Don’t Treat Immigrants Like Criminals, Part II
I received an email from a former client today, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. She was coming back from the Bahamas with her U.S. citizen husband over the weekend, and was interrogated at secondary inspection at the airport. According to her, she was treated disrespectfully, so she told the inspector that she did not appreciate being treated like a criminal, to which he responded: “Most immigrants are criminals-that’s why we treat you that way.” Besides being appalling, this statement is plain wrong. Immigrants commit crimes at rates lower than the general population. This has been proven in study after study. Anti-immigrant nuts like Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs and the idiots who listen to them continue to perpetuate the myth that immigrant crime is rampant in order to garner support for their scapegoating. However, the negative tone is established at the highest levels of government. As I mentioned in my last post, immigrant detainees are often treated in an identical manner to criminal detainees. This practice needs to change, or else this attitude will continue to trickle down to the lowest level officials in our government.
Tags: Bill O'Reilly, criminal, immigrant, immigrant detainees, lawful permanent resident, Lou Dobbs, U.S. citizen
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