WASHINGTON — A week after World War II veterans struggled to gain access to a memorial on the National Mall due to the government's partial shutdown, thousands of people pushing for a new immigration law have been cleared by the government to proceed with a concert and rally Tuesday on the Mall.
The march, dubbed the "Camino Americano", or "American Road," is hosted by groups including the Service Employees International Union and Casa de Maryland. The rally will feature speeches by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other members of Congress. Another highlight will be a concert by the Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte.
The concert is the punctuation mark on a series of demonstrations that included more than 100 rallies around the country on Saturday to push Congress to adopt an immigration law that would allow the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants the ability to apply for U.S. citizenship.
After seeing a group of veterans forced to move aside barriers to access the World War II Memorial last week, some are upset over what they see as the Obama administration giving preferential treatment to a group pushing for one his biggest legislative priorities.
"It's bad enough watching these marches when we watch illegal aliens breaking our laws. Now they're being given free range on these public parks while we've seen the greatest generation military vets being turned away from their sacred memorials," said Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that opposes proposals in Congress to legalize the nation's undocumented immigrants. "It's offensive and it shows where their loyalties lie."
Susana Flores of Casa de Maryland, a community organization that assists immigrants and helped organize Tuesday's rally, said they were given clearance for the rally by the National Parks Service based on First Amendment grounds. National Parks Service spokesman Mike Litterst confirmed that the march will go on.
Under the same First Amendment rights that are allowing Honor Flight veterans and their families to visit the veterans memorials on the National Mall, other groups will be granted access to the park for First Amendment activities in accordance with National Park Service established regulations," Litterst said in a statement.
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"The Service made an exception for an immigration rally on First Amendment grounds"
ok...so let me see if i understand this correctly...
it's ok for illegal immigrants to hold a rally on the Mall due to the First Amendment, even though by definition they aren't covered under ANY of the Amendments due to being illegal...
it's not ok for WWII veterans who defended this country, and hence the First Amendment, to visit the WWII memorial on the Mall...
anyone else seeing a HUGE problem with this?!?!?!
"allowing Honor Flight veterans and their families to visit the veterans memorials on the National Mall" THEY ARE NOT ALLOWING THE VETERANS TO VISIT THE MEMORIALS! THEY ARE ARRESTING THEM AND KICKING THEM OUT!
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Veterans being arrested at the Vietnam Memorial...
Veterans and their allies gathered this evening at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in New York to mark the 12th anniversary of the U.S. war and occupation in Afghanistan.
Last year the solemn memorial service organized by members of Veterans For Peace to honor the dead from the war in Afghanistan and other U.S. wars, including the Vietnam War memorialized at that place, was interrupted at 10 pm by a police demand that they vacate the park, which is normally used at all hours by dog walkers, workers in nearby office buildings, and others. When they refused to leave, 25 veterans and their allies were arrested, and 12 of them, including a decorated World War II veteran, were convicted in July of failure to obey a park rule.
This year, they returned to protest the ongoing U.S. wars around the world, to honor the dead from those wars, and to assert their First Amendment rights to assembly and free speech. The police again demanded that they vacate the memorial and upon refusal some of them were arrested and now face possible jail time...
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By Susan Duclos
In the video below by We Are Change Org. provides exclusive interviews with Vietnam veterans that were present for the protest against the curfew placed on the Vietnam Memorial, as they explain why they did what they did and discuss the evening in question where police arrested our nation’s Vietnam veterans on October 7, 2013.
