SPOKANE, Wash. — Three billboards with anti-immigration enforcement messages have appeared across Spokane, sparking debate in the community.
Anthony Flinn put up the billboards to encourage people who feel the same way he does about current immigration enforcement.
“I don’t know if I was inspired to do it. I was horrified by what all of us have been seeing with this new way of dealing with immigration enforcement,” Flinn said.
One billboard reads “Is this the America you grew up in, is this the America you want for your children?”
Flinn said he felt hopeless watching people pulled from their homes and cars and protesters tear-gassed. He put up the first billboard in October.
“So that, the rest of us, all of us will feel a little bit more and spirited. A little bit more encouraged that there is a real America out there that rejects this way of treating American citizens and immigrants,” Flinn said.
Not everyone supports the billboards. Rob Linebarger, the chair of the Spokane GOP said they show immigration enforcement that isn’t happening locally.
“You know, there are laws have to be obeyed. And as people are in this country illegally, then they should be, escorted humanely and safely out of the country, and then they can apply to come back legally,” the Linebarger said.
Flinn knows the signs won’t change policy. He hopes they keep people from accepting current practices as normal.
“I think collectively we are trying to, keep people from getting used to it, keep thinking of it as, a new norm that we will just endure because we do not have to endure this,” Flinn said.
The billboards are one way Spokane residents are protesting immigration enforcement. All three signs remain up across the city.
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