[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10974-10975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HATE CRIMES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 31, 2006, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas) 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank Congressman Baca for bringing us 
together to acknowledge that hateful speech generates hateful acts. And 
I hope that we will have an opportunity as we discuss the immigration 
pathway for so many who are claiming America's dream that we will bring 
the tone down. Let me applaud the community of Houston where I come 
from where we are establishing weekly meetings called Houston's Unity 
Effort on Immigration.
  Let me tell how immigration and hateful talk can generate ugly acts. 
The sodomizing of a teenager by Anglo youth, white youth, a Hispanic 
youth when the piquing comments about immigration were rising to the 
worst that we could hear. That young man now lays in a hospital bed 
recuperating, and I have asked for an Attorney General investigation as 
to the violation of his civil rights. Or, as been said, a video game 
that gives the highest points to a dead Mexican pregnant woman coming 
over the border. That is a lack of understanding and sensitivity. And 
just recently in Round Rock, Texas where a bailiff called a young 
teenager who simply wanted to express their constitutional rights in 
walking out of a

[[Page 10975]]

high school to claim some sort of dignity on immigration called them a 
wetback, and that same community charging them with misdemeanors for 
simply expressing their freedom of speech.
  I know this Nation can do better and I know that we can do better. 
That is why I join with Congressman Baca to say that hateful speech 
generates hateful acts. This is the beginning of a hate crime if we 
begin to talk in a hateful way. Immigration can be done 
comprehensively, border security, and comprehensive immigration reform. 
Let us tone it down. Let us be reasonable and respectful.
  I would like to yield the rest of my time to Mr. Green from Texas.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. I would like to thank my Houston neighbor 
for yielding me the balance of her time.
  Racial intolerance has divided this country since the Pilgrims landed 
at Plymouth Rock. The history of immigrants coming to this country 
teaches us that when one particular ethnic group comes to this country 
in large numbers, that group becomes the target of false suspicions and 
contempt. This has been true in our Nation's history, whether it be the 
Irish, the Germans, the Italians, or Chinese immigrants.
  In 1921, Congress passed the first immigration restrictions because 
we were worried immigrants were coming in and taking our jobs. Now 
today we face a similar climate. We navigate through our latest effort 
to address immigration in this country with Hispanics, mostly from 
Mexico. Just last month, in my home county, we had a young Mexican 
American teenager who was nearly beaten to death and sexually assaulted 
by two white teenagers who were known to be racist.
  Unfortunately, our country has seen a rise in crimes targeting 
particular races, ethnicities, and genders over the past few years. To 
combat this growing trend, many States and the Federal Government have 
considered and passed legislation designated as hate crimes 
legislation. If someone attacks me or my property because I am an 
Anglo, that is a crime and they should be punished. But if they attack 
me because I am an Anglo and they destroy my property or attack me, 
that should have a higher punishment level. And that is true in this 
country and it should be true in many of our States, and we need to 
make sure that happens. It is bad enough to have your property or you 
hurt, but somebody just doing wrong against you but doing it because 
they don't like your race, your ethnicity, the color of your skin, your 
religion or your gender is just wrong. Everyone should be protected 
from hate crimes regardless of where they occur.
  Our Federal law only covers hate crimes if it is a federally 
protected activity. This young man was actually at a private residence, 
so the U.S. Attorney says they can't file a hate crime in Texas. We are 
still working on the state law. Hopefully, the district attorney will 
do it.
  All Americans should be outraged by these video games that the 
Internet depicts shooting caricatures of Mexicans crossing our border. 
This only incites needless hatred and creates more confusion on an 
issue that is already complicated. I hope my colleagues in the House 
will join me in denouncing and stopping any racial overtones 
surrounding the immigration issue. Our country is made up of 
immigrants; we all came from somewhere. Some of us were lucky enough, 
our parents got here sooner than others, but we are representative of 
every nationality and every ethnicity in the world.
  I thank Congressman Baca for putting this together and my colleague 
from Texas for yielding.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Let me close by simply thanking you and 
saying that, in addition, we want to make sure that we don't undermine 
the Voter Rights Act by fighting over the language provision that 
should be included. That is actually part of the history of the Voting 
Rights Act, and I am very proud of Barbara Jordan some years ago the 
Voter Rights Act to include language minorities.
  Mr. Speaker, hate crimes, hate acts, we need to recognize that this 
is what generates out of lack of understanding, and I believe Americans 
are better than this and understand the value of the comprehensive 
immigration reform border security without the attacking on young 
people who are innocent and become innocent victims of our hateful 
talk. We can do better and America can do better.

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