[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10969-10973]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HATE CRIMES

  Mr. BACA. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The topic I want to talk 
about this morning is hate crimes. As immigration debate has 
intensified, white supremists, neo-Nazis, and other racists have 
increased their efforts to spread the racist message. White supremists 
have not simply expressed racist convictions but have urged others and 
white Americans generally to fight back against perceived invasion of 
white United States by Hispanics from Mexico. The rhetoric has grown 
increasingly by radicals, and their success is spreading and has been 
coupled with a rise in hate crimes across our country. And I state, 
across the country.
  Police reports document a growing number of acts of violence by far 
right extremists against Hispanics regardless of their status as 
citizens, whether they are profiling them, making remarks, creating 
different kinds of attitude and atmosphere and hate. The Anti-
Defamation League, a nonprofit that fights anti-Semitism and other 
biases, put out a report last month that said hateful and racist 
rhetoric aimed at Latino immigrants had grown to a level unprecedented 
in recent years.
  The report detailed numerous examples of hate crimes, including two 
men in Tennessee who were sentenced to prison in December for 
shattering a window and painting Nazi symbols in a local Mexican 
market. Near Houston, two white teenagers were arrested in April 
accused of beating a Latino youth and sodomizing him with a pipe. Days 
later on Long Island, a white teen was accused of threatening two 
Latinos with a machete and a chain saw. Police say ethnic slurs were 
used in each case.
  We must condemn these kind of acts and work to promote a unified 
America. Even the President has warned us of the dangerous rhetoric 
being used in discussions on immigration. During his speech last month 
he noted, ``America needs to conduct this debate on immigration in a 
reasonable and respective tone. We cannot build a unified country by 
inciting people to anger or playing on anyone's fear or exploiting the 
issue of immigration for political gains.'' And I state, exploiting it 
for political gains.
  The white supremists are employing sophisticated techniques to spread 
their message over the Internet including blogs, chat rooms, and racist 
and violent video games. And as you can see by the poster out here, 
Border Patrol, I recently heard about a racist game distributed freely 
on the Internet called the ``Border Patrol'' that encourages players to 
shoot at immigrants as they cross the United States, as you can see 
right here. These games first surfaced in the year 2002, but have come 
up once again and aimed at immigration debate.
  The Border Patrol games. In the game the Border Patrol, Mexican 
Americans are incarcerated and presented with disgusting and harmful 
stereotypes. The game does not present them as hard-working individuals 
who come to this country, like any other who has come to this country 
before, to build better opportunity. This country is built on 
immigrants, and many individuals come here for that reason, not for the 
reason displayed in this Border Patrol display that we have out here.
  People have come to contribute to our country and will continue to 
come to contribute to this country because they believe in America and 
its principles and what it stands for. Instead, you can see from the 
poster that Mexican American immigrants are labeled as bandoleer-
wearing Mexican nationalists, tattoo-touting drug smugglers, and 
pregnant breeders who must be kept out at any cost.
  In the second poster, as you can see out here, Border Patrol 2, as 
you can see by the second poster the object of the Internet game Border 
Patrol is to shoot Mexican immigrants as they try to cross the borders 
into the United States. Here, again, we are talking about hate crimes, 
attitudes and behavior by individuals. Here, a family is being targeted 
as they rush past a sign that reads, ``Welcome to the United States.'' 
The sign contains the American flag in which the stars representing 50 
states have been replaced with a Jewish Star of David, and a small sign 
that appears below that says, ``Welfare Office'' with an arrow.
  These games are not only obscene, it incites anger and violence in 
the minds of children and creates attitude and behavior changes. 
Psychologically then people begin to think in terms of hating anyone of 
color. And when you hate people of color, you demonstrate hate and 
anger. The fact that the national immigration debate is fueling their 
efforts in is downright scary.
  Border Patrol is one of several racist computer games that hate 
groups are currently offering for sale or download on the Internet. 
Other games like Ethnic Cleansing, Drive By 2, and African Detroit Cop 
were created to further racism, anti-Semitic, and other opinions.
  These images on poster number three is Save The Last Dance. This 
image contains an altered movie poster. The actual film featured an 
interracial romance between teenagers. As you note in the version of 
this poster, the African-American male is depicted by a gorilla. The 
poster also spreads a traditional anti-Semitic attack that blames Jews 
for controlling the American media and suggests that a film about 
interracial tolerance and mutual respect is somehow Jewish propaganda. 
The most obvious message of this poster is that the way to deal with 
members of minority groups, as well as whites who have relationships 
with them, is with violence.
  It only takes one individual with hate in his heart to act on these 
notions. For us, that is a very real concern as the national discussion 
on immigration continues to gain momentum. We cannot have this debate 
at the expense of the safety of immigrants in our communities and total 
Americans who are here in the United States.

