McHenry County immigration debate going public

While the battle over illegal immigration has raged in the streets of Chicago and suburban communities like Carpentersville and Waukegan, McHenry County has managed to avoid heated showdowns over the issue.

That could change Saturday.

That's when the Illinois Minuteman Project, an anti-illegal immigration organization labeled a hate group by critics, will host a seminar at the Holiday Inn Crystal Lake. It will feature an Ohio sheriff whose efforts to deport people in his county unlawfully has drawn national attention.

At least three groups are planning counter-demonstrations, including one that in a recent pronouncement likened the Minuteman Project to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi extremists.

Both sides say they want a civil discussion of the immigration issue, but given their passion and a history of minor skirmishes elsewhere, Crystal Lake police say they are taking no chances Saturday.

"We will have enough of a presence to ensure that the safety and the rights of everyone there are guarded," Police Chief David Linder said. "(Our presence) will be as minimum as it needs to be to make sure everyone can exercise their rights."

The event is the first time the debate over illegal immigration has gone public on a large scale in McHenry County. Perhaps the most surprising thing about that is that it has taken this long.

Although infrequently mentioned in public forums, immigration, particularly illegal immigration, is a hot topic in residents' conversations with their government officials and on local online message forums.

"I have heard more in the last nine or 10 months about the issue of illegal immigration than anything else," McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said. "People want to know what we're doing about it."

The Illinois Minuteman Project says it can offer some answers. The group, an offshoot of the national organization best known for patrolling the U.S. border with Mexico, says its goal is to educate citizens about how to fight illegal immigration.

Rosanna Pulido, the project's director, said the group chose McHenry County for Saturday's event in memory of three county residents whose violent deaths in 2006 it blames on illegal immigration.

Verna Corcoran, an 83-year-old Marengo woman, was killed in her home May 14 by a man in the country illegally. The next week, Jon Fiala of Huntley died when his motorcycle was struck by an illegal immigrant driving drunk on a county highway. A month later, Dean Knospe of Crystal Lake died when his motorcycle was struck by a suspected drunken driver who was in the country illegally after being deported three times previously.

"If these people were not allowed in the country, those citizens might very well be alive today," Pulido said. "The argument (against deportation) is that it's wrong to separate families, but they're separating Americans from their families. Nobody is talking about that."

Minuteman's portrayal of illegal immigrants as violent criminals is unfair and inaccurate, said Carlos Acosta, executive director of the McHenry County Coalition.

"They're focusing on a very small part of the demographic," he said. "Have they done a study of how many blue-eyed people have been in DUI accidents?"

Acosta said he hopes to attend Saturday's seminar and offer a counterpoint to Beck and organizers. Members of his coalition will be either inside or outside the event, joined by the McHenry County Peace Group, an organization better known for its war protests, and Carpentersville Community Alliance, a group formed to oppose anti-illegal immigration policies in Carpentersville.

Peace Group member Patrick Murfin said the organization will conduct a vigil across from the Holiday Inn while the seminar goes on inside the hotel.

"We think their approach calls for something so punitive and so dangerous that somebody needs to stand up and say this is not something our entire community believes in," Murfin said. "We're advocating a calm and rational discussion that does not stigmatize and damage an entire group of people."

Inside the hotel, Beck will speak about how local law enforcement can fight illegal immigration. He will be joined at the podium by representatives of Choose Black America, a national African-American group opposed to illegal immigration.

Pulido pointed to the group's involvement as a response to claims her organization is racist.

"It's the same old rhetoric, that we're the Ku Klux Klan," she said. "Perhaps they should ask Choose Black America why they're coming to a Ku Klux Klan meeting."

Local law enforcement officials say they are willing to hear what Beck has to say, but have no plans to follow his lead in dealing with illegal immigration.

"You always have to keep an open mind, but that doesn't mean you have to join their organization," McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said.