Update: My good friend was also at at the May Day events and has some fantastic video footage, which you can find at The Silent Majority No More. The rest of her coverage can be found at her website as well. More video from the day’s festivities can be found on Youtube.

As promised, today I will present the conclusion to American Rattlesnake’s May Day coverage, including the robust, sustained-and to our country’s enemies, deeply irritating-counter-protest staged by this website’s editor-in-chief in collaboration with New York Ice.

As you can see by the photo above, our critics-in this case, the feral, reflexively violent antifa thugs who met us at Foley Square-were not eager to be photographed. Whether that was out of concern for being identified by NYPD officers the next time they attempt to assault a peaceful assembly of dissident voices, or out of respect for the hundreds of visitors who would be forced to look at their faces in the following days is something I’ll  let you decide.

Fortunately, there were a few “anti-fascists” who I was able to detain for a brief snapshot. This young woman, for example, evokes memories of a young Faye Dunaway, perhaps after being hit with a tire iron. An arresting image, nonetheless.

This zaftig Mexican girl below was particularly aggrieved by my unobtrusive photography that day, although I can’t for the life of me discern why. After bombarding me with some choice expletives for several minutes, she was gently escorted beyond police barricades by some NYPD officers and asked to remove her  jaunty black bandana/face-mask.

At this point, the street theater they were attempting-by ripping signs from the hands of counter-protesters, showering us with abuse, and generally acting like ignoramuses-descended into farce, as the well-fed IA began to weep like a  young child whose favorite plaything has been ripped from her arms.

Even though these photos might lead you to  believe there was a sarin or mustard gas attack upon Foley Square, the truth is that the nose-holding and face-covering is merely part of the theatrical element antifa crybabies brought to the fore during their ridiculous posturing that day. I think you can judge its effectiveness by the look on the face of the Muslim man pictured below.

As entertaining as the black-clad anarchists were, there was also much amusement to be found throughout the rally, including on stage. The African-American gentleman in the background is, ironically enough, named Clarence Thomas. Leader of the radical International Longshore & Warehouse Union-Local 10, he was joined on stage by the afternoon’s emcee, who spent the better part of two hours explaining why her organization had decided to hold two separate rallies which were both ended prematurely.

I AM ASKED WHY WE DECIDED TO HOLD TWO RALLIES, AND MY ANSWER IS…BECAUSE…!

The last declamation was followed in short order by a tangent having absolutely no bearing on the ostensible reason for staging this rally. In other words, even the people who organized this event had absolutely no clue why they were there in the first place. I wish I could say I was surprised by this revelation.

There were also some festive people in Indian, or as the politically correct stewards of speech would say “indigenous,” dress doing a rain dress which was strangely ineffective.

And of course, what illegal alien friendly event would be complete without someone spouting completely inaccurate, misleading statistics that are easily debunked?

Thankfully, on this day the masses of pro-amnesty, anti-American, revanchist reds were confronted by a group of Americans, some of them immigrants themselves, who saw the need to assert their views amidst the cacophony of stridently anti-American voices. Although initially outnumbered, we stood our ground and endured to the end, even outlasting the loud, obnoxious, but morally bankrupt forces that had tried to colonize Foley Square that afternoon.

My favorite part of the day, bar none, was when a group of hostile illegal aliens and socialists attempted to heckle us into submission but were silenced once we withdrew our driver’s licenses and photo identification. When we asked them where their papers were, accompanied by the chorus to the great 1980s Genesis tune, Illegal Alien, we were greeted with shame-faced silence and dumb stares. A small victory, it was nevertheless an  extremely gratifying moment.

Joanna Marzullo, president of New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement, expresses her point of view. You can find video coverage of her part in the counter-demonstration on Youtube.

Even in the Big Apple, there are people who stand with Arizona, as this past May Day demonstrated.

The lesson to be drawn from this event, IMO, is that no matter how outnumbered you might feel when fighting the hordes of radical, open borders crusaders, there are always people willing to stand by your side when you defend basic American values.

