PHOENIX By Chris Kahn, AP) December 21, 2007 — Every weekend, the battle lines are redrawn outside an old furniture store in east Phoenix as the city confronts a generations-old problem with illegal immigration.

On one side of the street, Hispanics and civil rights activists come with hand-drawn banners and megaphones. Together, they announce their right to gather along the narrow sidewalk, and, if they want, to ask for work without someone challenging their immigration status.

On the other side, businessmen, bikers in leather vests and others fed up with illegal immigrants spread out holding American flags the size of bed sheets.

“We are not criminals!” shout the Hispanics.

“Go back to Mexico!” the businessmen and bikers reply.

Illegal immigration has become an especially personal issue in Arizona, where more people cross into the U.S. illegally from Mexico than any other state. While businesses benefited from a flood of cheap labor, many residents have blamed illegal immigrants for property crimes, identity thefts and a perceived drain on social services.

As their communities became flush with increasingly vocal Hispanics, state voters denied the children of illegal immigrants the right to in-state college tuition and the Legislature passed a measure that punishes employers who hire illegal workers. Meanwhile, the Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group patrols the southern desert and the U.S. Border Patrol is busily building a border fence across the Mexican border to keep them out.

The frustrations from both sides recently have spilled onto the sidewalk in front of Pruitt's furniture store, a stately red-brick building east of downtown Phoenix. Hispanic leaders, businessmen, civil libertarians, immigrant corn vendors, white racists, men in Santa Claus suits, angry horn-honking motorists and many others have squared off on the sidewalk during the past several weeks.

Salvador Reza started bringing protesters here to pressure the store's owner to stop paying off-duty Maricopa County sheriff's deputies to patrol his parking lot. Sheriff's deputies, some of whom are trained as immigration officers, are a special affront to the Hispanic community that surrounds the furniture store. Reza said the off-duty deputies have arrested and deported 65 illegal immigrants in the area so far.

“In essence, you have a private individual being able to implement U.S. immigration laws,” Reza said. “That's very dangerous and it cannot be tolerated.”

Reza said his group will continue to gather outside Pruitt's until the owner replaces the sheriff's deputies with private security guards, who do not have the power to deport people. If Pruitt's refuses, its customers will continue to be turned away by what he hopes will be a growing crowd of frustrated Hispanics.

“Maybe he can survive another year, but he's not going to be making money,” Reza said. “He's going to be at the center of the immigration political movement nationwide. He can't be selling sofas.”

Mayor Phil Gordon has tried to get the two sides together to talk about the issue, but neither side would agree.

“We really hoped that we could get this resolved before the holidays,” Gordon spokesman Scott Phelps said. “It's complex because everybody has rights. Pruitt's has a right to conduct business. People who want to protest and carry picket signs have a right to do that. And Phoenix police find themselves down there in increasing numbers to make sure no rules are violated to make sure that the peace is preserved.”

On a recent Saturday, protesters loaded the sidewalks and screamed at each other across the busy street. A few dozen police officers watched as cars whizzed by, some of the drivers honking or slowing down to yell encouragement out the window.

A man from the Hispanic side crossed the street with a megaphone and stood amid the American flags as bikers cursed him and made obscene gestures to his face. “We love you, God bless you,” the man said, pointing his megaphone into their faces.

Despite the original intent of Reza's protest, the dialogue on both sides quickly devolved into a general debate over illegal immigration.

“They're trying to re-conquer us,” said Rusty Childress, a Buick dealer, who stood with the bikers. “They want their land back. That's all pretty silly, but they're pretty serious about it.”

Childress, who founded the border security group United for a Sovereign America, said he will organize an “anti-rally” every time Reza shows up.

“We should be able to say who comes into our country, who gets to stay, and who gets to go,” Childress said. “Their opinion is that there's no such thing as an illegal human being. Well, their argument flies in the face of federal immigration law.”

Inside Pruitt's, the staff set out plates of chocolate-chip cookies and brownies for the customers who crossed through the protest to come in and look at furniture.

“It's crazy, isn't it?” co-owner Mike Sensing said of the protesters outside.

Sensing said the dustup with Reza's group began more than a year ago, when a nearby hardware store hired police to shoo away day laborers looking for work. Sensing said the workers spilled out from the hardware store's parking lot and started accosting customers at Pruitt's and other nearby businesses.

Pruitt's hired off-duty police officers to patrol the area, a move that angered Reza's organization. Reza said no day laborers ever walked onto Pruitt's parking lot. And the police officers were stopping people simply because they looked Hispanic, he said.

Reza's group protested Pruitt's last year. But the protests stopped when Sensing agreed to stop hiring the off-duty police. In return, Sensing said Reza promised to help organize a work center in the area for the day laborers.

The work center never materialized, Sensing said, and so he turned to the deputies.

The protests started again a few months ago, and Sensing said it has bewildered customers and cut into his business. His family has sold furniture there for 25 years, but Sensing said they're looking to move it to the suburbs.

“We've been a good anchor for the area, actually,” he said. “But if we don't get any help from the city, there's no point in us keeping up and trying to be viable here.”

Reza said he plans to hold one more protest on Saturday, then wait and see if Pruitt's changes its policies next year. If not, Reza said he'll bring his people back.

“Hopefully, he'll come to his senses and tell the sheriff it's not worth it,” Reza said.