Protesters take Fox to task for past immigration comments.

WILKES-BARRE – Those who attended former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s speech at the F.M. Kirby Center on Monday got an earful before they even entered the theater.

About 75 to 100 protesters were gathered on Public Square across the street from the Kirby, holding American flags and signs protesting Fox and illegal immigration, and chanting slogans such as “Fox, go home!” and “Legals, yes; illegals, no!”

Hazleton-based grassroots group Voice of the People USA organized the protest because of Fox’s past comments on illegal immigration and American immigration policies, said Frank Scavo, the group’s chairman.

Dan Smeriglio, the group’s president and founder, pointed to media reports stating that outward migration from Mexico increased 152 percent under Fox’s tenure, that Fox blasted cities such as Irving, Texas, for arresting and deporting illegal alien criminals, and that Fox has called anyone who is against illegal immigration a “xenophobe.”

And when Bill O’Reilly of FOX News asked Fox if it was OK to allow Mexican people to enter the United States illegally, Fox responded, “Of course,” Smeriglio said.

Chris Hackett, a candidate for U.S. Rep. Chris Carney’s 10th District Congressional seat in the 2008 election, said he came to the protest to get across his message on illegal immigration, which is the need for “high fences and wide gates.”

“We need to secure our borders, but we also need to honor the immigration that has made this country great over the last 200-plus years,” Hackett said.

Hackett said Fox “is disingenuous when he talks about the immigration policy he thinks the United States should have, but he had a very, very different immigration policy in Mexico which is the complete opposite of what we have here.”

“And he encouraged illegal immigration in this country. I’m not blaming Vicente Fox for our immigration problems, but he certainly could have been a much better partner to us in helping stem the flow of illegal immigrants,” Hackett said.

Joanna Marzullo, president of New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement, said she and members of her organization came from New York to protest Fox’s speaking engagement because he was “responsible for the illegal mass migration of Mexicans to the United States.”

“We are penned in by this little, plastic, red fence, and this is more protection than our borders have, and that’s ludicrous,” Marzullo said from behind a fence the city erected on Public Square.

Lonny Walsh, of Sweet Valley, said he came “because we have to stand up for our constitutional rights” and because “Vicente Fox is a sad excuse for a leader.”

Walsh called Wilkes University’s hosting of Fox “a disgrace. My kid will not be attending Wilkes College anytime soon.”

Ned Fletcher, 62, of Clarks Green, said he attended Fox’s speech “to hear what he had to say … and because I’m basically a supporter of immigration.”

Katherine Dezinski, 21, said her attendance at Fox’s speech was a mandatory requirement for her personal and professional development class at Wilkes, but she was looking forward to hearing what the former Mexican leader had to say.

Jana Bolton and Megan Eckerd, sophomores at King’s College who lives in the nearby Genetti’s Best Western said they came out to Public Square to see what all the noise was about.

Bolton said she thought some of the protesters’ comments were rude, but they had a right to speak their mind.

fence, and this is more protection than our borders have, and that’s ludicrous.”