Immigrant's Beating Death Exposes Tensions in Pa.

Source: ABC News

Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

Hate crime or not, the killing has exposed long-simmering tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia that has a growing number of Hispanic residents drawn by jobs in factories and farm fields.

An investigation continues, and no charges have yet been filed, but police say as many as six teens were involved in the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. He died early Monday of head injuries.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=5404075

---

In this photo provided Crystal Dillman, Luis Ramirez lies in his hospital bed hours before his death at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.. Ramirez, 25, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, died Monday, July 14, 2008 from injuries he received in a beating in Shenandoah, Pa.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3640861

Since it is unlikely that Mr. Ramirez' attackers checked his immigration papers before killing him, this is really a symptom of the anti-Hispanic sentiment coming out of the immigration debate.

There was also a thread on the ticketing of an California truck driver, who is a legal resident, but unfortunately for him a Hispanic immigrant, by an Alabama state trooper for not speaking English well enough. The fact that he had a legal commercial drives license from California and his truck passed all inspections did not prevent issuing the "poor English" citation ($500) without any field test (such as with DUI cases) just the officer's difficulty understanding the driver's accent. (Perhaps "driving while Hispanic" will join "driving while Black" in our vocabulary.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3400622

Two examples, though the one you cite is of course a hundred times worse that the "language citation" case, of the challenges faced by Hispanics in the US these days.

thinks MS 13 has the right to do what they do!

Which scenario is more common...an illegal committing a violent crime against a citizen, or vice versa?

condemn MS 13. Where are you getting your information?

have the right to do what they do, is that where your thinking has led you?

Can we condemn a hate crime or discuss immigration policy without calling each other supporters of criminal gangs?

Count the inmates in the jail system and you'll see who is more violante.

had been a blond, blue eyed alpine skier he would not have been beaten to death. This was not a hate crime? How? :wtf:

This shit pisses me off.

basis of fear and suspicion in order to consolidate power and give the citizens enemies to be busy with.

they use the "illegal" slogan to promote their hate. People is living in a propaganda state where reasonable thinking is not allowed.