Violence against
Immigrants Builds
By Roberto Lovato
New York: As cities and towns across
the country watched the immigrant rights marches
last week, some saw a spike in violent attacks targeting
immigrants. In separate incidents, authorities arrested
groups and individuals caught stockpiling grenades,
semi-automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of
ammunition in preparation for attack on immigrants.
Immigrant rights advocates say the series of incidents
and reports indicates what they are calling a very
dangerous trend that they believe is fueled by the
anti-immigrant climate.
In addition to the well-reported incidents involving
police violence against immigrants in Los Angeles,
last week’s less publicized incidents and
reports involving actual and potential violence
against immigrants and their supporters included:
• The arrest and indictment of six members
of the Alabama Free Militia who, according to federal
authorities, were allegedly preparing to attack
Mexican immigrants near Birmingham, Ala. with grenades,
semi-automatic weapons and 2,500 rounds of ammunition
confiscated during a recent raid by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
• Washington, DC, area police arrested Tyler
J. Froatz Jr., a 24-year-old man wielding a gun
as he allegedly attacked marchers at a local immigration
rally last Tuesday. US Park police say Froatz had
two knives, a hammer, a flare gun, a taser stun
gun and pepper spray when they captured him. A subsequent
police search of Froatz’s apartment yielded
15 guns, a Molotov cocktail, a grenade and more
than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, according to authorities.
• An early morning fire last Thursday at Casa
de Maryland, a day-labor center near Gaithersburg,
Md. was declared an arson incident by Montgomery
County fire investigators. Representatives of Casa
de Maryland, which received regular hate phone calls
and emails prior to the incident, were reported
in The Washington Post as calling the incident a
hate crime and a “natural consequence to the
ongoing debate over immigration.” County executive
Isaiah Leggett called it “shameful and despicable.”
Each of these incidents represents an alarming development
in and of themselves. But together, advocates like
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition
for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, say
they represent a potentially catastrophic turn in
the already heated politics of immigration. “This
is very dangerous and deeply troubling – but
not a surprise,” says Salas, whose organization
has documented an increase in hate crimes in the
Los Angeles area. “These crimes are not just
happening because of the organized hate groups,”
adds Salas. “It’s also happening because
of the (anti-immigrant) climate created by irresponsible
politicians and media personalities like Lou Dobbs
who use their bully pulpits… against a specific
population. This gives the green light to every
crazy to do physical harm to immigrants as if it’s
their civic duty.”
She and other immigrant leaders fear that the lack
of official condemnation of, and the lack of media
attention to, these violent attacks against immigrants
has created a national numbness to threats to immigrant
life.
With the exception of the LAPD violence, little
attention has been paid to the other incidents across
the country, outside of a few local stories (in
Los Angeles, Washington, Maryland and Birmingham)
and a few Spanish and other foreign language reports.
And, with the exception of condemnations of the
police incident by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
and Congresswoman Hilda Solis and other elected
officials, no single politician of national stature
or presidential candidate has said anything about
what some analysts say is the exponential growth
of violence against immigrants. A report released
last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which
tracks hate groups and hate crimes, found that,
"The last two years have seen the birth of
at least 144 'nativist extremist' groups -- organizations
that do not merely target immigration policies they
don't agree with, but instead confront or harass
individual immigrants."
Commenting on what she considers the dangerous inversion
of values behind the attacks, Salas said, “Because
it’s immigrants being threatened and targeted
with violence, this is not a big story. It’s
only a story for immigrants.” - New America
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