Minefield of Hatred: The Other Immigrant Killings

Yesterday, on the Mexican side of the border, a Texas border patrol agent killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, a 15-year-old from Ciudad Juarez, with a shot to the head. The evidence appears convincing: Witnesses separately confirmed that the boy was unarmed when shot. Videos taken of the crime and the ballistics trail on the scene also confirm this account.

Two weeks ago, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a 42-year-old father of five and undocumented Mexican, was killed, this time as a result of a beating from the California Border Patrol during his deportation process. The forensic analysis corroborates this.

It is hard to believe the timing between these two actions is a coincidence. These killings occurred just as the anti-immigration xenophobia of our neighbor manifested itself in law. Most alarming is that the tightening of rules that caused a scandal in Arizona not only has support from the majority of Americans, according to the polls, but also shows the manner in which the authorities are operating in three states that border Mexico.

The killings and the absurd laws that criminalize immigrants are expressions of a hatred cultivated for some time by various sectors in the United States. Guilty are those who have cruelly wanted to promote the idea that immigrants cause crime, and take jobs and public services from Americans. Republicans, some Democrats, media networks like Fox News, and conservative organizations like Minuteman and the Tea Party have promoted this hate crusade with impunity, but now there are consequences.

Clearly, the foreign secretary is lukewarm, as he merely “condemns” the killings or requests investigations, just as Barack Obama is not steadfastly behind reform that will protect immigrants. More importantly, they have not figured out how to press hard on social, economic, political and cultural factors that allow racists to make the shared border a minefield of hatred — a minefield that blew up yesterday.

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5 Comments

  1. Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens…that’s 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegals.

    The Government Accountability Office released a report on a study of 55,322 illegals in federal, state, and local jails during 2003. It found that…

    The 55,322 illegal aliens imprisoned were the result of 459,614 arrests…eight arrests per illegal.

    Their arrests were the result of roughly 700,000 criminal offenses…13 offenses per illegal alien.

    36 percent had been arrested at least five times before.

    All this is happening in my country, every day of every year, but you use the occasion of 1 punk trying to bash in the head of one of our border patrol agents with a rock, who subsequently was shot for his assault, to try and somehow seize the moral high ground?

    If anything, it exemplifies the very reasons why America must take control of it’s southern border & enforce it’s immigration laws…in part, to stop the continuing murders of our own citizens, but also to avoid the inevitable violent retaliation against the southern invaders.

  2. The above poster is voicing a despicable point of view and I would like the people of Mexico to know that we are not all like this. We do not condone the shooting of children.

  3. Dolmance, if you’re old enough to try and kill, you’re old enough to accept the consequences.

    And am I to understand you condone the murder of thousands of Americans every year?…murders that could have been prevented with proper border control?

    Seems a tad hypocritical to me…I see no reason why you should be able to condone who it’s ok to kill, and who it’s not.

  4. Scortch – I saw the tape and the distance that rock was thrown. And if every boy who ever threw a rock at somebody was shot, there wouldn’t be a boy left on the planet. But continue your disgusting racist rant and see where it ultimately gets the party that I’m sure you love with all your heart. See where that sort of hate speech got the GOP in California, magnified all over the nation. Ugh.

  5. Dolmance, I have never thrown a rock at a police officer, and certainly never a police officer while he was attempting to do his job…in fact, I’ve never thrown a rock at anybody, so your ascertain that there “wouldn’t be a boy left on the planet” does not hold up.

    And it just so happens, I’m a Democrat, entirely in favor of single-payer health insurance & eliminating, utilization of fossil fuels for energy, AND…equal opportunity laws.

    Had this been an illegal Russian, as white as the driven snow, throwing rocks at our police officers & violating our borders, I would feel no different.

    We are a sovereign nation, with the absolute right to control who is allowed to enter our country, and the right to control our population. While the leadership of the Democratic party is not in lock-step with the majority of the party on this issue (and very probably being paid off for it), I assure you, most Democrats want our borders secured.

    Has it not occurred to you that the mass-invasion of illegal workers into our country is being orchestrated by wealthy corporate interests, with the ultimate goal being to increase our pool of workers to the point where workers are plentiful, and thus cheap?…we see this in places that already have population problems, like India & China.

    I see this invasion as nothing less than the continuing assault of the wealthy classes on the middle class, with the end goal being the destruction of the middle class along with any political power it may still possess…and I will fight to stop them.

    You, on the other hand, seem to be trying to help them accomplish this goal.

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