| Pictures of an Hispanic man flashing a gang symbol, another Hispanic man in the custody of immigration officials, and an Hispanic male in a kitchen with a rifle adorn the lastest race-bating mailer sent out by ex-state representative Bill Keffer (R-Dallas) in his grudge match against State Rep. Allen Vaught (D-Dallas).
The mailer, which was paid for by Keffer's campaign, alleges that Vaught says the illegal immigration issue is a "political gimmick," but cites no source to illustrate that Vaught ever made any such statement.
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The mailer, which Democratic sources in Dallas tell us has caused quite an anti-Keffer baclkash in the Hispanic community, also alleges that illegal immigration leads to increased crime, increased drug trafficking, and increased taxes.
What Keffer's campaign doesn't bother to say is that a study issued by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts while Keffer was still in office essentially says the Texas economy would collapse if all illegal immigrants were rounded up and shipped back across the border, which is a strategy Keffer's right-wing GOP allies have advocated before.
Keffer's campaign also fails to point out that illegal immigrants cost Texans less than one percent of the entire state budget when criminal justice, medical care, and education of illegal immigrants are combined. The Comptroller's study confirmed this. Evidently, Keffer didn't bother to read it, although it was issued while he was still in office.
As for the racist aspects of the mailer, they aren't too subtle. For one thing, an Hispanic man standing in a kitchen with a gun is pretty bad. It intimates that all Hispanic men are some type of gun-toting gang bangers, which is, of course, what Keffer wants you to think. The reality is that it is still legal to own a rifle in America, and that the guy in the picture in Keffer's mailer could have been showing off a birthday present, his granfather's gun, or even celebrating a deer hunting trip. But, when put in the context it is, it's clearly racist.
Most white families probably have a photo like that somewhere in their photo albums: the first time their son got a rifle for Christmas, or their brother celebrating a great deer hunt. But Keffer uses the photo of an Hispanic in his own home holding a gun in an attempt to scare white voters. It's racist, and Keffer should be ashamed of himself, period. |
