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Michael Earls
(202) 261-2388
A federal grand jury has convicted
two Pennsylvania men of committing a hate crime in the murder of Luis
Ramirez in 2008. The verdict is welcome and long overdue. Now, it's
time for politicians and media personalities to end the hateful rhetoric
and immigrant bashing that has created a hostile climate for Latinos
and encouraged hate crimes like the murder of Mr. Ramirez.
A federal grand jury has convicted
two Pennsylvania men of committing a hate crime in the murder of Luis
Ramirez in 2008. The verdict is welcome and long overdue. Now, it's
time for politicians and media personalities to end the hateful rhetoric
and immigrant bashing that has created a hostile climate for Latinos
and encouraged hate crimes like the murder of Mr. Ramirez.
This campaign season, a number of candidates are running race-baiting campaign ads
that demonize immigrants, and using extreme, anti-immigrant rhetoric in
their voter outreach. Republican Senate candidates David Vitter (R-LA)
and Sharron Angle of Nevada are both running anti-immigrant ads that
paint Latinos as dangerous criminals, freeloaders, and the enemies of
native-born Americans.
The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos rose 32% between 2003 and 2008 (the last year for which data is available), and groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center have documented a correlation between anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-Latino violence.
According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America's Voice: "Hateful
campaign ads and rhetoric that demonize immigrants have no place in
America today. It's as if some politicians think there is no cost for
immigrant-bashing. Well they are wrong. This type of rhetoric creates a
climate where violent crimes are committed against human beings simply
because of the color of their skin. Yesterday's verdict in the Luis
Ramirez murder is just, but it's not nearly enough. Politicians and
pundits must stop using immigrants as scapegoats and instead use their
microphones to spread a message of tolerance, humanity, and the need for
common sense immigration reform."
On July 14, 2008, Ramirez was beaten to death by a group of teenagers
who yelled racial epithets throughout the killing. A retired
Philadelphia police officer said she heard one of the defendants yell to
Mr. Ramirez's friends, "Tell your [expletive] Mexican friends to get
the [expletive] out of Shenandoah or you'll be [expletive] laying next
to him." Defendants were reported to have yelled, "Go back to Mexico"
as they beat him to death.
Despite the evidence, an all-white jury found two of the defendants "not
guilty" of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation last year, to cheers in the courtroom and the astonishment of the Latino community. The Federal government took up the case and finally justice was served.
But appeals are coming, even some questioning whether Mr. Ramirez' legal
status should prevent him from receiving the protection of the Federal
government.
"Luis Ramirez lost his life because a group of people hates immigrants.
This kind of thing should not happen in America. Politicians who stoke
racial fears and hatred need to realize that their rhetoric has severe
consequences for communities and our country. It's time to end the
politics of division, and work together on a common solution to the
broken immigration system," Tramonte concluded.
America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform. The mission of America's Voice is to realize the promise of workable and humane comprehensive immigration reform. Our goal is to build the public support and create the political momentum for reforms that will transform a dysfunctional immigration system that does not work into a regulatory system that does.
"This is some of the most insane, tone-deaf messaging ever from a political party," said one Democratic strategist.
A Republican candidate for the US Senate thinks Americans should be "patriots" by driving less during President Donald Trump's unprovoked and unconstitutional war against Iran.
Michele Tafoya, a right-wing media personality running for an open US Senate seat in Minnesota, acknowledged during a Thursday interview on local radio station KWAM that the Iran war was causing painful spikes in gas prices, while encouraging US drivers to suck it up in the name of helping Trump succeed.
"I know it's frustrating, and I know it's hard for people," Tafoya said. "It used to be during past wars, especially World War II, Americans got behind our service men and women, and we did little things to show our support for them. We collected metal, we recycled stuff, aluminum, so that we could help in the war effort. I think right now, at least just keeping a stiff upper lip, maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks, so that gas goes a little further, until this thing is over."
Oh my god.
On the radio, NRSC-endorsed Michele Tafoya says that gas prices are spiking because of the Iran war that she supports and that people should “take one less trip to Starbuck’s” and to “just try to be patriots” about it.#mnsen pic.twitter.com/GOvkgZTqV7
— danny (@dabbs346) March 19, 2026
Tafoya then told Americans to "try to be patriots" about a war that was started early on a Saturday morning with no approval from the US Congress.
"Whether you agree with it or not, we're there," she concluded. "And we've got to support our men and women in uniform. That's a big one."
Fred Wellman, a Democrat running for the US House of Representatives in Missouri, said that Tafoya's comments made her look incredibly out of touch.
"Working people can’t get to their second job and pay for gas," Wellman wrote in a social media post. "Uber drivers are losing money doing the job. Small business are in the red for overhead. Prices are spiking because of insane diesel fuel costs. But when you’re a rich lady it’s patriotic to skip coffee. The other 80% wonder how they will eat at all."
Democratic strategist Matt McDermott expressed shock that Tafoya thought it would be a good idea to tell Americans to drive less to support a war that polls show is historically unpopular.
"The average person scrolling social media for the past few weeks has to be thinking that Republicans have absolutely lost their minds," McDermott wrote. "This is some of the most insane, tone-deaf messaging ever from a political party."
"The so-called 'alliance' with Israel does not benefit the American people, and it is time for a new chapter," said the head of the IMEU Policy Project.
As US President Donald Trump confirmed he will be requesting $200 billion to wage his war of choice on Iran, a Thursday poll shows that a majority of Americans believe the war is benefiting Israel more than the United States.
The polling, conducted by Data for Progress for the groups Demand Progress and the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, shows that 56% of likely US voters across the ideological spectrum believe that launching a war against Iran generally benefits Israel more than the United States. Just 29% said it benefits the US more, while 15% said they didn't know.
"The American public does not want another war in the Middle East," said Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian in a statement. "People see billions of taxpayer dollars being poured into a war while prices at home keep rising, and the risks of escalation continue to grow."
"US service members are being killed and injured, and civilian harm is mounting, including strikes that have hit an Iranian school and killed scores of children," Kharrazian continued, pointing to the apparent US attack on a girls' school in Minab. "There is no justification for this open-ended war of choice."