[[Page 10970]]

  I understand that not everyone in Congress agrees with a more 
inclusive vision of the American family or the American dream to be 
here in the United States and to have what everybody else has and to 
build a better life for themselves. Instead of recognizing the needs 
for real comprehensive immigration reform, some Republicans have viewed 
this issue to play on people's fear and exploit the debate for their 
political gains. I hope that people understand what is going on now and 
at the national level.

  Extremists Declare `Open Season' on Immigrants: Hispanics Target of 
                        Incitement and Violence


                                Overview

       As the public debate over immigration reform has taken 
     center-stage in American politics and public life, white 
     supremacists, neo-Nazis and other racists have declared 
     ``open season'' on immigrants and attempted to co-opt and 
     exploit the controversy by focusing their efforts--and their 
     anger--on the minority group at the center of the 
     controversy: Hispanics.
       As a result, to a level unprecedented in recent years, 
     America's Latino immigrant population has become the primary 
     focus of hateful and racist rhetoric and extreme violence--
     aided, abetted and encouraged by America's white supremacist 
     and racist haters.
       Spurred in recent weeks by the debate on Capitol Hill and 
     the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of 
     America's immigrant community, extremists have become 
     increasingly emboldened by, and fixated on, the controversy 
     over immigration policy, encouraging their supporters to 
     capitalize on the issue by encouraging antiimmigrant 
     activism, and even violence against all Hispanics.
       While white supremacists have for many years attempted to 
     exploit rising anti-immigration sentiments in the U.S., the 
     level and intensity of their attacks against Hispanics has 
     reached dangerous new highs, with right-wing extremists 
     joining anti-immigration groups, distributing anti-immigrant 
     propaganda and holding frequent antiimmigration rallies and 
     protests.
       As a result, Hispanics, regardless of their citizenship or 
     immigration status, increasingly are becoming the targets of 
     hatred and violence from hardcore white supremacists.
       Racists ranging from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist 
     skinheads are among the most active anti-immigration 
     activists in the country. Motivating their actions is the 
     core conviction of modern white supremacist ideology: That 
     the white race itself is threatened with extinction by a 
     ``rising tide of color'' controlled and manipulated by Jews.
       This following report examines the recent record of extreme 
     rhetoric and violence from white supremacist groups and their 
     followers that has played out against the backdrop of the 
     immigration debate in America.


              White Supremacist Anti-Immigration Protests

       White supremacists have taken to the streets in a 
     deliberate attempt to attract publicity and to exploit and 
     co-opt the national discussion on immigration for their own 
     hateful purposes. Viewing immigration as a ``wedge'' issue 
     through which they believe they can foist their racist and 
     anti-Semitic views on the American public, and attract 
     recruits and attention for themselves, white supremacists 
     have organized a number of rallies and protests with anti-
     immigration and anti-Hispanic themes.
       Many of the extremist events have taken place in southern 
     states. There, white supremacists hope to exploit anti-
     immigration sentiment that has risen as a result of a 
     significant influx of Hispanic immigrants, primarily 
     agricultural workers, into areas of the South that had never 
     before had a substantial Hispanic population.
       Demonstrations, rallies and other events taking place in 
     spring 2006 included:
       In Seattle, Washington, and Las Vegas, Nevada, members of 
     the neo-Nazi National Vanguard held anti-immigration protests 
     on May 20. On its Web site, the National Vanguard declared 
     that day to be a ``day of protest against George W. Bush's 
     plan to destroy America,'' calling the president's 
     immigration proposals a ``sellout of the nation.'' In 
     Seattle, neo-Nazis appeared along Interstate 1-5, displaying 
     signs for motorists stuck in traffic to read. In Las Vegas, 
     white supremacists held a small rally in front of the federal 
     courthouse.
       In Keene, New Hampshire, New England members of the 
     Arkansas-based neo-Nazi group White Revolution held a self-
     described ``anti-invasion'' demonstration on May 7 to protest 
     ``the invasion of America by illegal non white hordes.'' 
     Members of other white supremacist groups, ranging from the 
     National Socialist Movement to the American Front, also 
     showed up.
       In Russellville, Alabama, members of the Alabama chapter of 
     the Indiana-based National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held 
     an anti-immigration rally on May 6, yelling ``Let's get rid 
     of the Mexicans!'' National Knights leader Ray Larsen was on 
     hand, telling the crowd that gathered that immigrants ``want 
     you out of here because they want this as their land.'' After 
     the rally, the Klansmen burned a cross in a field outside of 
     town.
       In Montgomery, Alabama, the neo-Confederate group League of 
     the South and the Coalition against Illegal Immigration 
     together organized an anti-immigration ``Cinco de Mayo'' 
     demonstration on May 5. Promoting the event in his racist and 
     anti-Semitic newspaper First Freedom, Olaf Childress wrote 
     that he planned to be there, ``maybe even with a baseball 
     bat. Already got a placard in mind: MEX GET THE HELL OUT OF 
     MY COUNTRY.'' Childress did show up with such a placard and a 
     baseball bat, telling a local reporter that ``Jewish 
     supremacists'' had a plan to abolish the borders of the U.S. 
     Other signs at the demonstration displayed slogans such as 
     ``multi-culturalism is liberal insanity.'' In Greenville, 
     South Carolina, the racist Council of Conservative Citizens 
     held an anti-immigration demonstration on April 29 in front 
     of the offices of Republican Congressman Lindsey Graham, 
     where they burned Mexican flags and displayed signs such as 
     ``More INS, Less IRS,'' ``Vote for Pedro to Go Home,'' and 
     ``I Didn't Fight in Iraq for Illegal Aliens.''
       White supremacists also showed up to counter events 
     organized by immigration and human rights activists, in 
     particular the May 1 ``Day without Immigrants'' events 
     organized around the country by immigrant rights activists. 
     In San Angelo, Texas, members of the Empire Knights of the Ku 
     Klux Klan showed up to counter local events. In Dayton, Ohio, 
     half a dozen members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist 
     Movement appeared in Nazi uniforms at a pro-immigration march 
     to protest, in their words, ``the illegal wetback scum and 
     Shabbat goy mud lovers.'' In Madison, Wisconsin, in April, 
     members of the neo-Nazi New Order passed out literature at an 
     immigrant rights event at the capitol.
       Even where white supremacists have not shown up in person, 
     they have plastered communities around the country with crude 
     anti-Hispanic and anti-immigration fliers. In Bakersfield, 
     California, for example, one community was littered with 
     National Vanguard fliers that read ``Civilization: One Job 
     Mexicans Won't Do.'' Residents of Pasadena, Texas, discovered 
     racist fliers that urged people to burn down the homes of 
     people thought to be illegal immigrants.


