Xenophobia

How many times have you heard the Republicans say they are not racist? Well actions speak louder than words.

Outrage as Oklahoma bill labels Hispanic gang members ‘terrorists’
Republican JJ Humphrey seeks punishments for ‘acts of terrorism’ and defines terrorist as ‘any person who is of Hispanic descent’
The Guardian
By Erum Salam
18 Jan 2024

An Oklahoma lawmaker is facing backlash for proposing a discriminatory bill that deems gang members of Hispanic descent as “terrorists”.

The Republican state representative JJ Humphrey introduced the bill, HB 3133, which seeks to combat problems in the state, such as drug and human trafficking, and lay out punishments to those who have committed these “acts of terrorism”.

The punishment for such a crime would be forfeiting all assets, including any and all property, vehicles and money.

In addition to “a member of a criminal street gang” and someone who “has been convicted of a gang-related offense”, the bill defines a terrorist as “any person who is of Hispanic descent living within the state of Oklahoma”.

They know that this law will not last 5 minutes in court, but they still proposed it.

The State senator Michael Brooks, who serves as the senate’s minority caucus vice-chair and founded the Oklahoma Latino legislative caucus, said the move by Humphrey was unsurprising.

“To have the law treat people differently based on their race or ethnicity only creates greater divides,” Brooks said. “The bill is fatally flawed, and I don’t know if there’s much of a way to be able to change it.”

NBC News reported,

An Oklahoma bill has stirred controversy in the state Legislature for seeking to label Hispanic people who are gang members as terrorists. No other racial or ethnic group is singled out in the legislation.

[…]

Humphrey told NBC News that the bill was meant to focus on “those people who are here illegally and who are coming across the border and trying to do harm to America and to Oklahoma.

So you say you’re not a racist… well I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

The senator double down with,

Humphrey has also said that “Chinese nationals” are contributing to the fentanyl crisis, but did not explicitly mention that group in the bill. There were 3,547 unintentional drug overdose deaths in the state between 2017 to 2021, according to data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Fentanyl was involved in 579 of those deaths.

The Democrats replied,

“All groups have a constitutional right to due process and also a constitutional right not to be discriminated against or to be singled out,” Brooks said. “Nobody is in favor or I don’t think there’s an appetite anymore for more divisive politics. Personally, I think his constituents deserve better than this type of legislation.”

The Representative Humphrey this morning I have awarded him the Cuckoo Award for “to remove ‘furries,’ individuals who role-play as anthropomorphized animal characters, from school activities.”