WHAT'S THE SPANISH FOR MAU-MAU?:

Anti-Immigrant Effort Takes Hold in Md.: Grass-Roots Movement Expands Beyond Montgomery in Targeting the Undocumented (Pamela Constable, 2/23/08, Washington Post)

Maryland's nascent movement against illegal immigration, which began with protests over a day-laborer center in Gaithersburg, is moving beyond Montgomery County as advocates reach out more broadly, to African Americans and other groups and to rural counties.

"I have nothing against anyone who wants to come to America, but don't expect us to open our arms if you are not willing to do what it takes to become a citizen," said Natalie McKinney, a newly minted activist who hands out leaflets at her gym in Waldorf, at crowded bus stops and at a farmer's market in La Plata.

McKinney's message is new not only to Charles County, where she heads a fledgling chapter of Help Save Maryland, a group that opposes illegal immigration. It is also new to Maryland's African American community, which until now had been largely silent on the issue or had found common cause with the struggle of Latino immigrants.

Blacks are the nativists natural allies, though for quite different reasons.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 23, 2008 8:32 AM