We don't know too much about the shooting that happened earlier today in Binghamton, NY, where one or more gunmen fired into an immigrant and refugee services association, killing at least ten. One can theorize, however, that when the US becomes a place where major media figures like Lou Dobbs and major political figures like Tom Tancredo and others in the Republican Party spew anti-immigrant vitriol (and in Dobbs's case, lionize government agents who shoot undocumented immigrants), you're bound to have some (already unbalanced) people act on that anger.
I'm not saying that people who make reasoned anti-immigration arguments are at fault, or that there's a direct connection between anti-immigrant rhetoric and this terrible tragedy... but take a look at how the right characterizes immigrants:
As FAIR has noted in the past, Dobbs' tone on immigration is consistently alarmist; he warns his viewers (3/31/06) of Mexican immigrants who see themselves as an "army of invaders" intent upon reannexing parts of the Southwestern U.S. to Mexico, announces (11/19/03) that "illegal alien smugglers and drug traffickers are on the verge of ruining some of our national treasures," and declares (4/14/05) that "the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans" through "deadly imports" of diseases like leprosy and malaria.
In a culture where this passes for reasonable discourse, tragedies like today's are bound to happen.
UPDATE: Jumping the Gun
1 comment:
Not sure what connection you are drawing here. On the one hand you say that there is no direct connection between the far right and today's incident. On the other hand you say things like today's events are bound to happen. These anti-immigrant elements exist in every country (in some cases much more so than in the US). I think it goes a little far to say that psychopathic killers are inspired by the anti-immigrant forces on the right.
I can't say I really follow or know much about the beliefs of those you criticize, but as an average observer, I can see how some can be enraged by US immigration policy (or lack thereof). We need a system that is in some way reflective of the times we live in: goods, services, etc. travel freely across borders, why not people? Why do we have an insane policy that allows people to come to the US solely for the purpose of having a baby to get citizenship and green cards for the family? These are only a few of the problems. I think Americans as well as immigrants have serious, legitimate gripes with US immigration policy and it tends to get heated, especially with the economy sucking so bad and people losing their jobs.
In any event, I do not see the relationship that you draw in your original post.
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