Immigration gives rise to hate groups

By JOSE DE LA ISLA

HISPANIC LINK

HOUSTON — Presidential candidate John McCain has made a stunning revelation. He told an audience at the Aspen Institute in Colorado he has received death threats stemming from his immigration proposals.

“I have never seen an issue that has inflamed the passions of the American people the way the issue of immigration reform has,” the Republican senator from Arizona said. Not even the war in Iraq has done that, he commented. “We have never received death threats before like I received.”

McCain backed — but no longer does — sweeping immigration reform. His plan included a temporary worker program and a path for undocumented immigrants to become legal residents.

About the same time McCain disclosed in Colorado what was happening to him, the Southern Poverty Law Center was compelled to release something even more jarring.

The SPLC obtained a video that purports to show a vigilante murdering a Mexican immigrant. The center has yet to authenticate it. But the center says it is “strikingly similar” to an earlier video from the previous week showing an individual yelling threats and firing a shotgun at migrants crossing the border. Those of us concerned about incidents like these note the pattern. Confrontations and displays of violence are becoming commonplace.

They are manifestations of a growing belligerence. In no small way, hate groups are making inroads.

In July, Morristown, N.J., police arrested five people in two separate fights between anti-immigration groups and counter-demonstrators.

In one Web posting, a man directed Minutemen on how to use chemical agents at immigration protests, according to Michael Marcotte of San Diego’s KPBS-TV.

In Tucson, Ariz., a man is reported by the Poverty Center to have brandished “insults and a gun” routinely and threatened Latinos. Elsewhere, KKK franchises are embracing the new hate.

What matters here is that a permissive climate is being fostered without a public outcry that could help counter the hate speech like rain on a forest fire.

What does it take to alarm the average citizen?

The current presidential-election environment is helping dumb down what’s really at stake.

Cold War

Immigration, especially from Latin America, is allowed to play in the public’s mind like the worst days of the Cold War.

Consider the irrelevant barbs exchanged between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani about whether New York was a “sanctuary” city for undocumented immigrants during his tenure. (It was never declared a “sanctuary” city, while Massachusetts does have a few.)

It is baiting like this that contributes to present public attitudes. Now add the yahoos whose threats and acts of violence are penetrating the immigration issue.

Someone needs to explain to the public that the extremists are taking advantage of our national frustration over congressional inaction on the matter. We’re becoming burdened with politicians who are incapable of dealing with a simple administrative matter between friendly nations. These politicians include presidential candidates, who claim they will stand up to international terrorism. They are dithering.

If anyone thinks this is exaggerated, just ask McCain about the lunatic fringe trying to shape the immigration debate.

X Jose de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power,” writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service.