ATLANTA — It is difficult for maid Lilian Trachoz to avoid seeing the huge billboard that looms a few hundred feet away from her hotel workplace -- the one that says "STOP the INVASION" and, in smaller letters, "Secure Our Borders."
Trachoz is a legal immigrant from Puebla, Mexico, and she doesn't much care for the tone of the sign -- it is \o7feo\f7, she says, ugly. But she also thinks the word "invasion" is a pretty accurate description of what has happened in Atlanta, and the nation, in the last few years.
"It's true that there are a lot of Hispanics here," she said in Spanish, after swabbing a third-floor bathroom.
Trachoz might find the billboard both offensive and accurate, but more common are Atlantans who find it one or the other. That kind of polarizing response is closer to the intended effect of the sign's sponsor, Grassfire.org, which has erected a dozen of the signs in American cities since May.
"Legal citizens see it and say, 'You're right,' " said Ron De Jong, a spokesman for the group. "Illegals see it, and some of them are enraged. And they should be, because they are here illegally."
Grassfire.org, a self-described "conservative, pro-family and pro-faith" group based in Iowa, put its first billboard up in Dallas as a response to the thousands of protesters who took to the streets to challenge proposals in Congress to revamp immigration laws. Positive response to the sign spurred the group to put up signs in other immigrant-heavy areas around Miami; Phoenix; and Los Angeles, where the message is aimed at westbound travelers on the 210 freeway near the 605 interchange.
On the Grassfire.org website, supporters can sponsor the billboards at $25 per "square foot." De Jong said the group was planning billboards in a number of other locales, including Chicago and Tucson.
He said his group also helped put up a billboard in Winnfield, La., after being approached by residents there who were concerned about immigration. Winnfield, a city of about 5,200, is home to about 65 Latinos, according to the demographic and marketing company Claritas.
"This is 100% completely grass-roots support," De Jong said. "We've gotten a good deal of reaction from folks who say, 'I want it in my neighborhood.' "
The signs' reference to an "invasion" is stirring debate not only about policy, but about the kind of language appropriate to the nation's conversation about changing immigration laws -- which touches on hot-button topics of race, culture, nationalism and household economics.
