Cell phone operator Cingular Wireless has pulled a controversial ringtone which

…”portrayed a Border Patrol agent with sirens blaring and threatening to deport a Hispanic immigrant “back home-o” and instructing him to “put down the oranges.”

The story about Cingular’s decision first surfaced in the Brownsville Herald, which subsequently received so much traffic to their web site when other media got wind of the news that it was shut down. It seems that many a reader was upset with Cingular for having “given in” to Latino pressure:

In its Wednesday editions, The Herald asked readers to submit their thoughts on the story and asked: “La Migra ringtone: Offensive of just off-color?”

E-mails from around the country poured in to the paper, railing against Cingular for bowing to pressure from “illegal aliens” and for being “politically correct.”

Most respondents used the ringtone as a springboard to write about illegal immigration, a subject that has been center stage in American political discourse in recent months.

“I find it far more offensive to call Cingular and get a machine answering the phone in English, followed by Mexican,” one reader wrote.

“Since when should anybody give one damn about offending a criminal’s feelings?” wrote another.

One respondent was so displeased with Cingular’s decision that she might reconsider her contract for the cell phone company’s services, she wrote.

Others foretold the undoing of free speech in this country because the ringtone was not allowed to stand.

“If you don’t like it,” one person wrote, “don’t buy it.”

According to the Herald, LULAC asked Cingular to pull the ringtone and the company has since issued an apology.

Meanwhile, Gearlog reports the tone was written as a satire by Latino comic Paul Saucido.

To me, it’s a lot like the beginning of that Tijuana No! song “La Migra” (listen here), which of course is meant to criticize la migra not glorify them. This story has got legs. Just Google “la migra ringtone” and you’ll see how many people are up in arms about this.

Related: Ringtone company sorry for satire

Via / Brownsville Herald and Hispanic Tips

Photo via LosBlogueros.net