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Fightdirecto -> Is there a double standard here? (10/12/2011 10:03:59 AM)
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Irish native identified as murder victim
quote:
Irish native identified as murder victim
An Irish immigrant shot to death near Nahant Avenue in Dorchester early Monday morning has been identified as Ciaran Conneely, 36, of Dorchester, according to Boston Police.
Conneely was originally from Galway, Ireland, police said. The murder was the city’s 50th so far this year.
The details surrounding the incident are unclear and investigators encourage anyone with information to come forward, police said.
Tragic, right? Of course it is – anyone murdered in such a manner is a tragic event.
However -
Mr. Conneely, as reported in other news articles, was an undocumented, illegal immigrant from Ireland who had been living and working in South Boston, Massachusetts for over 12 years and worked for various local construction companies.
I could not help reflecting, however, of how differently this story of the life and tragic death of Mr. Conneely might have been reported if he were, for example, Mr. Tomas Santiago, an illegal from, say, Mexico who had been living and working in Boston for 12 years (as Mr. Conneely had). If it had been the hypothetical Mexican Mr. Santiago that had been murdered rather than the late Irish Mr Conneely, newspapers would write editorials and columns and talk-radio commentators would fill the air waves with comments complaining about why was this undocumented, illegal immigrant allowed to live in the United States for 12 years without being arrested, imprisoned and deported. They would write or talk about the criminality of those who supported, protected and shielded this undocumented, illegal immigrant and failed to turn him in to ICE. They would write or talk about how the owners of the various construction companies this undocumented, illegal immigrant worked for these past 12 years should be punished for hiring this undocumented, illegal immigrant.
We seem to have a double standard regarding illegal immigrants here in the United States. If they are Hispanic or Asian, we must ferret them out, regardless of the financial cost, imprison them and quickly deport them. If they are from Ireland like Mr. Conneely, we welcome them, support them, protect them and would never consider turning them over to ICE to be deported. If any of my Irish or Scots relatives were to sneak into the United States illegally (without my knowledge, of course [;)]], I doubt if they would ever have to worry about ICE - they speak English (albeit with Irish or Scots accents) and look Anglo-Saxon.
In 2007, we had a great deal of local and national news coverage when Michael Bianco, Inc., in New Bedford, Massachusetts was raided and the majority of the workers, 361 illegal immigrants from Central America, were arrested, shipped to a prison in Texas and deported. A particular columnist from one of the Boston newspapers (the Boston Herald) wrote applauding ICE for the deportations and complaining that such action should have taken place sooner. But the same columnist, a few months later, wrote attacking the same ICE officers for deporting an Irish illegal and his wife who had been running a roofing business in Massachusetts for 15 plus years.
Hypothetically, what would be the reaction; nationally, internationally and locally; if ICE conducted a massive raid in South Boston (the predominantly Irish and Irish-American section of Boston), arrested 360 illegal Irish immigrants, held them in a Texas prison until deporting them to Ireland?
I shudder at the thought.
[image]local://upfiles/42188/D413E23B893D4C3A8D7F29FEAA647F42.jpg[/image]
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