Hate Thy Neighbor

With Pres. Bush's recent speech calling for greater vigilance against immigrants from Mexico and other countries, will there be a greater violent backlash against illegal immigrants. New data from the Bureau of Justice (a non-profit organization, not the Department of Justice) could foreshadow darker days for undocumented workers and their families...

According to the Mother Jones blog, large number of immigrants do not report hate crimes, because they are afraid of being deported:

Why are hate crimes so underreported? Neiwert suggests it could be because of the rise of violence against immigrants, many who are here either illegally—and are afraid of being deported by going to the police—or, perhaps, are "guest workers" who would rather get on with their lives and not have any trouble with law enforcement. Either way, though, Neiwert's characterization of hate crimes as "acts of terrorism directed at entire communities of people" seems perfectly apt, and it's pretty obvious that the problem is massive.