MCC students fail to stop Minutemen group

Some McHenry County College students were schooled on First Amendment rights Wednesday when they presented college President Walter Packard with a petition protesting an anti-illegal immigration seminar slated for today.

Members of Latinos Unidos, the college's Hispanic student organization, gathered more than 400 signatures from students who opposed the rental of college space to the Illinois Minuteman Project. The petition also asked the college to prohibit groups such as the anti-illegal immigration organization from using the facilities.

Packard told the students that the campus is open to the public, and the college's conference center facilities can be rented by any organization that completes an application and pays a set fee.

"If we start picking and choosing which groups can speak and which can't, you're going down a slippery path," Packard said. "Particularly in our college environment, you have to be prepared to listen to a wide range of ideas in order to learn."

Latinos Unidos members could not be reached for comment.

The Minuteman Project's program starts at 6:30 p.m. today, and will feature Ohio sheriff Daniel Beck, renowned for personally rounding up illegal immigrants, as many as 80 in the past year.

The Minutemen had planned an August seminar at the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn, but that was canceled after city police informed the hotel that it would have to spend up to $3,500 for security during a planned counter-protest. The Minutemen announced the MCC venue in late September.

Rosanna Pulido, former director of the Illinois Minutemen and now field representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the federation's attorney has contacted Packard about what policing efforts the college plans to use.

"We had to pay $400 for an insurance policy because someone might get hurt," Pulido said. "I don't believe these protesters have to get any sort of insurance, and they're the ones causing trouble. … It's very disturbing to me."