Jean Guerrero: Scapegoating immigrant victims of a mass shooting is just the start
There's no such thing as too low for the right-wing propaganda machine.
Conservative commentators have been using the massacre of a Honduran family in Cleveland, Texas, to demonize immigrants, priming their audiences for an up-and-coming wave of anti-immigrant legislation in red states.
Fox News, National Review and other media outlets have been linking the murder of five people, including a 9-year-old boy, to the immigration status of the accused shooter, Francisco Oropesa, who was arrested Tuesday. Oropesa had been deported four times, according to immigration officials.
Research has that undocumented people are substantially to commit violent crimes than people born in this country. But for years, the GOP has deceptively focused on the stories of outliers like Oropesa to encourage Americans to associate immigration with violence — to create the false impression that "" are running amok.