                     Border Vigilante Group Events

       Anti-immigration border vigilante groups have also 
     organized anti-immigrant events around the country this 
     spring. The largest border vigilante group, the Minuteman 
     Project, held a reprise in April of their 2005 vigilante 
     border patrols along the Arizona-Mexico border, and followed 
     up with a caravan that staged anti-immigration events across 
     the country. One Minuteman event in Birmingham, Alabama, was 
     organized by Mike Vanderboegh, a former militia leader. At 
     the rally, an attendee distributed copies of Olaf Childress's 
     racist and anti-Semitic newspaper, First Freedom. Other anti-
     immigration groups held rallies from Arizona to Minnesota.
       Anti-immigration groups have also turned to publicity 
     stunts. The Minutemen, for example, declared on May 9 that 
     they would start building their own ``border security fence'' 
     on private property along the border with Mexico, unless the 
     federal government itself deployed the military or erected 
     such fencing. The Minutemen claimed that they had received 
     nearly $200,000 in donations to build such a fence. Other 
     border vigilante groups have already begun or announced 
     similar projects.


         The Rhetoric: Declaring ``Open Season'' on Immigrants

       White supremacists have not simply expressed racist 
     convictions, but have urged each other and white Americans 
     generally, to ``fight back'' against the perceived invasion 
     of the ``white'' United States by Hispanics from Mexico.
       The rhetoric in such pronouncements has grown increasingly 
     radical. ``Beaner Brown Supremacist Militias of Latino 
     Communist immigrants firmly intend to conquer [the 
     southwest],'' suggested a topic heading on the white 
     supremacist Legion of Saints message board recently. ``Will 
     White Americans sit back, watch it happen & let them do it? 
     Or will White Americans `remember the Alamo!?'''
       Such voices are unfortunately hardly isolated. Here are 
     just a few recent examples:
       Alabaman Larry Darby, a Holocaust denier and candidate for 
     Alabama attorney general, recently stated in a May 3 
     interview on Alabama Public Television that he wanted 
     National Guard troops on the border with orders to ``shoot to 
     kill, absolutely . . . we are at war, we are being invaded by 
     a foreign country, we are at war.''
       James Wickstrom and Frances Farrell, the virulently racist 
     and anti-Semitic hosts of the ``Yahweh's Truth'' radio 
     program, blamed Jews for the immigration ``invasion'' on his 
     May 3 broadcast. Wickstrom claimed that pro-immigrant marches 
     were being organized and financed by ``communist Jews'' and 
     the ``communist Catholic church,'' and that Jewish 
     organizations are ``criminal accomplices of these illegal 
     aliens.'' Farrell suggested that ``one attack on one of their

