CBS8 out of San Diego ran a headline story [with video] on July 4 entitled, Massive protest in Murrieta, but no migrants. The only thing massive about any of this was the massive fail by CBS8 to get much of anything right in that hyperactive headline.
Let's start with that flaming first word, massive:
mas·sive
ˈmasiv/Submit
adjective
1.
large and heavy or solid.
"a massive rampart of stone"
synonyms: huge, enormous, vast, immense, large, big, mighty, great, colossal, tremendous, prodigious, gigantic, gargantuan, mammoth, monstrous, monumental, giant, towering, elephantine, mountainous, titanic; More
antonyms: tiny
2.
exceptionally large.
"massive crowds are expected"
So you are probably thinking, wow, people actually spent their July 4th holiday--you know the holiday that celebrates our founding of an immigrant nation--protesting immigrants? Well, not exactly.
Yes, there was a protest, again, in Murrietta. Was it "massive"? Well, if 100 people [per the video, the article says 200 so apparently they decided to go with BOTH numbers!], on both sides of the issue, is "massive", then I guess your definition of massive is a little different than mine.
Here's massive:
By DoD photo by Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Meneguin, U.S. Air Force [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Interestingly, folks both pro and con the immigration issue attended the protest on the 4th. I'm thankful for the former, not so much the latter. Regardless, both sides were out in 91-degree heat making their points.
Interestingly, not one bus of immigrants showed up for the protest. So there they all were, one side determined to make sure the busses got through and the other pledging to, again, prevent them from entering the Murrietta, CA INS processing "facility". The feds have now stopped making arrival dates/times public.
Meanwhile, the House has pretty much nixed any legislation on immigration until... well, who knows. If they keep to their present course, never would be a good time for them.
My view is that this isn't immigration, in the most common sense, anyway. It's people in serious danger seeking safety for themselves and their children from the increasing crime in their native countries. The trip alone is a long and dangerous one for those fleeing, some with infants in arms, not unlike the migrants that boarded ships in Europe bound for the shores of a new land a couple hundred years ago.
One anti-immigrant protestor quipped:
That's what these people are doin'. They come into our country, they're bullying us and they're trying to get our stuff..."
Our stuff. You mean like a safe place to sleep? Food? Help for their children? What a jerk.
These people need help, not hatred.
Perhaps instead of suing the federal government over ACA coverage, some of the churches could actually harbor some of these folks indefinitely to keep them from harm. It would seem to be well within the thinking of their current Pope.