It’s no secret that the national debate surrounding illegal immigration has at a boiling point in recent years. With that in mind, as Diverse Education reports, it’s probably not a coincidence that the number of hate crimes committed against Latinos in recent years has also increased significantly:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled “The Year in Hate,” said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in 2006 and 602 in 2000. . . .

[The SPLC] said hate groups were proliferating because a growing number of Americans were agitated by the immigration debate. He said many new groups had appeared in the border states of California, Texas and Arizona where illegal immigration has been a particularly volatile issue.

The article goes on to report that the SPLC has officially designated the largest and most vocal anti-illegal immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, as a hate organization, based on the published beliefs and actions of many of its members, supporters, and/or contributors.

If you’d like more information on specific incidents of anti-Latino hate crimes committed recently, the SPLC lists many examples on their website.

All in all, I am very saddened but not surprised to hear about this upward trend in anti-Latino hate crimes. History has consistently shown that whenever the American economy is struggling and there’s more competition for economic survival, racial/ethnic groups are almost sure to become targets of racial violence.

With the issue of illegal immigration still a prominent hot-button topic for conservatives and because illegal immigration critics frequently are not able or willing to distinguish between those who are legal immigrants or not, Latinos are inevitably the most convenient targets.

Unfortunately things do not look encouraging as we move forward this year, as more signs point to a coming recession (if we’re not there already), which means even more hostility is likely to be directed at Latinos.