Group Vows Unwelcome Sign Will Be Resurrected

The Orange County group that paid for a billboard near the Arizona border proclaiming California as the “Illegal Immigration State” is vowing to display the controversial message in another location.

The billboard was taken down Tuesday, but the Orange County-based Coalition for Immigration Reform says it will display the message again, perhaps in another form.

“The resurrection of the billboard’s message will take place,” said Barbara Coe, president of the coalition, which has scheduled a rally on Saturday in Blythe where the billboard was located.

The billboard message was removed by the advertising company of Martin Media after threats were made to destroy the sign by activist Mario Obledo and other Latinos who said the sign was racist.

The sign, erected May 7 along Interstate 10, read: “Welcome to California, the Illegal Immigration State. Don’t Let This Happen to Your State.”

Coe did not offer details of exactly where the new message will be or in what form. She only said, “it will be visible” from the freeway near the old billboard.

“We are not being more specific because of the threats of physical harm against those who may participate,” said Glenn Spencer, Sherman Oaks president of Voice of Citizens Together, an anti-illegal immigration group that supports Coe’s organization.

The billboard issue has pushed Obledo, 66, a former state health, education and welfare secretary and president of the California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, back into the activist spotlight.

Coe took exception with Obledo, calling him a “total terrorist,” a man who “took away our freedom of speech.”

“Obledo called for criminal, terrorist attacks in an effort to deprive Americans of their freedom of speech,” Coe said. “We believe that Americans of Hispanic heritage do not and will not support these terrorists.”

Coe said that as evidence of Obledo’s attitude, he was quoted in a newspaper Wednesday saying he “would have blown up the whole town of Blythe. Instead of talking about McVeigh, they would have been talking about Obledo.”

But Obledo said the quote was taken out of context and was in response to a sheriff’s admonition against burning the sign.

“The sheriff had called me and said there was a natural gas plant nearby,” Obledo said. “I didn’t want to endanger the town of Blythe, so we decided we were going to paint [the billboard] instead.”

The distortion of his quote, Obledo said, was “all right. When it’s not the truth, it doesn’t bother me at all.”

Obledo said that he will not be in Blythe on Saturday as he planned but that a rally is scheduled at 2 p.m. for those who opposed the sign.

Gil Flores, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest Latino organization in the country, intends to talk with supporters who might not have heard the message has been removed from the billboard.

“The sign has come down in Blythe and that was good news,” Flores said. “We want to go there and thank the community for standing up because they helped us.”