Think that the anti-immigrant rhetoric doesn’t impact the everyday lives of Latinos? Think again.

The FBI released its latest national hate crime statistics last week, and while these numbers are shaky they do indicate hate crimes directed at undocumented immigrants — and Latinos in general — are up 35% over the last four years.

Shaky stats aside, most Latino activists and community workers know that overwhelmingly, many hate crimes are never reported and even when they are, getting those crimes labeled as “hate crime” is a whole other hurdle to jump.

The same FBI report shows that in California, the state with the largest population of Latinos in the country, anti-Latino hate crimes almost doubled in the 2003-2006 period.

Some examples:

JULY 12, 2005
Patchogue, N.Y.
A 61-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant is badly beaten by three white men as he pushes a shopping cart through the streets collecting cans. Before the attack, the man was asked if he had a green card. “Then they started pummeling him,” Suffolk County Hate Crimes Det. Robert Reecks tells reporters. The man, whose name is not made public, suffers a broken eye socket and facial bruises.

MARCH 30, 2006
North Bergen, N.J.
After a series of pro-immigrant marches and demonstrations bring out hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters in cities across the country, an acerbic neo-Nazi radio host makes an appeal for people to carry out the mass murder of any “illegal aliens” sighted.

“All of you who think there’s a peaceful solution to these invaders are wrong. We’re going to have to start killing these people,” Hal Turner writes on his website. “I advocate using extreme violence against illegal aliens. Clean your guns. Have plenty of ammunition. Find out where the largest gathering of illegal aliens will be near you. Go to the area well in advance, scope out several places to position yourself and then do what has to be done.”

EPT. 30, 2007
Avon Park, Fla.
José Gonzales returns home to find his car and garage destroyed by a fire set by an arsonist who also spray-painted “Fuck Puerto Rico” on the garage walls. Gonzales, a U.S. citizen and a mechanic, loses all of his tools in the fire. No arrests are made in the town, which is famous for its passage of harsh anti-immigrant laws.

What is really scary and anti-immigrant activists refuse to hear is how this impacts all Latinos, documented or not. Those who commit hate crimes attack and ask questions later. They don’t ask for proof of citizenship or legal status. If you look Latino, you are in danger.

Via / Southern Poverty Law Center

Image Via / USA Today