Sunday, July 20, 2008


Enforce the Rule of Law.....It's getting ugly out there.
Hate crime against Hispanics has been rising at top levels.!!!!!!!!.





We see too often Hispanic leaders, Immigration advocates and Hispanics has been receiving a Death Threats, hate mail, do to their position and support on Comprehensive Immigration reform.

For North Carolina's Hispanic leaders, the biggest hazards of the job were once long hours. Now, they include death threats.
A pair of the state's most prominent advocates, Andrea Bazán and Tony Asion, say that for the past several months, each time they have spoken publicly, they have gotten a raft of profanity-laced messages, some of them exhorting them to return to their home countries and others denigrating Hispanics. Several legislators say they have also gotten messages recently that cross the line into racism, and one got a menacing voice mail.


Threats of violence are becoming common enough that Bazán, president of the philanthropic Triangle Community Foundation, has requested protection at some public appearances. Asion, director of the Raleigh Hispanic advocacy group El Pueblo and a former police officer, said he has received two handwritten death threats at his office since May.

This is not about immigration," Bazán said. "This is not about debating policy. This has moved on to another sphere. This is hate."

Bazán and others say they've gotten disturbing hate mail before. A 2005 effort to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants brought reams of it, but that furor died down fairly quickly. Now, they say, threats and racist messages are becoming routine.

State legislators who supported a bill this year that would have guaranteed illegal immigrants the right to attend state colleges got a raft of messages, some of which smeared immigrants.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat who sponsored the bill, said she received one phone message warning that "my days are numbered." She said the message, which included profane insults, felt like a threat.

"I have not seen anything like what illegal immigration elicits," Harrison said. "It's revealing a very ugly side of humanity that I've never seen before."

Beyond the crackdown

Immigration has become an especially controversial subject in North Carolina and across the nation, fueled by the failure of a federal immigration reform bill last year.

Since then, sheriff's departments have started enforcing immigration law, the state's community colleges have barred admission to illegal immigrants, grassroots groups opposing illegal immigration have grown and some politicians have made an immigration crackdown the centerpiece of their campaigns.

Even those who have advocated a crackdown say they don't condone hate mail or threats.

"Certainly, any kind of threatening or antagonistic tone to any debate is unwarranted," said Brian Nick, spokesman for Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who has joined with sheriffs to push for the deportation of illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
But some say anti-illegal immigration activists have given the impression that Hispanics are to blame for all of society's ills, including crime, illness and unemployment.

Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, a New York group founded in 1913 to combat prejudice against Jews, said the ideas and language that have come to define the debate could fuel fringe groups.

"When you describe immigrants as Third World invaders or murderers, or say that they are swarming or coming in hordes, this is dehumanizing language," Lauter said. "That kind of rhetoric inspires others who might act out on hate."

William Gheen, a Raleigh man who has built a grassroots organization to oppose illegal immigration, often accuses Hispanic immigrants of carrying deadly diseases, raping and murdering Americans, plotting to merge the American and Mexican economies, or even reconquer parts of the Southwest for Mexico. He organizes e-mail campaigns against those he doesn't agree with.

Gheen said he does not condone violence or racism and has never made threats, and he dismissed claims that groups such as his could spark threats. "The only violence I'm seeing are the dead, maimed and raped Americans ... that are victims of illegal aliens," Gheen said.
However, other anti-illegal immigration activists say the movement has developed an ugly side.

"Something has gotten distorted, and it's creating a lot of hate," said Jim Gilchrist, the Southern California founder of the Minuteman Project, which organizes citizen patrols of the Mexican border.

Gilchrist said there are extremists on both sides of the issue and that he has received threatening messages from people on the pro-immigrant side of the debate. But lately, he said, he gets more hate mail from people on his side of the issue. He said groups are now fighting among themselves, and some have adopted messages that he considers racist.

Gilchrist said one California Minuteman chapter made a fake video depicting its members shooting a Mexican crossing the border illegally.

Blogs as soapboxes

Bazán said that in the past few months, she has gotten several nasty calls at home and has been the subject of violent talk on blogs, where she was referred to as a target.

The talk frightened her enough that she sent her children to stay with her ex-husband and stayed away from home for several days in June, when it was announced that she was the new board chairwoman of the well-known Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza.

On the day of the announcement, a person commenting on one blog about her new post commanded others to "buy guns" and referred to Hispanic immigrants as "monkeys." "The time is coming to fight back and yes many will die in this fight," the comment read.

Bazán said she has met with Durham police to make them aware of the threats.

When she speaks publicly, a guard often protects her. She had a full-time private guard last week at a La Raza convention in San Diego.

