SANTA MONICA : Illustration of Children of Immigrants Draws Fire

An illustration in Santa Monica College’s campus newspaper depicting the children of illegal immigrants as grotesque space aliens ignited an angry reaction Wednesday from minority students at the community college.

The unsigned illustration in the Corsair weekly newspaper accompanied an opinion article by a member of the paper’s staff urging that citizenship be denied to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Such a policy would discourage unlawful immigration and unburden “American taxpayers,” the article said.

Manuel Garcia, president of the college’s student association, was one of many students who declared the article and illustration offensive.

“Freedom of speech cannot be used in this country in a way that is explosive,” said Garcia, promising a protest today in front of the building that houses the newspaper’s offices.

Efforts to reach the Corsair’s editor were unsuccessful.

College President Richard Moore criticized the opinion expressed by the article and illustration but defended the paper’s right to print them, noting that they appeared as commentary. “There is a lot of racism in society and it’s healthy to debate it,” Moore said. “This is the perfect arena where this debate needs to occur.”