Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has “promised that his office, and the Legislature, would take appropriate action to stop future tragedies” like the El Paso terror attack, but Latinos in the state are saying that if elected officials like Abbott truly want to begin taking meaningful steps to address anti-Latino hatred and white supremacy, maybe they need to look in the mirror first.
Abbott, for example, sent out a fundraising letter that featured violent, anti-immigrant rhetoric just one day before El Paso. "If we're going to defend Texas,” it stated, “we'll need to take matters into our own hands." But Abbott has not only refused to comment on the letter, he this week amplified a tweet from an anti-immigrant troll to his nearly 300,000 Twitter followers.
The El Paso shooter espoused vile rhetoric heard from many Republicans, including Abbott’s lieutenant, Dan Patrick. “It makes me feel like they don’t understand the issue,” said Mario Carrillo, Texas director for immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice. He grew up in El Paso and said he’s “concerned that the leaders in our state aren’t really willing to have the conversation about what it was that led to the shooting in El Paso in the first place.”
During a recent meeting, Latino leaders took their concerns straight to Abbott, Patrick, and Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, The Texas Tribune reports: “One member of the delegation suggested that if state leaders did not mirror the words the affected community was using to process the shooting—white supremacy, white nationalism, racism—they risked giving the impression that they weren’t actually listening.”
Not that there haven’t been state leaders stepping forward: El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar, state Rep. Cesar Blanco, and other local officials are comforting the community and taking anti-Latino hatred and white supremacy straight-on, participating in a number of town halls across the state “to have an honest and transparent conversation.” But it shouldn’t be up to the community getting attacked to figure out how to stop the attacks. That responsibility lies at the feet of Abbott, Patrick, and others who have used similar rhetoric.
“This isn’t political. This isn’t hyperbolic. This is the reality of the situation,” said Dallas ISD school board member Miguel Solis. “Words not only matter but in today’s world, words are having more and more significant existential consequences in our society—a guy drove 10 hours with the intent of slaughtering Latinos.”