[[Page 10971]]

     marches with automatic weapons or even just rifles will put a 
     stop to them and the time's coming when this is going to 
     happen.''
        One member of an Aryan Nations faction, ``Pastor'' Jay 
     Faber of Pennsylvania, claimed on April 10 on the Aryan 
     Nations Internet forum that ``I already know they will not 
     throw one of these stumpy little brown beasts out of here, so 
     for the amount of guats in my area, I have at least 10 rounds 
     of ammunition for each of them.''
       Aryan Nations faction leader August Kreis in October 2005 
     claimed on his Web site that ``this infestation of 
     cockroaches need deportation or extermination!'' If legal 
     means of ``stopping this rising tide'' were not enough, 
     ``then these brown squat monsters should begin to turn up 
     dead all across Amerika . . . We now have another game animal 
     to add to our list of available targets for our favorite 
     pastime, hunting, and we'll declare permanent open season on 
     these dirty wetbacks! From what I have heard through the 
     grapevine the Skinheads and Klans across the country are more 
     than prepared for this type of action. I say let's play by 
     state and see which state can claim the most kills and let 
     the jewsmedia whores keep score!''
       Oregon National Socialist Movement leader Jim Ramm wrote in 
     June 2005 that ``the browner invasion is much like a 
     cancerous tumor that should of [sic] been removed. But 
     instead, it was allowed to grow and infect other organs . . . 
     as this brown disease rages out of control the white patient 
     faces racial death.''
       Kevin Strom, leader of the neo-Nazi National Vanguard, gave 
     a shortwave radio broadcast in June 2005 in which he claimed 
     that ``These Mestizo invaders are so different from us that 
     by mixing with them or being dispossessed by them we will 
     cease to live, we will cease to be ourselves or have a place 
     to exist to support the lives of our future generations. And 
     that is the crucial reason why this invasion must be 
     stopped.''
       ``AliisioRex,'' a member of the neo-Nazi web forum 
     Stormfront, wrote in July 2005 that ``they are barbarians, 
     they are our enemies, they want to destroy our civilization 
     and we have to fight them. We need to organize better and be 
     more open activists; otherwise, I only see race war in the 
     future.'' Another Stormfronter, ``Strasser,'' wrote in 
     November 2005 that ``White minorityhood on a national level 
     is a very real possibility. How can White folk tolerate this? 
     Do they care that most minority populations become a cultural 
     hostage? What is the interest in having their children a 
     minority on a mestizo dominated campus? Mestizo immigration 
     is going to force White America to make some very important 
     decisions.''
       Such statements appear routinely on white supremacist Web 
     sites and in white supremacist literature.
       Perhaps the white supremacist most active in explicitly 
     advocating extreme violence against Hispanics is New Jersey 
     racist radio talk show host Hal Turner. He reserves his most 
     extreme statements to urge violence against illegal 
     immigrants from Mexico:
       May 3, 2006: Following the May 1 demonstrations, Turner 
     posted to his Web site a 145-page ``ethnic cleansing manual'' 
     that he said explained ``in graphic detail why white people 
     need to prepare to ethnically cleanse this nation and how to 
     do it using force and violence.''
       October 31, 2005: ``Slowly but surely we are headed toward 
     the solution that I have been advocating for years: kill 
     illegal aliens as they cross into the U.S. When the stench of 
     rotting corpses gets bad enough, the rest will stay away.''
       October 11, 2005: ``For years I have been publicly 
     advocating on my radio show and this web site, that Mexican 
     illegal aliens be shot dead as they cross into the U.S. 
     illegally . . . I plant the seeds verbally and the seeds grow 
     in the minds of others . . . I am proud to advocate even more 
     killings!''
       July 15, 2005: ``I once again advocate extreme violence 
     against Mexicans . . . Once they're dead, their heads should 
     be cut off and put on pike poles as a warning to others.''
       May 17, 2005, responding to news that a restaurant owned by 
     the mayor of Denver had employed an illegal alien who 
     allegedly murdered a police officer: ``. . . his policy of 
     affording sanctuary to other illegal aliens makes Mayor John 
     Hickenlooper worthy of being killed. I sincerely hope that 
     someone takes a rifle with a scope and puts a bullet through 
     [his] head.''
       May 15, 2005: ``I advocate extreme violence against illegal 
     aliens . . . I think it would be terrific to trap them by 
     their ankles in steel bear traps then beat them to death when 
     you return and find them in the trap . . . Oh, if any 
     American sides with the illegals--like a big mouth politician 
     or a politically correct, ass-kissing local sheriff, lawyers, 
     judges, or the like--it would be a real public service to 
     kill them too!''


