When it comes to immigration, some don't bother to hide racism

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/544662,CST-NWS-brown06.article

Sympathy for illegals? Forget it

When it comes to immigration, some don't bother to hide racism

September 6, 2000
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

Not surprisingly, I've been getting a lot of letters like this one that arrived Thursday:

"There is no compromise to the immigration "issue." They all must go. There is no issue. Illegal is illegal is illegal."

Luckily, I don't get as many like this one:

"The LATRINOS and the rest of the MUDS (Somalians, Hmong, etc. ) are a scourge, and must be eradicated from US soil. . . . What kind of mental defective hired a treacherous retardate like YOU? YOU leave this Nation. YOU don't deserve your American Citizenship. YOU are just as vile, and inferior, as the Mexcriment scum."

The first was unsigned, as is typically the case. The second is purportedly from a Ciaran Palmer of Bethlehem, Pa.

I would not normally think Ciaran Palmer's words fit for a newspaper, but part of me finds it worthwhile to put the ugly stuff on display as a reminder of some of the forces at work on this issue.

I do not think it makes you a racist if you take a hard-line position on illegal immigration. I may think it makes you short-sighted, uncharitable, misguided and a few other things, but not racist. But as my mail would suggest, the hardliners are certainly on the same side as the racists. snip

Some people don't bother to hide the attitude.

A guy who identifies himself as Victor Gerhard writes: "I certainly don't want 12 million illegal immigrants deported. . . . I want every single person of Hispanic ancestry deported, permanently, from our formerly White, clean country. Since you love them so much, you can go with them."