The Politics and Cowardice of "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day"

Young Americans for Freedom, both the Michigan State Chapter and the University of Michigan Chapter, saw the fall of Morgan Wilkins after she proposed two controversial ideas for recruiting new members to the College Republicans. They included "Fun with Guns", where students could play would be assassins, shooting BB guns or paintballs at cardboard cutouts of John Kerrey and Hillary Clinton (use of the latter could cause an investigation by the Secret Service), and the pseudo-vigilante justice "Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day".

The "Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day" was an idea that MSU-YAF and UM-YAF fit their organziations definition of good debate.

Kyle Bristow went so far as to defend Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day in a letter denouncing the Chairman of the Republican Party Ken Mehlmen, who had condemned the events after he was called out by Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean.

Both YAF's announced they were going to do their own Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day events. Even at the announcement of the event Kyle Bristow began to show awareness and trepidation of the controversy that would surround the event.

From the State News article
"Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" will likely take place after the November elections, YAF Chairman Kyle Bristow said, adding they want to keep the date a secret to deter protesters.

The international relations sophomore said the goal is to raise awareness of the issue of illegal immigration.

Ironically, while wanting to raise the awareness of the issue through the event, Bristow noticeably didn't want anyone who didn't already agree with him to attend. This will be seen as a common trend among YAF.

Many student groups interpreted the event as racist and invoking images of other vigilante groups such as the KKK. Black Students Alliance, Culturas de Las Razas Unidas, and North American Indigenous Student Organization, among other groups, challenged YAF to hold the event out in the open. They showed pictures of YAF sidewalk chalkings saying "Build the Wall" and "Speak English", which they said were done late at night.

They called on YAF to hold the "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" October 9th, 2006, which was Indigenous Peoples Day, the same day as Columbus day, to bring symbolism by looking more into the history of immigration.

Lou Anna K. Simon, President of Michigan State University, addressed the issue in a post on her official website. She said that the issue of immigration was too important to be addresses with gimmicks. She considered the tactics to be "a way to mock and demean, not to educate; a way to exclude, not include, voices. And inclusion is one of MSU’s core values."

Bristow denounced President Simon, saying that she was interfering and overstepping her bounds. "I believe that a college campus should be a place of debate and discussion, not one where the leftist administration should intimidate students on the issues of today."

A review of Simon's letter shows no threat of action, just a denouncement of the activity and a call for better ideas to address the debate.

Despite his claiming it was not demeaning and that the campus should be a place for open debate, Bristow still did not offer a date for the event or where it would be held.

For MSU-YAF Vice-Chair and then Chair of MSU College Republicans Jeff Wiggins did not say much about the event, claiming the college Republicans were focused on the upcoming election. Wiggins told the State News "We have the rest of the year to address these issues. That's what YAF is for. They address the issues while we're out during elections."

Facing pressure at their own campus, UM-YAF officially cancelled their Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day Event.

[Correction U of M did run their own version of the event. It was sanitized, using an actor dressed as Christopher Columbus as the illegal immigrant, and a girl dressed as a native American. Those participating from the YAF end all refused to give their name.]


I would also note Kyle Bristow's view of COlumbus and Native AMerican


Despite Bristow's defiant statements that "If people are hurt by the truth, therefore we shouldn't be saying it, and that's not right," and "'Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day' — that's just the tip of the iceberg. We are going to distribute posters, and we are going to do chalking. We haven't even started yet.", MSU-YAF, facing pressure from many fronts, cancelled "Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day".


The event was later condemned by ASMSU, MSU's student government, on which Kyle sat as a representative for James Madison College

. Kyle would soon make history as the first representative ever recalled from the body, and the recall election would have a higher turnout than the original. That and Kyle's being voted out as the Secretary of the MSU College Republicans will be discussed in a later post.