                        Anti-Immigration Groups

       The violent rhetoric has not come only from explicitly 
     white supremacist groups, but also from members and leaders 
     of anti-immigration groups. Anti-immigration activist Fred 
     Puckett, the leader of ``Minuteman of One,'' was caught on 
     camera in late April telling an undercover reporter for a 
     local Phoenix television station that ``once you shoot a 
     couple of these sons of bitches, they'll think twice.''
       Perhaps most strikingly, Arizona anti-immigration activist 
     Laine Lawless, who has been associated with several border 
     vigilante groups and eventually started the group Border 
     Guardians in 2005, sent an e-mail in April to a prominent 
     Ohio member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, Mark 
     Martin, asking him to pass its contents on to his white 
     supremacist contacts. Martin did so, forwarding the message 
     to several white supremacist forums on Yahoo and Usenet in 
     early April, but unfortunately for Lawless, Martin ignored 
     the part of her message which read, ``Please don't use my 
     name,'' and instead forwarded the message in full.
       Lawless's e-mail, titled, ``how to get rid of them,'' urged 
     a variety of intimidating, harassing, and even illegal and 
     violent tactics to intimidate immigrants into leaving the 
     U.S., including cutting down the broadcast tower for a 
     Spanish language radio station near Phoenix and stealing 
     money from illegal aliens. ``I hear the red necks in the 
     South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have 
     closed,'' she wrote. ``Use your imagination.''
       Lawless's suggestions were consistent with previous 
     statements she had made, including a late March posting to an 
     anti-immigration Internet forum in which she wrote that ``my 
     Southern friend tells me the rednecks in the South just beat 
     [illegal aliens] up. Unfortunately, there are too many of 
     them to use that tactic there any more.''
       Earlier, in February, Lawless posted to a Texas Minuteman 
     message forum that ``We need borders to . . . preserve our 
     culture, instead of accepting any kind of flotsam and jetsam 
     that seeks to float into our territory.''
       Mark Martin himself seemed willing to personally engage in 
     intimidating tactics. In early May, he admitted in a Google 
     Internet forum that he and another member of the National 
     Socialist Movement had passed out racist fliers in Covington, 
     Ohio, at houses ``surrounding a suspected illegal Mexican 
     jobsite.'' The two neo-Nazis also approached workers at the 
     jobsite and demanded to see identification from them. When 
     workers refused, Martin allegedly told one of them that he 
     ``was an illegal, wetback who was stealing American jobs and 
     . . . spreading disease.'' Workers called the police, who 
     told the neo-Nazis to leave or be charged with harassment.


                The Violence: Growing Number of Assaults

       Not surprisingly, white supremacists have not limited their 
     actions to hateful or even violent rhetoric. The past several 
     years have seen a growing number of violent assaults and 
     attacks by white supremacists against legal and illegal 
     Hispanic immigrants, as well as Hispanic American citizens. 
     The crimes have ranged from vicious vandalism to brutal 
     assaults and murders. In most cases, the perpetrators did not 
     even know the victims, but targeted them solely because of 
     their appearance.
       Only a minority of hate crimes are committed by ideological 
     extremists, but such extremists have committed some of the 
     worst hate crimes in America. The increased willingness of 
     such white supremacists, especially racist skinheads, to 
     attack Hispanics represents a dangerous and disturbing trend.
       Here are some of the hate crimes committed by white 
     supremacists against Hispanics in the U.S. in the past three 
     years.
       April 29, 2006, New York. A teenager was arrested in East 
     Hampton, Long Island, after he allegedly threatened a 
     Hispanic teenager with a machete and chased a second teenager 
     with a chain saw while shouting racial epithets. Described by 
     classmates as a skinhead, the alleged perpetrator had 
     previously posted to the Internet photographs of himself 
     posing as a Nazi and adorning a shed with swastikas. He and 
     two others, whom police have allegedly linked to the 
     incident, were suspended from school.
       April 22, 2006, Texas. David Henry Tuck. 18, and Keith 
     Robert Turner, 17, were arrested and charged with aggravated 
     sexual assault in the brutal attack of a teenage Hispanic 
     high school student in Houston. The victim was beaten and 
     sodomized with a plastic pipe from a patio umbrella, then 
     kicked in the head with steel-toed boots. He was left with 
     head wounds and major internal injuries. The victim had 
     bleach poured on him and was burned with cigarettes. 
     Witnesses allegedly stopped the attackers from carving 
     something onto the victim's chest. Tuck is a self-described 
     skinhead who sports Nazi tattoos. In 2003, at age 14, Tuck 
     and two adult white supremacists were implicated in the 
     racially motivated beating of a Hispanic man, according to 
     court records and witnesses. The two adults received federal 
     and state sentences for their role; juvenile records are not 
     public in Texas.
       January 2006, California. Ryan Nicholas Newsome, a member 
     of the Another Order white supremacist gang, pleaded no 
     contest on January 20, 2006, to assault charges in Yuba 
     County. He pleaded no contest to assault with force likely to 
     cause great bodily injury with a criminal street gang 
     enhancement as a result of an August 2005 incident, in which 
     he and an associate allegedly assaulted a Hispanic man.
       December 2005, Tennessee. A Blount County judge on December 
     1, 2005, sentenced Jacob Allen Reynolds and Thomas Matthew 
     Lovett to four years in prison and six

