WASHINGTON, 30 March 2004 — Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political strategist whom politicos refer to as either “Bush’s brain,” or the “Darth Vader’ of the Bush administration,” found politics got a little too up front and personal this weekend when activists turned up on his front lawn to protest cuts on a bill that benefits immigrants.

Protest leaders said they want Bush to re-examine the bill, entitled Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM), which allows immigrants who have lived in the US for over five years, to apply for legal resident status once they graduate from high school.

The proposed measure would eliminate provisions of current federal laws that will deter states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented student immigrates.

The protest, organized by National People’s Action, said 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented students graduate from US high schools each year and many of these students can afford to attend college only if they obtain the same reduced, in-state rates given to legal residents.

Rove appears to have been targeted as he is viewed as the “mastermind” behind this proposed change of legislation.

So the protesters, brought in by bus to Rove’s quiet neighborhood in Northwest Washington, chanted in his front yard, pounded on his windows, and asked him to come out and talk them.

Rove responded by opening his door and yelling: “Get off my property.”

The crowd did not, opting instead to fan around his house and watch him through windows while chanting, waving signs and pounding on the glass.

Furious, Rove reacted by rushing to a window, pointing a finger and yelling something inaudible. He also called the police, and the Secret Service.

Why the storming of Rove’s house? The protest leaders said they targeted Bush’s chief political adviser because they “couldn’t get as close to the White House and they could to his house.” They also said Rove had not replied to their many requests to meet and discuss the act.

For this reason, they said they came to talk to him at his house. Rove, speaking through a Secret Service agent who served as middleman, said no.

“We want the DREAM Act, and Karl Rove is sitting on it,” Brenda LeBlanc, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, told reporters. Others chanted: “Karl Rove ain’t got no soul.”

Rove, viewed as the weathervane of Bush administration policies, sat through 30 minutes of the front yard animation until a sort of settlement was reached. He agreed to meet with two members of the coalition — if the protesters would board their buses and leave.

The group obliged, but felt Rove did not uphold his word. He opened his garage door — only to end the “meeting” two minutes later when he closed the garage door while one of the organizers was still speaking. They told reporters Rove was “very upset” and was “yelling in our faces,” and “he hoped we were proud to make his 14-year-old and 10-year-old cry.”

Turning to the reporters with tears in her eyes, organizer Emira Palacios told reporters: “He is very offended because we dared to come here. We dare to come here because he dared to ignore us. I’m sorry we disturbed his children, but our children are disturbed every day.”

“Rove also said: ‘Don’t ever dare to come back,’” Palacios told the reporters.