In the U.S., it’s open season on immigrants.

Mexico

Editorial

La Jornada

Mexican-bashing is a new American sport, said La Jornada. “Intimidation, threats, insults, beatings, and even kidnappings” of undocumented workers are becoming more and more frequent. Shacks where day laborers gather to await employers have been set on fire. And these crimes aren’t just the work of racist yahoos. The police have joined in, too. In Los Angeles just a few weeks ago, riot police tear-gassed a peaceful crowd of Hispanic demonstrators, beating them “with a singular and inexplicable violence.” This institutional oppression is the direct result of “Washington’s deliberate policy of criminalizing immigrants.” The Bush administration has given the Border Patrol carte blanche to shoot Mexicans on sight. The right-wing media has waged an “aggressive media campaign against immigrants,” blaming them for all manner of ills in American society. Evidently the Bush administration sees migration as a matter of homeland security—and Mexicans as a threat akin to terrorists.

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