[[Page 10972]]

     months in prison (and two and a half on probation) 
     respectively after they pleaded guilty to vandalizing a 
     Mexican food store in Maryville on May 7, 2005, causing over 
     $17,000 in damages. The men allegedly broke windows and a 
     refrigerator, vandalized a car, and spraypainted Nazi symbols 
     on the store. Three others charged still await trial.
       November 2005, Texas. Christopher Chubasco Wilkins, a 
     prison escapee, was recaptured on November 5 and charged with 
     murdering three men in the Fort Worth area during his month-
     long escape. Wilkins, who is according to police a self-
     proclaimed white separatist heavily tattooed with a variety 
     of white supremacist tattoos. including a portrait of Adolf 
     Hitler, is alleged to have killed two Hispanic men and one 
     African-American man by gunshots to the head. Police are 
     examining a possible racial motive. Wilkins had been living 
     at a halfway house in Houston, after being released from 
     federal prison, and left the house without permission.
       November 2005, Tennessee. A federal judge sentenced former 
     Klansman Daniel James Schertz to 14 years in prison for 
     selling pipe bombs to a person he thought would use them to 
     kill Mexican and Haitian immigrants. The person turned out to 
     be an undercover informant. Schertz, a former corrections 
     officer and member of the North Georgia White Knights of the 
     Ku Klux Klan, pleaded guilty to making five pipe bombs to be 
     used to blow up a bus carrying Mexican workers. Later, 
     Schertz expressed gratitude that the government had stopped 
     him, but said, ``We should have people here who know how to 
     speak English. They are over here illegally and nothing gets 
     done to them.''
       October 2005, California. A Sacramento man and two other 
     suspects who allegedly attacked and injured six people in a 
     hate-crime spree at two local parties were arrested in the 
     early morning of October 16, 2005. Ryan Marino, 22, posted 
     bail from El Dorado County Jail later Sunday after being 
     charged on four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with 
     an extenuating circumstance of a hate crime. He allegedly 
     used brass knuckles after shouting epithets against Hispanics 
     and proclaiming ``white pride'' at a home Sunday evening. 
     Party attendees later identified Marino, who police said 
     crashed the parties with the intent of ``beating up 
     Mexicans.''
       September 2005, Utah. A federal judge on September 27, 
     2005, sentenced Lance Vanderstappen to 20 years in prison for 
     trying to kill a Hispanic man while in a holding cell in July 
     2005 awaiting sentencing for a racketeering charge. The 
     victim had stab wounds to his neck, throat and chest. In 
     court, Vanderstappen, a member of the notorious Soldiers of 
     Aryan Culture white supremacist prison gang, admitted that he 
     targeted the victim because he was Hispanic, saying ``I 
     intentionally tried to kill him.'' Vanderstappen pleaded 
     guilty to attempted murder.
       September 2005, New Jersey. Joseph Schmidt of Little Egg 
     Harbor received a sentence of three years' probation in 
     September 2005 after pleading guilty in June to two counts of 
     bias intimidation, two counts of aggravated assault, two 
     counts of criminal mischief, two counts of possessing weapons 
     for an unlawful purpose, and simple assault. The charges were 
     related to a string of attacks on minorities, primarily 
     Hispanics, in Ocean County in 2003. Schmidt, a member of the 
     white supremacist skinhead group East Coast Hate Crew, 
     received a light sentence because he had cooperated with 
     authorities in prosecuting other members of the group. Three 
     others involved in the incident pleaded guilty and one was 
     acquitted. Others have yet to go to trial.
       July 2005, California. Four people, three men and one 
     woman, were arrested in Riverside, California, on July 11-12, 
     2005, charged with making terrorist threats with a hate crime 
     enhancement. Some of the people arrested had ``white pride'' 
     tattoos, according to authorities, who also seized a variety 
     of white supremacist items. According to police, the suspects 
     drove to a home and challenged several Hispanics there to a 
     fight, threatening them and using racial slurs. A similar 
     episode occurred the next night. According to police, the 
     people arrested claimed no particular group affiliation but 
     said they were proud to be ``members of the Aryan race.''
       May 2005, Arizona. White supremacist Steve Boggs was 
     sentenced to death on May 13, 2005, for murdering three fast-
     food workers in Mesa, Arizona, in 2002 during a robbery. He 
     had been convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and 
     various robbery, burglary and kidnapping charges. Boggs shot 
     the victims, a Native American and two Hispanics, then 
     stuffed their bodies into a freezer at the store. Boggs wrote 
     to a Mesa police detective that he had wanted to ``rid the 
     world of a few needless illegals. I don't feel sorry.'' 
     Another defendant still awaits trial. According to 
     prosecutors, the two men were members of a small hate group 
     they called the Imperial Royal Guard.
       May 2005, Texas. Two racist skinheads pleaded guilty on May 
     5, 2005, to a racially motivated beating of a Hispanic man in 
     January 2003. Douglas Brannan of Hockley and Mark Fletcher 
     Smith of Spring, both sporting many white supremacist 
     tattoos, were convicted of civil rights violations. The two 
     men, and a teenager, had attacked a Hispanic customer at a 
     gas station, beating him and kicking him with steel-toed 
     boots until he was unconscious while shouting ``border 
     jumper,'' ``spic,'' and ``we kill people like you.'' Brannan 
     received a five year sentence and Smith a three year 
     sentence.
       December 2004, California. Ten racist skinheads from 
     Redlands and Riverside attacked three Hispanics in the 
     parking lot of a topless bar on December 29, 2004. According 
     to police, they assaulted the men while yelling racial slurs 
     at them and identifying themselves as members of skinhead 
     groups. No arrests have yet been made.
       November 2004, Wisconsin. Mark Lentz of Sheldon, Wisconsin, 
     received a three-month sentence and two years of probation, 
     as well as 40 hours of community service, after pleading no 
     contest to a misdemeanor hate crime. Lentz was the last of 
     four racist skinheads to be sentenced for luring a Hispanic 
     man outside a bar in Waukesha, then hitting him on the head 
     with a bottle and repeatedly kicking him. Mark Davis II of 
     Watertown earlier received a 3\1/2\ year sentence and two 
     years of extended supervision, Kasey Bieri received an 18-
     month jail term and three years of probation, and Jeffrey 
     Gerloski received four months in jail and two years 
     probation.
       June 2004, Texas. Ranch Rescue member Casey Nethercott was 
     convicted by a Texas jury of felony firearm possession in 
     connection with an attack on two illegal immigrants from El 
     Salvador outside of Hebbronville, Texas, in 2003. He was 
     sentenced to five years in prison. The two immigrants (now in 
     the U.S. legally) successfully sued Nethercott and others 
     involved in the incident for a total judgment of $1,450,000.
       November 2003, Idaho. Aryan Nations member Zachary Beck was 
     arrested for felony malicious harassment as a hate crime for 
     attacking a Hispanic male in the parking lot of a supermarket 
     after asking if the victim was Mexican. While awaiting trial 
     on that charge, he was later re-arrested after allegedly 
     shooting at a police officer in Longview, Washington, during 
     a standoff. He still awaits trial on the alleged crimes.
       June 2003, California. Two racist skinheads, Waylon Kennell 
     and James Grlicky, were convicted in separate trials for the 
     brutal beating of a Mexican migrant worker in San Diego in 
     the fall of 2003. Grlicky was convicted of attempted murder, 
     conspiracy, robbery, assault and battery, with a hate crime 
     enhancement. Kennell was convicted of assault causing great 
     bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury. 
     According to the prosecutor in the case, the two went hunting 
     for a ``beaner'' to beat and rob. They kicked the victim in 
     the head around a dozen times, including ``curbstomping'' 
     him--kicking down on the back of the head when the victim's 
     open mouth is placed against a concrete curb (emulating a 
     scene in the movie ``American History X''). The victim 
     suffered brain damage as a result of the attack.
       May 2003, New Hampshire. Aryan Nations member Russell 
     Seace, Jr., of Hampton Beach, pleaded guilty on May 27 to 
     being a felon in possession of a firearm as part of a plea 
     bargain with the federal government. In exchange for money, 
     Seace had agreed to kill a Hispanic inmate after he was 
     released, in retaliation for an alleged attack by the 
     Hispanic man on a white prison inmate.
       February 2003, Oregon. A Mexican landscaper in Beaverton 
     was beaten with a baseball bat, robbed, and told to ``go back 
     home,'' by a man with a shaved head and a coat with ``KKK'' 
     on it. Baseball bats are one of the weapons preferred by 
     racist skinheads. Authorities posted a reward but were unable 
     to make an arrest in the crime.


