Hot rhetoric fuels Latino hate crimes
Commentary By Raul Reyes

Seven teenagers have been charged in the tragic death last month of Marcelo Lucero, a 38-year-old immigrant who worked at a dry cleaner. Police say Lucero was on his way to a friend's house in Patchogue, N.Y., when a gang of drunken high schoolers out to jump "a Mexican" surrounded him. Lucero was attacked and then fatally stabbed in the chest.

I suppose it doesn't matter that Patchogue is a comfortable, relatively crime-free suburb on Long Island. Or that Lucero wasn't even Mexican; he was from Ecuador. The sad truth is that Lucero's death is part of a national trend of violence against Latinos. According to new statistics from the FBI, we are the No. 1 target of hate crimes motivated by ethnicity or national origin. In 2007, 62% of such victims were Hispanic.

Yet these statistics might not show the full picture. A 2005 Justice Department report asserted that the actual number of hate crimes exceeded the FBI's numbers.The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, confirms that many hate crimes are not reported. Many illegal immigrants, no doubt fearing deportation, would be reluctant to contact law enforcement.

The Patchogue killing reminds me of an incident this summer in Shenandoah, Pa., in which four teens were charged in the death of an illegal Mexican immigrant.

What do these two communities have in common? An increase in the Latino population and a corresponding rise in anti-immigrant sentiments.

Today, the national anti-immigration fervor has subsided as the economy has cooled, but it's fair to assume that some violence against Latinos is a byproduct of the xenophobic debate of previous years. Hate crimes directed at Latinos rose 40% during the past four years — a time frame that roughly corresponds to the failure of attempts at comprehensive reform. Some politicians and activists who oppose illegal immigration often have engaged in or encouraged anti-Hispanic rhetoric. They don't seem to realize that inflammatory language can incite inflammatory acts.

It saddens and angers me that Latinos must still live with the threat of violence simply because of their ethnicity. I am worried, too, that in these tough economic times, fear and anxiety will be directed at the wrong targets. Hate speech can hurt, and sometimes kill.

If and when this country revisits the immigration issue under an Obama administration, we should engage in a debate that is good for all of us — rather than one that vilifies and endangers some of us.

Raul Reyes is an attorney in New York and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

Posted at 12:16 AM/ET, December 05, 2008 in Forum commentary, Race Issues/Civil rights - Forum | Permalink
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Comments: (5)Showing: Newest first Oldest first

jgalt wrote: 8h 39m ago
"...reminds me of an incident..."

It doesn't evoke any FACTS though!

Hispanics, ESPECIALLY illegals, commit WILDLY disproportionate violent crime against non-hispanic whites/asians.

"It saddens and angers me..."

Not that Hispanics are violently attacking others...

but that being illegal is stigmatizing.

Not under Obama, Reyes hopes


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Sandy Eggo wrote: 8h 7m ago

Our country is being invaded by millions of illegal aliens, most of them are Latino/ Hispanic/Mexican. So I wonder what the problem is here and who's fault it really s.


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stubbyjr wrote: 6h 39m ago
Geez why doesn't USA today bring up that there are over 1000 Americans killed by illegal aliens every year. That includes traffic accidents and crimes. That is what is driving this hatred of some Hispanics. Until we solve this slaughter of the Americans by illegals it will be hard to stop the bigoted responses of the racist few.


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triple B wrote: 6h 6m ago
Mr Reyes

I agree that the aforementioned hate crimes were wrong and can't be condoned. However, I wish that you and the other ethnic apologists would also condemn the wrongs done by illegal (oops, undocumented) unassimilated aliens. The situation that "vilifies and endangers some of us" is a two-edged sword, so try to be fair.


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Analog Kid wrote: 2h 2m ago
Raul, careful with your stats, man. I used to work for a major metropolitan police department in the research bureau. The chief at that time, a Latino, directed all patrol officers, when filling out crime reports, to always define any crime a hate crime unless they could prove that it was not. Not exactly valid information.


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