 (Staff Photo) |
A man shouted "Go home!" from his pick-up truck window at people gathered by a damaged protest sign Monday on Liberty Street in Manassas.
Mexicans Without Borders, an immigrant rights organization, was protesting the partial destruction of the sign hanging on the one remaining wall of a demolished house.
Property owner Gaudencio Fernandez hung the sign roughly two weeks ago in response to the anti-illegal immigration resolution proposed by Prince William Supervisor John T. Stirrup, R- Gainesville this summer.
The board passed a part of the resolution last week that required police to check a person's legal status if they have probable cause to do so.
Fernandez said the sign was damaged between Saturday at about 8:15 p.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Michael Betts stopped to watch the goings on.
"Basically we live in a society that has a lot of hatred," said the 50-year-old who works for Labor Finders, a day laborer staffing agency.
"I'm surprised it lasted so long," Betts said.
Prince William Chairman Corey A. Stewart said immigration "is an emotional topic" and hoped that people wouldn't "take matters into their own hands. It's not the right thing to do," he said.
Soon after Fernandez hung the sign, someone tried unsuccessfully to fire bomb it.
Ricardo Juarez-Nava, general coordinator of Mexicans Without Borders, said the destruction of the sign was a "symbol of the struggle and the conflict that we have in Prince William County."
Juarez also called the press conference to detail
today's work stoppage, community gathering and caravan across the county.
The work stoppage, which organizers are calling "PWC a Day Without Immigrants," is designed to show the positive economic impact immigrants have on Prince William County's economy, said Nancy Lyle of Mexicans Without Borders.
The organization also organized a boycott of non-Hispanic owned businesses between Aug. 27 and Sept. 3 and a march and rally on Sept. 2.
Stewart welcomed the work stoppage, saying if people are here illegally they shouldn't be working at all.
"Now what they need to do is stop working for the rest of the year," he said.
The caravan starting from the Prince William County Stadium Complex through the county's main streets at 3 p.m. will be followed by a mass gathering at the Sean T. Connaughton Plaza at 5 p.m.
The caravan will travel from the stadium complex to Va. 234 via Prince William Parkway and take Va. 234 to the eastern end of Prince William Parkway by U.S. 1 and return to the stadium complex.
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