A terrible bigotry is born: A bit more about Hendrycks and Day's pal Ron Branstner

In the nearly two months since we posted a photo of California Minuteman and Dick Day pal Ron Branstner,  we've heard from people who thought they recognized him as one of three Minutemen who had been disruptive of a community forum moderated by Fifth District Representative Keith Ellison last summer at Washburn High. Branstner's behavior included shouting down a tearful mother who was speaking at a microphone, according to two of our sources.

Here's a basic description of the meeting from the Twin Cities Daily Planet:

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is holding a community forum on immigration reform this Saturday, June 23, at 2 p.m.

The Congressman will be joined at Washburn High School, 201 W. 49th St., by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), author of the STRIVE Act (the Security Through Regularized Immigration and Vibrant Economy Act of 2007) a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform.

The forum will include a panel of people from the labor movement, the faith community and the Hispanic, Somali and Hmong communities.

Gutierrez and Ellison will moderate the panel and take questions from the audience.

Our sources recalled Branstner interrupting people who had the floor.

In reading through the threads posted at Protect Our Border, we discovered that their identification was indeed correct. Ruthie Hendrycks posted an email from Branstner to the yahoo group (yellow highlighting and spelling as per the original):

This is a update on the Ellison Immigration reform debate this past weekend

This is straight from Calif member Ron - who was in attendance and we thank

him and all that were able to attend

Of course it will be no surprise to anyone that the pro amnesty slant was

loud and clear - Ellison - must no be re elected EVER!

Ruthie,

Yesterdays open forum at the washburn HS Minneapolis was, to say the least interesting.
Out numbered and out voiced the proponent cheered asthe propaganda machine spoke.
Ellison and Gutierrez said repeatedly that immigrationis flawed and sending people home is not the answer.The gym was filled with a third world eliment and little respect for law.

Gutierrez was speaking in spanish and I stood up and shouted to speak in english and the mob was ready toput a rope around my neck.

The reality is Minnesotans better awaken soon and with some fight.  Ellison has plans to legalize as many 3rdworld people through this amnesty bill. Ellison is fighting to reinstate thousands of Liberians whos visas are about to expire next month, and with chain migration the families are awaiting there ticket to America.  This should be headline news.

Yup, it's funny how annoyed people get at meetings when someone starts heckling.  We've been to a lot of meetings--some where people have been really, really pissed at Congressman Walz for his war funding votes--and yet the custom is to be civil.

And the Liberians Branstner fears are political refugees. And as far as this issue being headline news, the story of their fight to stay in Minnesota wasn't particularly neglected by the media.

To its credit, the Star Tribune ran a series about the group beginning in February that has been regularly updated: A People Torn: Liberians in Minnesota.  Doesn't seem as if Branstner or Hendrycks are aware of it--but facts are stubborn things.

And those visas?  The Strib reported in September that the White House had extended them for 18 months, with the support of Minnesota's federal legislators:

Minnesota's entire Washington delegation supported the Liberians' bid to stay. A bill granting them one more year passed the House in July, but it was blocked in the Senate. In August, 54 House members sent a letter to Bush, urging him to extend the Liberians' legal stay. Signatures on the letter included Minnesota Republicans Jim Ramstad and John Kline and Democrats Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Collin Peterson.

On Wednesday, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said in a statement reacting to the decision: "With Liberia still struggling to rebuild and stabilize following years of civil strife, the country is simply not ready to absorb these people yet." The extension, Coleman said, "will also buy time for policymakers to find a more permanent solution for these important members of our community."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the 18-month window "allows us to put some distance between this issue and the heated immigration debate."

What distinguishes the Liberians' case from many other immigration issues is the fact that they have been living legally in the country and checking in regularly with government officials. "This isn't someone running into our country," Klobuchar said. "These are people who came over as refugees and have been here in some cases for 15 years. ... Their stories are heartbreaking as to what would happen to them if they return to Liberia."

Hendrycks likes to claim that her group only opposes illegal immigrants, and yet she distributes an email objecting to a "third world eliment [sic]" that is in the United States quite legally.

That's one of the reasons BSP has used the phrase "immigration reduction group" to describe unincorporated groups like Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform, which is a subchapter of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction (MCFIR).  MCFIR seeks to reduce legal immigration by eighty percent, not simply to end illegal immigration. MinnSIR wants "sensible" immigration reform, but never spells out whether  its definition of "sensible" concurs with its parent chapter's agenda item:

We feel that the number of legal immigrants should be cut back from the nearly 1-million we currently let in per year to 200,000.  From 1924 – 1965, we let in an average of 178,000 immigrants per year.

MCFIR may foster a subchapter that circulates an email objecting to the Liberians, but the Strib notes that many Minnesotans are quite happy to have the West Africans living here:

Meanwhile, Minnesota employers and communities where the Liberians live had joined their lobbying effort in Washington. Many of the Liberians work in health care jobs, and their employers feared a serious shortage of hospital and nursing home workers come October.

Officials in Brooklyn Park, where many of the Liberians live, also worried that a glut of homes and apartments might depress the city's real estate markets. . . .

So the Liberians have followed the law and worked hard. What were Hendrycks and Branstner objecting to again?

We gave this post a title riffing off William Butler Yeats' great poem, Easter 1916. Reading Ruthie's posts suggests a truncated paraphrase about the candidate for the state legislature:

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant ill-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill. . . .

. . .Transformed utterly:
A terrible bigotry is born.

We are left wondering exactly what MN-01 GOP congressional candidate wannabes Dick Day and Brian Davis find so attractive with MinnSIR leader Hendrycks and the Independent Minnesota Minutemen.