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Immigrants Scapegoated as Economy Teeters

By Nastassja Hoffet, IPS News. Posted January 28, 2009.


Violence against immigrants is on the rise, fueled by hateful rhetoric and economic anxieties.
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NEW YORK, Jan 26 -- Things in Suffolk County on Long Island have gotten so bad lately that the U.S. Justice Department is launching an investigation into attacks on Latino residents, and may also examine whether local police agencies improperly handled several widely publicized incidents.

Some groups that monitor hate crimes in the United States see the problem as part of a broader pattern, driven by anti-immigrant rhetoric and extremist groups looking for a scapegoat as the economy continues to shed thousands of jobs.

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics, from 2003 to 2007, anti-Latino hate crimes increased by 40 percent. Altogether, slightly more than half of the 7,722 single-bias incidents reported to the FBI in 2006 were motivated by a racial bias, according to a survey by Human Rights First.

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks extremist groups in the United States, told IPS that "these murders are the combination of this dramatic rise in anti-Latino hate crimes and [increased] violence".

In separate incidents last November and December, two Ecuadorian men died in violent group assaults. Marcelo Lucero, 38, was stabbed to death on Nov. 8, and the following month, in Brooklyn, another Ecuadorian immigrant, 31-year-old Jose Sucuzhanay, was beaten to death by three men, who yelled anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs as he and his brother walked home. That crime remains unsolved.

In the Lucero case, one teenager has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter as a hate crime, and six others face multiple counts of gang assault and hate crimes.

While local police say they were unaware of tensions in the community, an investigation by the New York Times found a clear pattern of white youths preying on Latino residents for several years at least. One of those arrested told the authorities, "I don't go out doing this [assaulting apparent immigrants] very often -- maybe once a week."

Potok believes the economic crisis in the country is one several factors underlying such crimes, as well as the growth of more organised hate groups. The SPLC counted 602 hate groups in 2000 and 888 in 2007 -- a 49 percent rise.

"In the context of a highly polarised immigration debate, discrimination will increase and hate crimes continue," Donald Kerwin, vice director of programs at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told IPS. "Prominent media figures advocating discrimination against migrants will take the occasion to blame immigrants for the economic downturn, for the housing crisis."

Advocates note that many of these crimes go unreported because of a fear of the police and immigration authorities.

"Local police making Latinos and immigrants feel unwelcome in reporting crimes, local politicians speaking out against Latinos and immigrants contribute to the increased level of violence against Latinos and immigrants," Foster Maer, a senior attorney at Latino Justice, whose civil rights complaint against the Suffolk County police last November helped trigger the federal probe, told IPS.


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unfreeinus
Posted by: losingmyliberties on Jan 28, 2009 4:35 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Please get it right,immigrants apply for citizenship,illegals come here without approval!
Then expect citizens to be taxed more for bi-lingual services, and all other demands.
I don't blame them, as much as I do you for aiding them, and the people that hire them. Talk about discriminatory agenda, by placing them before legal citizen. That's how you keep devision alive and strong,champion ones rights over the other.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: unfreeinus Posted by: Quannah
» RE: unfreeinus Posted by: losingmyliberties
Not by accident
Posted by: AndiMedi on Jan 28, 2009 8:28 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We've seen a pattern over the last two decades: make legal immigration impossible for most people and difficult for everyone, then rail against the illegalities in a self-righteous tirade. Some, obviously, have let this tirade spill over to violence.

In America, you can say things about those you call "illegal" that you can't say about others. You can categorize them, paint them with the terrorist brush, label them a criminal element, a welfare queen, rapists, job stealers, any manner of things we used to call the Irish and blacks and ... but don't find acceptable to say (or feel, thank God) in America any more. These words have consequences that should hang around the necks of the anti-immigration set like an anvil.

If we had a legal immigration system that worked, where people could come with a visa and permission instead of with a smuggler in the dead of night, much of the underlying tool to marginalize immigrants would be erased: their "illegality."

If you want to end illegal immigration, you must sever all ties to the opponents of legal immigration who are leading the anti-immigration debate and using "illegal" immigrants as a target of opportunity.

As we see from this post, sometimes "target" is taken quite literally.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

These criminals who are committing these heinous acts...
Posted by: Quannah on Jan 29, 2009 12:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
are racists, pure and simple. They don't bother to find out if someone is here "legally" or not. They just see the color of their skin, hear them speaking another language, and they act on their racist beliefs.

Things are going to change dramatically under a new Justice Department. These are crimes that, under Bush, were not prosecuted, and, in fact, law enforcement looked the other way.

Only after loud outcries in communities have the animals that kill people, or viciously beat them, or maim them even had charges filed.

Assault and murder are also illegal. Regardless of the immigration status of the victim.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Let's get to the point
Posted by: faceinthecrowd on Jan 29, 2009 9:05 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
@ AndiMedi: That's simply false. There's a tried and true path to citizenship and quotas on *legal* immigration.
State/Federal Governments can plan for the effect of *legal* immigration. *Legal* immigration allows for proper budgeting and planning, avoiding deficits.

Illegal immigration does not allow for financial planning of any sort. Millions of illegals stream in, using up resources - schools, hospital emergency rooms, social safety nets, all are impossible to plan for, but must be paid for.

Fed/State governments spend all this stimulus money to create jobs for Legal Citizens, Legal Immigrants. Guess who's going to be getting the jobs as well - Illegal Aliens.

Don't give me "we need an easy path to citizenship". It's easy enough, and has been for generations.

We need to enforce our existing immigration laws, and let in those who follow them, remove those who do not.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Alternet your never going to get it right
Posted by: tapadance on Jan 31, 2009 5:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The people who die crossing the border illegally did not die due to 'abuse of their human rights' They died because they walked across a desert with no maps, not enough water and in street clothing.

And while several million people might move illegally to another country and send money home. Why not stay behind and worked to improved their own country.

Yes I feel sorry for victims of crime, no matter who they are. The last two paragraphs belong on the end of another article. About how the places where the money get sent out from start to fail.

Alternet tells us not to shop at Walmart because all the money they make is sent out of the community. But when illegal immigrants send all the money they make home it's saintly.

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