The University of Texas at Austin’s chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas planned on hosting an event today called “Catch an Illegal Immigrant.” According to the group’s chairman, Lorenzo Garza, the purpose of the event was to “spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration and how it affects our everyday lives.”

Well, it sparked a discussion. A big one. The discussion got so big, that the group canceled the event.

After denunciations from both major political parties and University of Texas President Bill Powers, the UT chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas has called off a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event set for Wednesday.

In a statement, Lorenzo Garcia, the group’s chairman, said members were concerned “that the university will retaliate against them and that the protest against the event could create a safety issue for our volunteers.”

If it hasn’t happened already, let me go ahead and nip any claims conservatives may try to make that the whole event was “just a joke” in the bud. This is not satire. It’s not even a good joke. By tucking their tails and running, the organization is showing that they are bullies who wilt in the face of confrontation. They are worried that they might have to face the sort of treatment they were planning on doling out to others. Whatever sort of “discussion” they hoped to “spark,” apparently it did not involve serious and vehement disagreement.

It’s worth noting that a similar event in Michigan in 2006 cost someone their job:

In a heated campus event leading up to midterm elections, about 100 students carried signs and chanted slogans at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to protest a game called “Catch an Illegal Immigrant.”

The event was hosted earlier this month by members of the student group, Young Americans for Freedom.

The group decided to offer a $100 reward to find a person posing as an illegal immigrant.

After a summer of intense debate over immigration, students wanted to keep the issue burning on campus. The Young Americans for Freedom at both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in East Lansing considered hosting the game after it was suggested by Morgan Wilkins, then a field representative for the College Republican National Committee.

“In order to grab a college student’s attention, you’re going to have to do something different, something that might make a couple people mad, but it’s going to generate dialogue and it’s going to get students who are generally apathetic to get involved in political issues, and it did that,” Wilkins said.

The committee fired Wilkins after her idea sparked negative responses.

So please, Young Conservatives of Texas, crawl back into your hole, and think twice about making your next bright idea public. You obviously didn’t get the hint when you tried the “Affirmative Action Bake Sale,” so let me be blunt: You are acting like assholes. Go away.

Photo credit: By Lilly M (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.