As we mark the end of the old year and the beginning of something new, it’s wise to take a step back and assess the accomplishments and setbacks of our movement. 2010 was probably the most significant year in terms of advancing the debate over immigration enforcement within the body politic of this country in recent memory.

The most notable event, of course, was the decision by Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona to sign into law Senator Russell Pearce’s signature piece of legislation, SB 1070. As a quick reminder, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act makes it a misdemeanor to be an illegal alien, requires the enforcement of all relevant federal immigration laws by state and local law enforcement officials during their regular duties, and targets those who hire, shelter, or harbor people living in Arizona illegally.

Although large parts of the law have been enjoined by Judge Susan Bolton, Governor Brewer and the state of Arizona are appealing that injunction. In fact, the likelihood that this law will eventually reach the Supreme Court, as another Arizona law targeting employers of illegal aliens already has, is high. But even more importantly, the decision by President Obama’s Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, to sue the state of Arizona served as a litmus test moment in the broader immigration debate we’ve been engaged in since Californian’s approval of Proposition 187 in 1994.

Taking the side of special interest groups like the National Council of La Raza, LULAC and other opponents of immigration enforcement in the United States, such as the ACLU and the government of Mexico, against the state of Arizona, as well as the vast majority of the American public, told us all where the Obama administration stands on this issue. It also galvanized public support for the stance of Governor Brewer and spurred efforts to enact similar laws in other states, as this New Year’s article by UPI points out.

But SB 1070 wasn’t the only major national development in the world of immigration reform. 2010 also saw the attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his deputy whip, Senator Dick Durbin, to foist the DREAM Act upon us after being rebuffed repeatedly by Congress in the decade since it was first conceived. Thankfully, opponents of DREAM, led by the indefatigable Senator Sessions and his allies at Numbers USA, were able to defeat their backdoor attempt at amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

As gratifying as this victory was, it was not the only success we had over the course of the past year. 2010 also saw the widespread adoption of Secure Communities, a program mandating local authorities share the fingerprints of arrestees with ICE, by  states and localities around the country, including ones run by governors with notoriously weak records on this issue, such as Massachusetts and our very own New York State. While perhaps a small step in the right direction, it is an indication that the Obama administration can be prodded into immigration enforcement when it is politically pressured to do so.

Perhaps the single greatest achievement of 2010, though, was the electoral victory of November 2nd, when the forces of immigration enforcement and reform defeated Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s deputies across the nation. And even though there were some blots on an otherwise great score card, the overall results represented a huge shift away from the House of Representatives that passed the DREAM Act in a lame duck session. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose comical efforts I’ve chronicled in the past, will be replaced in the new Congress with immigration hawk Steve King, while the former chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, anti-fence, anti-enforcement Rep. Bennie Thompson, will be replaced with a congressman familiar with that territory, Rep. Peter King.

And even though the campaign to unseat amnesty proponent and panderer Harry Reid fell short, we did see the replacement of several dreadful members of the U.S. Senate this year, including the defeat of DREAM Act supporter Bob Bennet, and the retirement of former co-sponsor Sam Brownback-who is now the governor of Kansas. Overall, the November elections marked a huge shift in favor of immigration enforcement and common sense tools like e-Verify, which is a priority of new House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith.

Overall, I think we can look back on the past year with a great degree of pride in our achievements and determination to correct those mistakes that were made in the course of this struggle. The focus of most of our energies over the past year has been in thwarting potentially disastrous legislation on the federal level, such as the DREAM Act and AgJobs, and helping states pick up the slack of the federal government, as was the case with SB 1070. I think 2011 will mark a transition to a focus on the federal government assuming its proper, but long-neglected, role in border security and immigration enforcement. The success of Secure Communities proves that state-federal cooperation can be an effective tool in stemming the flow of illegal immigration.

Rest assured, this website will continue to bring you news of any developments on that front as the year progresses.

