country. Finish this one yourself, padre.
- During fairs and carnivals, Rhode Islanders scarf down dough boys, which
are plate-sized disks of deep fried dough sprinkled with powdered
sugar. Do you know who else woofs them down? Mexicans! (They just call 'em churros.)
- Rhode Island was one of only six states that voted against Ronald Reagan in 1980 and has gone on to give Democrats huge margins of victory in that state ever since. Do you know who else votes overwhelmingly Democratic? Sing it from the mountaintop, Bob Dornan!
- Rhode Island has the highest number and highest density of
coffee/doughnut shops per capita in the country, with Dunkin' Donuts
having once counted more than 225 locations in the state. Do you know
who sweats their balls off in the kitchens of such joints? Mexicans!
- Democratic Party-dominated Rhode Island boasts comprehensive health
insurance for low-income children–or what the Gilchrist crowd calls a
magnet for . . . wait for it . . . Mexicans!
- One of the best known institutions of higher learning in Rhode Island? Brown University. Arriba!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.