The horrific murder of three black college students by Latinos at the beginning of this month is being used to spark the fire of hate and divide and conquer politics with the target being Latinos, specifically undocumented Latinos. Newark is (was) a sanctuary city for immigrants, meaning that immigrants, regardless of their status should have felt safe going on with their daily business (don’t forget however that Los Angeles is allegedly a sanctuary city and yet Elvira Arellano was arrested while conducting a most “American” practice, a press conference). Some are predicting that the issue of sanctuary cities

could become a hot button issue in the 2008 presidential campaigns.

While there is no evidence to indicate that undocumented immigrants (racialized as only being Latinos) have unleashed a crime wave in the United States (Diversity Inc. points out that cities with large undocumented populations are the cities touting huge crime drops), cities are changing their policing policies to target undocumented immigrants, which means defacto that anyone looking like an undocumented immigrant(Latino) will be affected. New Jersey, where the Newark murders happened, was ordered by the state attorney general to notify federal immigration officials whenever someone arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving is found to be an undocumented immigrant. This means that police officials will be acting as ICE deputies and asking people’s immigration status. New information which links the suspects tied to the murders to sexual assaults adds a whole extra layer to tag onto undocumented immigrant stereotypes (they’ll kill your children and rape your women).

Via / Diversity Inc. & The Alburquerque Tribune