It’s another Saturday morning and there’s another immigration protest in front of Pruitt’s Furniture in central Phoenix.

The anti-immigrant crowds are getting bigger and nastier and the national media is starting to take note. The story has been reported in the New York Times (twice) and Reuters wire service covered this week’s protest.

When the protests originally started there were a hundred or so immigrant rights’ activists in front of the store and 10 - 15 anti-immigration folks across the street. While the number of immigrant rights’ supporters has stayed pretty constant the number of anti-immigration people has grown considerably. I think they now outnumber the immigrant rights people. And their tenor has gotten nastier every week. The last two weeks it has degenerated down to outright racism.

The Mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, has tried to bring the sides together to work out a compromise, but the talks have gone nowhere.

With any luck, this coming Saturday (Dec. 22) will be the last one. That’s when the permits taken out by Salvador Reza, and other immigrant rights’ people, expire. If the immigrants rights folks don’t show up, maybe the anti-immigration people won’t either.

EDITORS: Photos from the protests are available for editorial use. Contact me directly or contact ZUMA Press.