Apr 24, 2006 11:25 am US/Pacific
Leimert Park Protest Organizer Apologizes
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
A homeless advocate and organizer of an anti-illegal immigration protest in Leimert Park apologized for Sunday's shouting match and scuffle with another man who opposed his views.
"I blew it and I apologize for my actions," Ted Hayes said. "I have no excuse."
About 100 anti-illegal immigration protesters and counter protesters attempted to drown each other out at the rally. An unidentified man made his way through the crowd began heckling Hayes while he was talking to reporters.
"That person was wrong, no question about it, but my response was even worse," said Hayes. He asked the man to leave, but claimed the man put his hands up in the air and threatened to sue if Hayes touched him. "And like a dummy, I said `yes, I will touch you,' and gently put two hands on his chest."
News cameras recorded a brief scuffle, without any punches that were thrown.
"I apologize to him, to the Latino community, I apologize to the black community, to the Minutemen," Hayes said. "I behaved out of policy."
The scuffle overshadowed the issue Hayes tried to convey: how most homeless in Los Angeles are black and illegal immigration compounds to the problem.
"And that's one reason why black people are living homeless in the condition that we are living in right now, because we refuse to work for slave wages," according to Hayes. A book written in 2004 called "The Impact of Immigration on African Americans" found that immigration decreased wages for less skilled and less educated blacks, with their displacement from the job market.
"In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefitted less or been harmed more than the African American population," said one of the book's authors,
Vernon M. Briggs Jr., a Cornell University labor economist.
Hayes supports legal immigration however he resents how illegal immigration protesters compare their struggle to the black civil rights movement. He suggested they wage their fight south of the border.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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