           Anti-Immigration Activists and White Supremacists

       It is not surprising that the most radical anti-Hispanic 
     sentiment is coming from white supremacists; however, there 
     are other groups joining the anti-Hispanic crusade. With 
     mounting public awareness and concern over illegal 
     immigration in America, the issue is also being exploited by 
     extreme anti-immigration activists, some of whom are reaching 
     out to white supremacists. The rhetoric of these activists is 
     largely aimed at Mexicans, not other illegal aliens, and 
     frequently does not distinguish between Mexicans and Mexican-
     Americans.
       This extreme end of the anti-immigration movement includes 
     both anti-Hispanic hate groups masquerading as immigration 
     reform groups as well as vigilante border patrol groups, who 
     conduct armed patrols along the borders of the United States. 
     Several border vigilantes have been arrested on weapons 
     charges. Casey Nethercott, for example, associated with 
     border vigilante groups such as Ranch Rescue and the Arizona 
     Guard, is currently serving a five-year prison term on 
     weapons charges stemming from a 2003 incident in which he and 
     others confronted and assaulted two Salvadorans when on 
     ``patrol.''
       The vigilante border patrol groups have operated for 
     several years but have expanded greatly in the past twelve 
     months, spurred on by the media attention given to the so-
     called ``Minuteman Project.'' In April 2005, Chris Simcox, 
     who founded the Arizona-based Civil Homeland Defense, a 
     border vigilante group, and Jim Gilchrist, based in 
     California, joined forces to create the Minuteman Project, 
     whose purpose was to gather

