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Donald Trump and a legion of opportunistic legislators and elected officials, both local and national, have centered their careers on promoting the myth of the dangerous undocumented immigrants threatening Americans. Bristol County and surrounding cities and towns in Rhode Island have been bombarded with this unsupported allegation for many years despite evidence to the contrary.
Unfortunately, the myth lives on at the highest levels of government and has been a rallying cry to the millions of voters who believe this stereotype and have made it their major incentive for supporting politicians who have consistently acted against their best interest on many issues.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island have huge immigrant populations from continental Portugal, the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. Anyone who has lived or spent significant time in these communities knows the reality that the majority of felonies, especially murder, are committed by American born or legally naturalized citizens, not undocumented immigrants.
This most recent murderous attack at Brown University and upon the MIT professor was presumably committed by a Portuguese immigrant, here with a green card, with personal, rather than political, motivations. Hopefully, this administration will not now place Portugal, or former colonies, on the list of banned travel and immigration restrictions.
Crime is undeniably proportionally higher in the United States than any other industrialized country, and random mass murders more frequent as well. These so-called domestic terrorist attacks are occurring with frightening regularity. And it has been accurately reported that, except for one situation, all these attacks have been committed by American born or naturalized citizens.
It must be remembered that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, was American born, as were so many of the succeeding mass murderers.
Hopefully there will not be a rush to judgment and condemnation of Portuguese immigrants, adding them to the list of the beleaguered and falsely vilified members of our society.
Betty Ussach is a Dartmouth resident.