Those surveyed were divided over whether the Israeli government has too much or too little influence over US foreign policy, and whether the United States is providing too much or too little support to Israel. However, a majority of respondents, 53%, said that they disapprove of recent military strikes against Iran, which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began on February 28.
That share dropped only slightly, to 51%, when people were asked their opinion of the strikes once informed that "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US had to launch the war against Iran now because Israel was going to attack Iran anyway, which would cause Iran to respond by attacking US forces in the region."

Shortly after Rubio made those remarks to reporters on Capitol Hill, he and the White House attempted to walk them back. Trump himself publicly pushed back against the suggestion that Israeli officials convinced him to launch a new war in the Middle East with no end in sight, even claiming that "I might have forced their hand."
The new polling also suggests that continuing the war could have an impact at the ballot box in November, when Trump's Republican Party will try to retain its narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. The survey shows respondents are less likely to vote for pro-war candidates or those prioritizing support for Israel.

According to Kharrazian: "The main issue before us now isn't whether the administration has explained its strategy clearly enough. Calls for more hearings or a clearer 'plan' miss the bigger picture; the war must end, full stop."
"The strategy we can all plainly see is bombing Iran into submission despite little indication that such a goal is achievable, while destroying infrastructure and killing more civilians across the country on an indefinite timeline," he said. "Members of Congress should listen to the public, clearly demand an end to this war now, assert their constitutional authority, and ensure not one penny more is spent on this disaster."
In early March, a short list of Democrats voted with nearly all Republicans in the US Senate and House of Representatives to reject war powers resolutions intended to halt Trump's assault on Iran. The upper chamber blocked another measure Wednesday evening.
Lawmakers have done so despite polling that has repeatedly made clear the US public is not thrilled with the war on Iran, whatever ultimately motivated it. Another Data for Progress survey published Thursday shows that 68% of Americans oppose deploying US ground troops to Iran. Additionally, 52% of those surveyed agreed that “going to war with Iran is not worth the risk because it will cost billions of dollars and result in the deaths of civilians and more American service members."
The war has already killed 13 US service members plus thousands of people across the Middle East, mostly in Iran and Lebanon—the latter of which Israel has returned to bombing, allegedly targeting Hezbollah, despite a November 2024 ceasefire related to the genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who previously tried to cut off some US weapons to Israel over its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, on Thursday introduced joint resolutions of disapproval for arms sales to Netanyahu's government following its recent escalation of attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Objections to US contributions to bloodshed in the region have been met with hostility from the Trump administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued Thursday that "the world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump: 'Thank you.'"
Meanwhile, even a significant majority of Americans who voted for Trump in 2024—79%—want a swift end to the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to a Wednesday poll commissioned by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative.
"The American people have paid tens of billions to fund Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and now they are paying tens of billions more for a war that Netanyahu has lobbied for going back decades. The blank checks for Israel were a significant reason why Democrats lost the election in 2024, and Republicans are on the path to suffer the same fate," said Margaret DeReus, executive director of IMEU Policy Project.
"The so-called 'alliance' with Israel does not benefit the American people," DeReus added, "and it is time for a new chapter where our nation's leaders hold Israel accountable for its genocidal expansionism and endless aggression."
New revelations show an IG report about wait times for people seeking help or services was altered after it was submitted to the administration.
A Social Security advocacy organization on Thursday blasted the Trump administration for covering up damaging information contained in an inspector general report released in December.
According to The Washington Post, a report from the Social Security Administration's (SSA) inspector general (IG) about call wait times for beneficiaries was altered to make it seem as though wait times to speak to representatives had been reduced to under 10 minutes per call.
"An unpublished draft of the report... showed that the inspector general had planned to report another metric—called the 'total wait time'—to measure the overall time it takes for callers to be connected with an SSA employee," the Post explained. "According to that draft report, in 2025 total wait time averaged 46 minutes to over two hours."
The Post added that this "information was deleted from the draft after the agency reviewed it before publication."
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, responded to the report by saying that "now we know why [President Donald] Trump fired the inspector general at Social Security," noting that the SSA IG was one of several fired across multiple agencies at the start of Trump's second term.
Altman then argued that the attack on inspectors general was part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle government transparency all together.
"Inspectors general are the American peoples’ eyes and ears in these agencies," said Altman. "The Trump administration is undermining that oversight at every turn. Under this administration, the IG has no ability to conduct independent oversight. There is no meaningful check on the Trump administration’s Social Security sabotage."
Democratic communications consultant Jesse Lee linked the damage to the SSA documented in the draft IG report to efforts by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which went on a firing spree of federal workers last year.
"So DOGE did a smash and grab at the Social Security Administration, breaking into the most sensitive data, firing phone and in-person case workers," Lee wrote. "Trump appointee waved around an IG report claiming wait times were fine—after burying the real report saying they were up to two hours."