The seige continues

As most people who don't watch mainstream news would assume, the protests of immigration reform are highly organized...hardly the "groundswell" of opposition the NYTimes has tried to portray.

FrontPage has a good piece by Ben Johnson connecting most of the dots.

These massive gatherings of illegals, who denounced their government unmolested by police or immigration officials, had an immediate impact – on legislation and on border security.

Reporter Sara Carter of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin says since these protests, border patrol agents have reported an explosion in illegal crossings from Mexicans (and others) keenly observing the Senate debate and emboldened by same. Some were under the impression amnesty had already been granted and hoped to be the first to take part in the second California Gold Rush.

The rallies had a political impact, too. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CO, stated on Monday:

The immigration rallies over this weekend and today show how disordered our immigration system has become. For years, the government has turned a blind eye to illegal aliens who break into this country. It isn’t any wonder that illegal aliens now act as if they are entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship.

As a sign of their political impact, Republicans immediately began discussing the potential threat their political careers face from an Hispanic backlash, should they have the temerity to pretend the United States is a sovereign nation with definable political boundaries.

I also recommend checking out Michelle Malkin's blog. Malkin, journalist and author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores has done a lot of research into border issues over the last decade.