A federal court in Pennsylvania found two men guilty yesterday in the beating death of Luis Ramirez, an immigrant from Mexico, who police say was targeted because of his race and nationality.

“Four people attacked one person because of his race and because they didn’t want people like him living in their town,” prosecutor Myesha K. Braden said.  Her remarks came during the closing arguments of the defendants’ federal trial.  Colin J. Walsh and Brian Scully are the other two teens that participated in the crime.  Scully agreed to testify for prosecutors in exchange for a trial in juvenile court and Walsh pled guilty for his role and is awaiting sentencing as part of a plea deal.

Derrick M. Donchak, 20, of Shenandoah, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 18, of Shenandoah Heights, were previously acquitted of murder charges in state court.  At the time they were convicted of simple assault, which many Latino groups decried.  Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell also urged the federal government to pursue the case.

An all-white jury deliberated on the case for approximately six and a half hours before reaching a guilty verdict, which was hailed by Ramirez’ widow, Crystal Dillman.

“It’s nice to know that there is some justice for Luis,” Dillman said.

On July 12, 2008, Ramirez was repeatedly kicked in the head by the defendants after falling down while they hurled racist language at him during the attack, witnesses testified.

Dillman says she won’t completely move on until the trial of the police officers accused of obstructing justice is over.

“I won’t completely move on until the federal trial of the police officers is done,” she said, “until it is proven that there was a conspiracy to stop justice.”

She says her two children are still coming to terms with the absence of their father, not fully comprehending his death.

“They are coming to grips with the fact that their father is dead,” she said. “They don’t understand where their father went and why he’ll never come home. They will never comprehend this.”

The top civil rights official for the Obama Administration said he is pleased with the outcome.

“This jury’s verdict demonstrates that violence aimed at preventing people from living in America because of their race, national origin, or ethnicity is intolerable,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice, said. “As this case illustrates, the Civil Rights Division will vigorously enforce the rights of every person who lives in this country to do so free of racially based violence and intimidation.”

CNN

The family of a slain Hispanic man in Phoenix is demanding that his death be labeled a hate crime.

Juan Varela, a third-generation Mexican-American, was slain in his front yard by a neighbor who allegedly repeated racial slurs and told him to “go back to Mexico” or he would die.

Gary Thomas Kelley was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

While the police have initially characterized the altercation as a drunken feud between neighbors, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office has said the agency would consider adjusting the charges to first-degree murder and resubmitting to a grand jury if new evidence indicated a premeditated murder.

Hate crimes carry a stiffer penalty upon conviction and sentencing.

This incident comes amidst heightened tensions in the state of Arizona where recent passage of a controversial new anti-immigration law has lead to protests and denouncements from the local to the national level.  Fears of racial profiling against Latino have been cited as one of the main objections over the new law.

“The hate against Latinos has reached a fever pitch in Arizona,” said Carlos Galindo, a Hispanic Christian radio-show host who has helped the family of the victim.

Varela was the father of a 13-year-old girl and a volunteer Little League coach.
Read more: AZ Central

Last Saturday, Marcello Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant living in Long Island was attacked and killed by a group of high school students who, according to police, wanted “to beat up some Mexicans”. Lucero had lived in the US as long as some of his alleged attackers have been alive.

The attack and killing of Marcello Lucero, while an example of a terrible extreme, is unfortunately not an isolated case. According to the FBI, hate crimes against Hispanics in this country have been on the rise since 2003. Is anti-immigrant rhetoric fueling this trend?

While the FBI report on this issue is disturbing, we can safely assume that many of these incidences go unreported. It is not unusual for immigrants, particularly if they are here without documentation, to not report crimes against themselves out of fear. So, the real number of hate crimes is likely to be higher.

The rise in the number of attacks parallels other factors. First, simple demographics: the number of Hispanics in the United States is on the rise. Latinos looking for economic opportunity are now establishing communities in parts of the country that had previously been very homogeneous. With an increase in numbers, more attention is being paid at all levels of government to the immigration issue. More and more, immigrants themselves have become more outspoken for the needs of their community. This is turn has buoyed the anti-immigrant forces. Deep seated feelings, and in some cases hate, have fanned the flames of this debate to sometimes move beyond angry words.

High profile critics of immigration do not help move the debate away from angry rhetoric either. This past election cycle even saw one candidate for the Republican nomination running solely on an anti-immigration platform. In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center warned that CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs, was giving a forum to anti-immigrant extremists but “has failed to present mounting and persistent evidence of anti-Hispanic racism in anti-immigration groups and citizen border patrols.”  Clearly, while we cannot blame violent acts on Dobbs, he represents the best known and widest reaching voice for these anti-immigrant forces.

Violence against immigrants is not a new phenomenon in this country. A sad part of our national history shows that as new groups of people reach out shores too often they become targets for scapegoating. Combined with tough economic times, the potential for tragedy is huge, as we have unfortunately seen.

As our country enters a new era of hope and change, it is going to be incumbent upon our leaders – at all levels -to decry the use of not only violence in action, but violence in words against any one group of people and to elevate the national debate over immigration to a level that has no place for this hate-filled rhetoric. We as a nation of immigrants deserve as much.

Read more:WTOP News.com