Speech #1090144230

I thank Congressman BACA for bringing us together to acknowledge that hateful speech generates hateful acts. And I hope that we will have an opportunity as we discuss the immigration pathway for so many who are claiming Americas dream that we will bring the tone down. Let me applaud the community of Houston where I come from where we are establishing weekly meetings called Houstons Unity Effort on Immigration. Let me tell how immigration and hateful talk can generate ugly acts. The sodomizing of a teenager by Anglo youth. white youth. a Hispanic youth when the piquing comments about immigration were rising to the worst that we could hear. That young man now lays in a hospital bed recuperating. and I have asked for an Attorney General investigation as to the violation of his civil rights. Or. as been said. a video game that gives the highest points to a dead Mexican pregnant woman coming over the border. That is a lack of understanding and sensitivity. And just recently in Round Rock. Texas where a bailiff called a young teenager who simply wanted to express their constitutional rights in walking out of a high school to claim some sort of dignity on immigration called them a wetback. and that same community charging them with misdemeanors for simply expressing their freedom of speech. I know this Nation can do better and I know that we can do better. That is why I join with Congressman BACA to say that hateful speech generates hateful acts. This is the beginning of a hate crime if we begin to talk in a hateful way. Immigration can be done comprehensively. border security. and comprehensive immigration reform. Let us tone it down. Let us be reasonable and respectful.