Immigration Reform: Is the Hate Train Coming to Town?

Bill Pershing on Capitol Briefing discusses the immigration reform proposal intoduced by Rep. Luis Gutierrez yesterday, which Bill Hing blogged about.  I guess that I should not be surprised, but I am, by the mean-spritedness that quickly rises to the surface when the issue of immigration reform is raised.  Here is one of the comments to Pershing's straightforward story about the bill, its introduction, and the political background:

"My great grand parents came here from italy, took nothing, learned english on their own and were successful. How dare these illegal immigrant lawmakers demand anything from us, they get plenty of handouts for their teen age mothers bearing anchor babies (future voters)and we have to spend our money to teach them english. I feel very sorry for my unborn great grandkids, I guess I need to start saving now so they have enough money to learn to speak spanish someday because there will be no more handouts left. And the CBC is on their side? We have two third world countries against one first world country now." (emphasis added).

Yesterday, federal hate crime charges were filed against the teens who allegedly killed, along with police who allegedly covered it up, Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA.  When will people see the relationship between the mean-spiritedness against Latinos and immigrants in the immigration debate and the rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years?

KJ