Thread: Immigrant's beating death exposes tensions in Pa.

Jul 18, 2:12 PM EDT


Immigrant's beating death exposes tensions in Pa.

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer
SHENANDOAH, Pa. (AP) -- Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

Hate crime or not, the killing has exposed long-simmering tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia that has a growing number of Hispanic residents drawn by jobs in factories and farm fields.

An investigation continues, and no charges have yet been filed, but police say as many as six teens were involved in the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. He died early Monday of head injuries.

Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up here, said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including "dirty Mexican," and told to return to his homeland.

"People in this town are very racist toward Hispanic people. They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good," said Dillman, who has two young children by Ramirez and a 3-year-old who thought of him as her father.

On Dillman's fireplace mantel hangs a medallion of Jesus that Ramirez was wearing the night he was beaten. Ramirez had an imprint of the medallion on his chest, marking where an assailant stomped on him, she said.

Police Chief Matthew Nestor acknowledged there have been problems as the community - the birthplace of big band musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and home of Mrs. T's Pierogies - has tried to adjust to an influx of Hispanics, who now comprise as much as 10 percent of the population.

Teenagers have sprayed racially tinged graffiti and yelled racial slurs at the newcomers, he said.

"Things are definitely not the way they used to be even 10 years ago. Things have changed here radically," Nestor said. "Some people could adapt to the changes and some just have a difficult time doing it. ... Yeah, there is tension at times. You can't deny that."

Police are still interviewing suspects and witnesses. Preliminarily, though, they have determined that Ramirez, who worked in a factory and picked strawberries and cherries, got into an argument with a group of youths that escalated into a fight in which he was badly outnumbered.

"From what we understand right now, it wasn't racially motivated," Nestor said. "This looks like a street fight that went wrong."

Retired Philadelphia police Officer Eileen Burke, who lives on the street where the fight occurred, told The Associated Press she heard a youth scream at one of Ramirez's friends after the beating to tell her Mexican friends to get out of Shenandoah, "or you're going to be laying next to him."

Shenandoah Valley High School principal Phillip Andras said he knew little about the alleged involvement of any football players. A call by the AP to the athletic director was referred back to the principal.

But the players' possible involvement has added to interest in the case. Football, along with the town's many block parties and festivals, is a major attraction; home games typically draw thousands of fans.

Arielle Garcia and her husband, who were with Ramirez when he was beaten late Saturday, said they had dropped their friend off at a park but returned when he called to say he had gotten into a fight.

She saw someone kick Ramirez in the head, she said, and "that's when he started shaking and foaming out of the mouth."

The Garcias said they heard the youths call Ramirez "stupid Mexican" and an ethnic slur.

Burke, the former Philadelphia officer, said she saw shirtless youths swarming around Ramirez, called 911 and went outside, when she heard a youth yell obscenities and make the get-out-of-Shenandoah remark.

Despite the witness statements, Borough Manager Joseph Palubinsky said he doesn't believe Ramirez's ethnicity was what prompted the fight: "I have reason to know the kids who were involved, the families who were involved, and I've never known them to harbor this type of feeling."

(This version CORRECTS the gender of the friend in the 14th paragraph, beginning "Retired Philadelphia ...".)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ ... TE=DEFAULT

Shenandoah is not far from Hazleton, PA.

Originally Posted by SeaTurtle

Shenandoah is not far from Hazleton, PA.

I'm not for hurting people at all. If the police and government did their jobs, this wouldn't happen. No one in these times especially, wants their jobs taken by illegals and the political environment is enough to push Americans over the edge. I bet some PA illegals will go home after this. I would...

ICE do your job!

Get illegals out of this country..... Poor Americans have been so patience for the government to do their job and enforce immigration laws.

And believe me Americans have and are paying the prices daily for illegals, here.

The mental damage it has done to Americans being in a constant fight with illegals on a personal level are not and will not be recognized by the United States Government

I pray Americans will fight with voting, and not give into the boiling points amongst many Americans.

The fight is so hard, but the word is stronger in the long run. Have these young Americans via their schools been able to voice their pains due to illegal aliens, here

I'm not for hurting people either but it still angers me they title this "immigrant" when he was ILLEGAL. There's a difference. A big difference. Immigrants, legal ones come in small doses to allow for adaptation. This has been invasion by massive numbers of ILLEGALS and frankly, their impact in the towns they come into are not all good and people have had it. Enough already.

"People in this town are very racist toward Hispanic people. They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good," said Dillman, who has two young children by Ramirez and a 3-year-old who thought of him as her father.

Right, like hispanics aren't racist too? He WAS an illegal alien. Why in hell would he get into a fight if he needed to keep a low profile?

I don't condone anyone getting beaten to death or beaten at all, but I DO like to know both sides of a story and this is not it.

If this was racially motivated, how come he's the first? What did he do to provoke 6 guys to spazz and do something like this in plain sight?

"Things are definitely not the way they used to be even 10 years ago. Things have changed here radically," Nestor said. "Some people could adapt to the changes and some just have a difficult time doing it. ... Yeah, there is tension at times. You can't deny that."

You don't change a town practically overnight and expect the people who have built it to handle a takeover without some problems. Especially when the new-commers aren't trying to fit in, they're trying to change it.

Great, just great, more fuel to add to the open-border/pro-illegal alien Mexican camp. None of this would happen if our borders were secured and the idiot employers in the Shenandoah area refrained from hiring illegal aliens in the factories and fields. REsentment is bound to occur in depressed areas when the illegal aliens and their ethno-centric, race-baiting advocates start coming in to town and causing all kinds of social, economic and criminal upheaval. Violence isn't the answer...the solution is simple....ALL citizens need to report all suspected illegal aliens and their employers to ICE via 1-866-DHS-2ICE, local law enforcement needs to cooperate more fully with ICE in identifying criminal illegal aliens AND businesses and individuals need to stop EMPLOYING illegal aliens. VOTERS need to vote out any elected official who has supported laws and policies that encourage the hiring/harboring/aiding/abetting of illegal aliens.

I'm in complete agreement that no one deserves to be beaten, let alone to death.

But, I'm afraid that we are going to see more and more of this as American citizens are forced to watch their communities being literally taken over by illegal aliens who not only steal their jobs but bring with them the Third World culture that is destroying one community after another.

Americans have just had enough.....plain and simple....of being made to feel like the unwelcome and unwanted parties in their own homes.

This colonization has GOT to stop

This is so sad.

NO ONE deserves to die this way and I don't care what color your skin is.

Unfortunately, I think we may start hearing more and more of this. As a matter of fact, Im shocked the media wasn't all over this one since it is an illegal that got killed. I would not be surprised if this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as some sort of a race war brewing due to our incompentent govt not enforcing our laws. Our laws are what they are for a good reason, and if they were kept, this situation would be a rarity. Instead it heading for being the norm. People are seeing more and more this as being an invasion that extends well beyond just "immigration".