More proof, as if more proof was needed, that The push for this latest installment in the amnesty layaway plan known as DREAM has been riddled with identity politics from the beginning. The only reason Harry Reid is demanding that the Senate pass this monstrosity in the first place is as a reward to Hispanic voters he views as having been instrumental to his latest re-election.

Read the entirety of Jerome Corsi’s column, it’s very clarifying. From Congressman Gutierrez’s threat to engage in civil disobedience and empty promise to split from the Democratic Party if it doesn’t railroad DREAM through Congress, to the explicit threats of political retaliation made by ethnic grievance groups such as LULAC and La Raza, this entire debate has been driven by people who put race and ethnicity above concern for country.

Whatever pro forma declarations of patriotism DREAM Act sponsors espouse are merely intended for public consumption. The claim that waves of illegal aliens will enlist in the United States Armed Forces once DREAM is enacted, an assertion that has been thoroughly demolished by Mark Krikorian in NRO, is simply a way of persuading the sensible middle portion of this country-which is rightly concerned about giving yet another amnesty to millions of illegals-that DREAM is as American as apple pie. Unfortunately, it isn’t. It’s race-based politics with a cute, cuddly, collegiate face.

The only way to unite our country is to reject this horrible bill, and to move beyond race-based politics. We’re better than that.

Noticeably absent from the current, contentious debate over preferential programs for illegal aliens, such as the DREAM Act, has been a countervailing voice to the official line of Hispanic and Mexican-American lobbying organizations. While The National Council of La Raza, LULAC, NALEO, among others, strenuously campaign for the enfranchisement of people who did not come here legally, or attempt to abide by the law when they arrived, there has been up to this point a disturbing absence of contrary opinions from those Hispanic voters who are American citizens and believe in the rule of law. Which is even more troubling when you consider the fact that many Hispanic Americans share the rest of this country’s apprehension over our de facto policy of open borders.

Fortunately, Israel Ortega, the Spanish-language spokesperson for the Heritage Foundation, has written a powerful condemnation of the cynical political manipulation practiced by the likes of Senator Harry Reid and President Barack Obama, who for the sake of political opportunism have re-opened a needless debate that will only further inflame pre-existing tensions, and harm the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed or unemployed.

For a refreshing change of pace from the anti-American posturing and pandering of media darlings like Luis Gutierrez, I suggest you read Mr. Ortega’s piece in its entirety. It will renew your faith in this country’s future.

Let me preface this entry by declaring unambiguously that I don’t think getting into physical altercations with random strangers, even people who may be criminal aliens that are committing statutory rape-is ever a wise idea. Putting that caveat aside for a moment, I also believe that this verdict is a horrific travesty of justice, one that can only come about in a country that has forgotten the true meaning of civil rights.

For a full accounting of how Mr. Piekarsky and Mr. Donchak have been wronged, I suggest you visit the invaluable Diggers Realm, which has covered this miscarriage of justice from the very beginning and has an insightful post explaining how this dreadful verdict came to be and which political apparatchiks engineered it. 

Although this specific case might not seem like a watershed in the immigration debate, it is. It represents the depths that we sink to once we allow the ethnic grievance industry and their open borders lobbyists, e.g. MALDEF, The National Council of La Raza, LULAC, dictate our laws to us. The fact that constitutional and statutory law can be so manipulated in order to serve the interests of a belligerent minority should alarm all of us, regardless of our ethnic identity or ancestry. 

If this case strikes some as familiar, it should. Just substitute the names Campeon and Ramos for those of these two Pennsylvania teenagers and you’ll recognize a disturbing pattern. Unfortunately, I doubt that our current president, overseeing a Department of Justice that worked diligently to cook up these absurd charges, will grant any sort of clemency to these young men. That is why people of good will need to speak up in their defense. The only people whose civil rights were denied in this case are the two individuals who now face a life-time of imprisonment for simply defending themselves.