One of the most alarming aspects of the recent debate over undocumented immigration is way that this serious national issue is being demagogued and turned into an engine for hate speech, hate crimes and recruitment by organizations like the KKK. Groups like the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center have done really fantastic work documenting this trend and showing dramatic increases in these crimes as well as the way that extremist rhetoric and ideas have infected the mainstream political and media discourse about immigration – we keep hearing about immigrants “swarming” over our border like vermin.
Locally here in the NY/NJ area we have the tragic story of the murder of Marcello Lucero that I saw a few days ago on CNN. According to the authorities the seven teens who allegedly killed Lucero proclaimed ”Let’s go find some Mexicans to f— up.” Racists again show themselves for what they are killing an Ecuadorian man because of their hatred of Mexicans.
The CNN story also connects this crime to the coarsening of the immigration debate on Long Island and the activities of anti-Immigrant activist and Suffolk Country Executive Steve Levy. I am frequently asked about Levy because he is incorrectly assumed to be Jewish. Notwithstanding his not actually being Jewish, his fixation on illegal immigration and scapegoating of the undocumented certainly feels out of step with my understanding of Jewish values and interests when it comes to immigration. As the New York Times wrote in November 2007, “He has attacked the symptoms of a broken federal immigration system — men crowding into illegally subdivided houses, looking for day jobs on sidewalks and in parking lots — with a zeal that strays into grandstanding. But his strategy is all about crackdowns, not actual solutions. “
So in light of the hate and the hate-mongering, let our thought and prayers be with Marcello Lucero and his family and friends here in the United States and in Ecuador, and let us fight against attempts to blame immigrants for the spectrum of problems that face our country. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is the cure for this disease. Finally, kudos to the American Jewish Committee Long Island Chapter for their statement and activism on this terrible case.
