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Protesters Storm Citi Field Over Arizona's Immigration Law

Two men carrying Mexican flags ran across the outfield during the 7th inning of the Mets-Diamondbacks game last night, punctuating a night of protest around the stadium. Hundreds gathered to promote a boycott against Arizona, its baseball team and the 2011 All-Star Game until the state's controversial immigration law is repealed. They probably would have gotten the point across better if they had been naked.

The law, which went into effect on Thursday, allows police to demand proof of citizenship when there is "reasonable belief" that the suspect is an illegal resident. However, on Wednesday a judge granted a preliminary injunction, meaning for now "police are prevented from questioning people's immigration status if there is reason to believe they are in the country illegally." But Arizona Governor Jan Brewer filed an appeal, which will be heard in November.

Protesters carried signs with slogans like, "Arizona = Apartheid" and, "Boycott Arizona," but some believed they were barking up the wrong tree. Diamondback outfielder Cole Gillespie told NY1, "Just because we're from that state, they think that we represent that whole idea and notion. They're going to want to protest us, but again, there's nothing we can do...all we can do is go out there and play."

However, Mets players like Rod Barajas and Carlos Beltran have spoken out against the law. Fan Freddy Bastone told Newsday (subscription required), "It's important to support guys like Beltran," and trying to make a living, regardless of national origin, "is a basic human right." But whatever your views on the subject, we can all agree that now is the perfect time to relive the glory of the Mets streaker:

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Comments [rss]

  • Rebecca Albright

    Has anyone actually stopped to think why Arizona has enacted S.B. 1070? No doubt, the law is flawed. But after 40 years of Federal failure to secure American Borders, what could one expect? Clearly, the United States’ immigration policies need to be immediately reformed. Anyone who does not think so is living in the past. 12 million illegal immigrants are able to reside in America because there is a need for them. Why they have not been given some type of legal working visa is beyond this writer and probably every reader out there, too. In case any readers are wondering, the majority of the top 100 most ethnically diverse cities exist throughout the American Border States. The most ethnically diverse states in the U.S. are Border States. The reality is that most of America, including the lawmakers in Washington D.C., has adopted and supports laws that are not contemporary. Migrant workers are needed throughout North America, and they should be allowed legally in from all over the world.

  • Spirit of 76

    That security guard will never live it down that he wasn't able to tackle an overweight guy with his hands full of a flag.

  • blink

    Obama's strategy for getting re-elected: Give amnesty, citizenship and voting rights to all illegals... get re-elected.

  • Amanda Harletsch

    and this comment proves once again how the right wing has ZERO contact with reality!



    lunatic!

  • blink

    ... and pseudo liberals with no sense of reality, like you, are the new right wing.

  • blink

    I'll bet you a cool grand right now on that.

  • Brittanicus

    Was this just inter-office memo in reality something tangible? ---A DE FACTO AMNESTY BEING DISCUSSED IN WASHINGTON? It’s inevitable--proliferating by word of mouth across Mexico, Latin America and the rest of the world. It could have major consequences, bringing desperate, impoverished millions to suddenly materializing along the border, ready to run the gauntlet of the Border Patrol? Like a human avalanche the first Amnesty was to reward 3 million people with legitimization, but once the word expanded across the globe, the number turned into around 5.5 million. If you think this couldn't happen, you better read about the 1986--AMNESTY?



    Our government doesn't seem to understand, taxpayers do not want to subsidize illegal immigrants anymore with health care, education and imprisonment on a federal level. The Arizona is just one state under painful financial strain to support illegal aliens and families? I didn't expect an expedited hearing from the Liberal-Mickey Mouse tribunal (the US Ninth Circuit Court in the Liberal Sanctuary City of San Francisco.) It’s a Liberal fortress like Los Angeles and 72 cities and towns, where illegal aliens gang members have got a slap on the wrist for heinous crimes. The only deadly slaughter that received any transparency from the suppressed Liberal press was the cold blooded murder of the Bolgna family, Daniel Shaw by illegal gang members in LA and SF. Go to OJJPAC for a very long list of states with Sanctuary cities.



