Opponents of illegal immigration rallied outside the Denver Public Library on Monday to demand the resignation of city librarian Rick Ashton, contending he was accommodating illegal immigrants at taxpayer expense.
The protest was in response to copies of a Spanish-language novella with sexually explicit illustrations found on library shelves last week. Library officials are pulling all 6,000 of their novellas to review them, even though the vast majority do not contain sexual or violent illustrations.
Library spokeswoman Celeste Jackson said the library is taking community concerns seriously as it reviews whether the novellas are appropriate.
But the issue of novella content was quickly pushed to the side, as the protesters focused primarily on illegal immigrants, especially those from Mexico.
“You always hear they want to come and work,” said Robert Copley of the Colorado Minuteman Project. “Well, they also want to come and kill, and destroy wages, and just demean our quality of life.”
Lisa Duran, who works for an immigration-rights group that showed up to counter the protest, said she considered Copley’s attitude racist.
“They’re just bashing Mexicans,” she said.
An exchange between two women revealed the deep division. Wanda Weatherford has lived in the U.S. all her life. Gabriela Casillas’ parents are Mexican and moved to America when she was a little girl.
“You need to speak English,” Weatherford told Casillas.
“I am speaking English, but I can speak Spanish too,” Casillas replied.
“You need to speak (English) all the time,” Weatherford said.
The two sides managed to remain generally polite, even as they pointed fingers and waved opposing signs.
Justin Irwin of Loveland came to protest the novellas because he has four children and said he doesn’t want them to be exposed to pornography.
“They are explicit and graphic and violent towards women,” Irwin said, wearing a T-shirt with silhouetted pictures of naked women that said, “Experienced professionals wanted. Several positions available. Flexible hours.”
“Oh, this is mild in comparison,” Irwin said, looking down at his shirt. “This is like stuff you see on TV.”
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