[[Page 10973]]

     thousands of volunteers for a month-long watch for illegal 
     border crossers in Arizona. The project, which was highly 
     publicized among right-wing extremists and white 
     supremacists, attracted far fewer volunteers, many of them 
     armed, during its first week. However, the publicity 
     generated by the event resulted in numerous Minuteman 
     chapters and spinoffs forming across America, even in states 
     such as New York, Virginia, Vermont, and Illinois. These 
     groups use the same radical rhetoric: that the United States 
     is being ``invaded'' by Mexicans who must be stopped.
       That message was clear at a three-day summit, ``Unite to 
     Fight Against Illegal Immigration,'' held in Las Vegas, 
     Nevada, in May 2005. More than 400 anti-immigration activists 
     gathered at the event to hear speakers describe illegal 
     immigrants as ``the enemy within'' and ``illegal 
     barbarians,'' while suggesting that America was ``at war'' 
     with illegal immigrants and urging people to ``take America 
     back.''
       Many of these anti-immigrant extremists have switched their 
     focus from the border to day laborer centers, where they 
     photograph Hispanics whom they assume are illegal aliens. 
     This racial profiling has also occurred at fast food 
     restaurants and other businesses where Hispanics are employed 
     across the United States. White supremacist and anti-
     government groups continue to express interest and take part 
     in these activities, and their rhetoric has become more and 
     more confrontational.


                 Internet Video Games Target Hispanics

       Extremists have shown a renewed interest in populating the 
     Internet with links to video games that target Hispanics, 
     portraying them not as productive contributors to society, 
     but as objects of scorn, derision and hate. Shoot-to-kill 
     video games such as ``Border Patrol,'' a game created in 
     Flash that is easily accessible on the Internet through 
     extremist Web sites, have become increasingly popular among 
     those opposed to immigration and are widely shared among 
     extremists in the United States. This has especially been the 
     case as the national discussion over immigration has gathered 
     force.
       In ``Border Patrol''--one of the more popular Flash games 
     available on the Internet through various extremist Web 
     sites--the object is to ``kill'' caricatures of Mexicans as 
     they attempt to cross the border and gain entry to the U.S.
       Players control a gun and are charged with killing 
     stereotypical Mexicans. Targets include a ``Mexican 
     nationalist,'' who carries a Mexican flag and a pistol; a 
     ``Drug smuggler,'' wearing a sombrero and carrying a bag of 
     marijuana on his back; and finally a ``Breeder''--a pregnant 
     woman who has two small children in tow. Aside from the 
     virulently anti-Hispanic themes within the game, it also 
     hints at anti-Semitic myths such as ``Jewish control'' of the 
     U.S. through an image where the border is represented by a 
     bullet-ridden sign showing an American flag whose 50 stars 
     have been replaced by a single Jewish Star of David.
       Under this sign, another small sign directs the Mexicans to 
     a ``Welfare Office.'' The player ``wins'' when he or she has 
     made 88 kills. The number 88 has significance to neo-Nazis, 
     who use it as shorthand for ``Heil Hitler'' (``H'' is the 
     eighth letter of the alphabet).
       ``Border Patrol'' was first created in 2002 by the now-
     defunct website ``Zine 14,'' and was soon being copied and 
     distributed by extremists and others. In March 2003, the neo-
     Nazi Aryan Nations group and Christian Identity preacher 
     James Wickstrom both linked to copies of this game from the 
     front pages of their Web sites. In recent months, the game 
     has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, largely due to neo-
     Nazis trying to capitalize on the national immigration 
     debate. Neo-Nazi leader Tom Metzger posted the game on his 
     Web site, and other extremists have linked to it and promoted 
     it on fringe online discussion groups.
       Games, music and cartoons are some of the methods extremist 
     groups rely on as part of their efforts to reach a younger 
     audience and to expose them to their hateful ideas and 
     beliefs. Cartoon-like Flash games are seen as ideal for this 
     task, because they are small and easy to create and share 
     over the Internet, or enclose in an email message. In recent 
     years, extremist groups such as the neo-Nazi National 
     Alliance have also created more sophisticated video games, 
     such as ``Ethnic Cleansing,'' a game available on CD-ROM that 
     also engages in the stereotyping and demonizing of Hispanics. 
     Their aim is to attact unsuspecting users to extremist Web 
     sites, where they can be exposed to the message and goals of 
     the hate groups.
       Such games are tools that extremists increasingly use to 
     desensitize people against acts of violence, to portray hate 
     crimes as something to be celebrated, to dehumanize America's 
     Hispanic population and to draw attention to their cause 
     using the new technologies available to them on the Internet.

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