    One of the major issues are these are unfunded mandates, that fall squarely on Americans who pay for it all. The businesses that hire illegal aliens pay nothing towards these free benefits. As far as I'm concerned I trust (FAIRS) figures of the expenditures of $113 billion dollars a year, with an additional $60 billion in illegal labor money in remittances, money transferred out the country. The fact that any unilateral AMNESTY, means those illegal households will get credit for all the years they have worked illegally, would be a major problem for US citizens and legal residence in Social Security, pensions.



    If the administration forced through an executive order for these people to get a free authorization to stay, the American people would rise up in defiance to this travesty. The outcome could cause outburst or violence and civil unrest. Our only chance to stop any more power grabs is to remove all Incumbents. Throw out Sen. Harry Reid, (D-NV) in November. Statistics, cost to learn at NumbersUSA.

  • Amanda Harletsch

    That was a waste of space!





    I bet you have traveled many places in Latino America to know what people down the border think or say!



    You are clueless.



    I bet you are repeating exactly what the many paranoid androids in the right get feed daily: LIES.



    Keep blaming immigrants for the problems the Republicans have brought to this country! I serves the supremacist very well.

  • hotstepper

    quick question, does your aluminum hat mess with your WiFi?

  • LegalAmerican

    Almost everyone has sympathy for the American Indians who were here before us (but not before other Europeans as DNA has now proven). These tribes did not have any immigration laws. Anyone here remember what happened to these people? They were 100% of the population but now, 400 years later make up less than 1% of the populace, most live in poverty on reservations and are largely ignored. Is this the fate of Americans, White Americans in particular? If current trends continue, yes, that is the fate that awaits us. Oh, well, at the rate they are shipping jobs out of this nation and into Mexico, which is about the same rate Mexico is sending us their tired, poor huddled masses yearning to take what is ours, I may be moving to Mexico soon.

  • angry_pickle

    American Indians who were here before us (but not before other Europeans as DNA has now proven



    The theory that American Indians came from Europe first and not Asia is only supported by studying tools (eg arrow heads) NOT from DNA analysis. Recent DNA analysis (2009) shows that all American Indians extant today originated from Asia.

  • ldo

    The United States is shipping jobs to MEXICO? LOL WAT!





    try India. and only comment if you have something mildly intelligent and factual to say k THANKS.

  • RottenApple

    I am high too.

  • longacre

    The Mets wear Spanish "Los Mets" jerseys from time to time.

  • Didn't the Diamond Backs like, get jersey's in Spanish in protest? Or wait, that was the Suns. Sorry, sports are confusing to me.

  • twentyfive25

    The US has two immigration policies- one is for intelligent and educated Europeans who would contribute to society and pay taxes, and that is extremely limited and costs about $40,000. The other is unlimited for illiterate south of the border types who get in for free because they'll work for less than corporations are willing to pay US citizens. And they don't pay taxes or contribute since they send most of their money south of the border, so it costs each US taxpayer about $40,000 in food stamps and health care.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    Interesting you believe nobody from south of the border could possibly be educated nor have any real money and all Europeans must have a degree and large bank account at birth.

    Asians must be lonely in your little fantasy world.

  • Spirit of 76

    And they don't pay taxes or contribute since they send most of their money south of the border,



    Isn't that a whole different issue altogether? They can avoid paying taxes only if they're being paid under the table (which they probably are), but that has nothing to do with whether they're sending their money home. A legal alien or even a citizen can still avoid paying taxes if they're not officially on the payroll.

  • You...wait. You aren't even going to bother to cover up that you are making racist assumptions? You're just going to go full racial purity, huh? Wow.

  • thefacts

    Truly it's been said: Crying "racism" is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

  • When a dude is wearing a tiny little mustache & categorizing people on the basis of the colour of their skin, at some point you have to say "screw it" to Godwin's law.

  • twentyfive25

    Political correctness trumps reality every time.

  • Stevennnn

    Why does this country try to protect ILLEGAL immigration and give them anything they want for free?



    If you want to come here do it the legal way or get the f*uck of this country.

  • angry_pickle

    I don't understand who are these people yelling, screaming, kicking for unchecked immigration. Probably the same people who supported keeping Elian Gonzalez in Miami instead of sending him back to his father in Cuba.

  • thefacts

    So this gentleman is triumphantly planting the Mexican flag in CitiField?



    If there is a better way to alienate people from your cause, please let us know.

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