Bazán, along with some other Hispanic advocates, said they have begun reporting messages they consider hateful to the state Human Relations Commission.

G.I. Allison, director of the commission, which was formed to ensure equal opportunity in housing and other areas, said he receives regular complaints of hate messages and threats against Hispanics. The commission recorded 38 hate incidents in the first half of this year, but it doesn't track how many are against Hispanics.

Asion said he frequently receives messages that he considers racist, but the recent death threats were the most troubling.

The author claims to be watching Asion, threatens bombings and dismemberment, invokes the Ku Klux Klan and commands Asion to "go home Mexico."

Asion said he hasn't gone to police because there is little they can do. But he said he now fears for his staff members.

"I tell my folks, if you get a box and it doesn't have a return address, you don't know where it's from, don't open it," Asion said. "These are the times that we're living through."

2 comments:

hirize said...

Speaking of a Spin Lauter said:

"When you describe {ILLEGAL} immigrants as Third World invaders or murderers, or say that they are swarming or coming in hordes, this is dehumanizing language," Lauter said. "That kind of rhetoric inspires others who might act out on hate."

And I guess you kind of rhetoric encouraging lawlessness does NOT inspire others who might act out on hate huh Lauter?
How convenient, you leave the key word "ILLEGAL" out of the first sentence you write. Humm, wonder why? Is it because there is no difference between "Illegal immigrants" and just "immigrants"? No I think not. One is a criminal and the other is not. What makes you completely and laughably wrong is you argue a case where there is no argument. The rule of law is what it is and neither you nor anyone else can pick and choose which laws should be ignored and which should be enforced. Illegal immigrants are indeed invaders of our sovereign borders and do indeed rape, murder and kill a number of innocent citizens every day of every week of every month of every year. And for what...because people like you want to make an exception to the rule of law and allow these criminals to be rewarded at the expense of innocent victims. Hypocrisy explodes in your comment about "DEHUMANIZING LANGUAGE". Until you have visited a few crime scenes and seen some of the innocent victims that have been subjected to the outrageous "DEHUMANIZING TREATMENT" these criminal thugs have inflicted, you need to keep your mouth shut. As far as I'm concerned the blood of every innocent victim in on your hands and the hands of those like you who have assisted in creating the means for these horrific criminal assaults to be committed at all. I'd venture to say that if you or any member of your family were victimized by one of these criminals invaders you would be the first to scream about the INJUSTICE of it all.
As far as William Gheen is concerned, he speaks the cold hard truth and seeks only the enforcement of the law which is apparently contrary to what you seek. I am a proud member of his "grassroots" organization and I can tell you his efforts have no doubt keep many citizens across this state and country from being victimized no thanks to you. You can attempt to smear him all you want but, again, your comments are lunacy and nothing less than a smoke screen to attempt to legitimize your wish to throw the rule of law out the window. He is a patriot putting forth an effort to stop lawlessness in the face of a legislature that refuses to enforce the law and for that my hat is off to him. Don't expect lawful people to step out of your way and allow you to trash the rule of law at your bidding without holding you accountable for it. In the strict sense of the law if you give aid and assistance to criminals you are by law a criminal yourself so remember that, not that it matters to you. When you speak of hate filled rhetoric you had better examine your own and not complain about the state of our house until you have made sense of yours.

Pro Immigrant said...

Hi Hirize,
My short response to you and it will not be in any way political correctness.
You are a person with a Blind eye and narrow minded member of this Society.
Is it ok if I break our laws by robbing a bank if I do good with the money and help someone?
With the economy the way it is now, people can't afford the prices of a home today. Thats why there are so many foreclosures. Double or tripple the price of a home and watch it set there for sale worse than the market is seeing now. Construction industry isn't hurting because of undocumented immigrants taking jobs, it's the economy hurting the industry. Wake up Hirize and look around you. Stop pointing fingers and figure out where you CAN cut costs and stop blaming someone or something else for your problems!

Undocumented and legal immigrants have been such an easy target with all the immigration debate that its almost a natural "crutch" if you will, to stand on now days. If you didn't have them to blame lack of business, crime, disease on it would be something else, never any fault of your own! To top it off, this election year you have two candidates that have stated they support some kind of immigration reform. Who will you vote for? The one that supports immigration reform or the other one that supports immigration reform?
So you should set yoour mind for changes and being able to receive a constructive positive criticism.
Demoninizing undocumented Immigrants won't make you an exception of the rule of Racist.
And for Willian Gheen is a waste of time for me. I do not see on him and his orgazanition any Human values, Family Values, respect and dignity for the Human being.

God bless America