VIDEO: Taking Kansas’ Peck To Task

Presente.org’s campaign to gather 50,000 signatures to demand that Kansas Rep. Virgil Peck resign after calling for the shooting of immigrants from helicopters was wildly successful. Presente.org’s National Campaign Director Joaquín Guerra talked to us about his recent trip to the state capitol in Topeka, Kansas to deliver more than 55,000 signatures asking for Peck’s resignation. We previously wrote about Peck here and here.

The blog Wichitopekington notes:

Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro invoked the anger of interest groups and attracted nationwide media coverage after a comment he made in a March 14 meeting on controlling feral hogs: “Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem.”

The group of about 12 delivered the petitions to Gov. Sam Brownback and House Speaker Mike O’Neal. The petitions were the product of a “Dump Peck” Internet movement by Presente.org, a national online advocacy group that promotes the political empowerment of Latinos. The petitions demanded Peck’s immediate resignation and also asked that “those in the Kansas state and National Republican Party who do not agree with his views call for his resignation now and hold him accountable for his hateful rhetoric…”

Peck further fanned the flames when he added after the meeting that he “was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person” regarding illegal immigration.

Emira Palacios, a Wichitan representing the Sunflower Community Action group, estimated there are between 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented people living in the Wichita area, most of them Hispanic.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD