Although this in itself is noteworthy, what is even more significant are the comments posted to stories run in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News regarding this issue. The bitter, vitriolic, virulent nature of the comments shocked TMB reviewers despite years of dealing with this issue.
Commenter Santiago wrote:
The "message should be: GO HOME! We are SICK of your freeloading!Commenter Bajarat wrote:
These illegal alien savages should only be counted as they get on a CBP bus headed to the airport or the border so we know how many green baloney sandwiches need to be ordered . . . . Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all . . . . They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again.Commenter Chaunte wrote:
. . . I loathe illegal immigrants . . . .Commenter EscapedfromZion wrote:
I agree, the only reason they need to be counted is to figure out how many bologna sandwiches they will need to provide for the bus ride back to their precious May-hee-co.Commenter Listen up wrote:
What is it going to take to finally have enough and boot these leeches out of the country.Perhaps commenter Bajarat was unfamiliar with the reference, but the term "extreme prejudice" means to kill, to assasinate. With the recent shooting at the National Holocaust museum in recent memory, a shooting that was the result of racist hatred, to have that term appear in one of these postings is troubling indeed.
To read the Salt Lake Tribune story, click here.
To read the Deseret News story, click here.
Frankly, I find these kinds of comments terrifying, and can't help but think that the people making them don't know what they are talking about. They just get their spiteful information from each other and refuse to actually study the issue for themselves. To them, all illegal immigrants are drug trafficking, gang members, lazy, dirty individuals who were too slothful to make it in their own country. It's impossible to make them see it any other way. Then their speech just gathers nasty momentum as they feed off one another. They feel threatened, perhaps because they are afraid of becoming the outsider. I don't know. Maybe they just don't like mariachi or Arabic pop.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I can't help but think that I would feel safer in a neighborhood with illegal immigrants tying to make a life for themselves and their families (whether in the US with them or abroad), than in a neighborhood full of spiteful, scared, territorial, and ill-informed individuals of my same citizenship.