A judge ruled on Wednesday that Clifton Blackwell, the white man who threw acid in the face of a Latino U.S. citizen during a racist attack outside a Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee last November, will stand trial. “If he's convicted on the reckless injury charge, Blackwell could face up to 25 years in prison,” The New York Times reports. “But designating the case as a hate crime and charging him with use of a deadly weapon could add sentence enhancers of 10 years more in prison.”
Mahud Villalaz was left with severe burns following the attack last year, which began when Blackwell began to harass the Peruvian-born immigrant about a parking spot before launching into a racist rant that the U.S. citizen should get “the hell out of our country.” Blackwell then threw acid at Villalaz, which ate through his clothes and left him with second-degree burns across his face.
Local advocates had urged prosecutors to charge Blackwell with a hate crime, with Villalaz saying he had no doubt about why he was attacked. "I believe [I] am a victim of a hate crime because [of] how he approached me telling me to 'get out this country,’” he said at the time. Nor was it lost on many that this rhetoric was the same used by impeached president Donald Trump, who himself has inspired a significant number of hateful acts against immigrants and other communities since announcing his candidacy in 2015.
“This violence against our communities is stoked by aggressive language and dangerous rhetoric from politicians and public servants who inspire people around the country to target anyone who looks Latino,” the League of United Latin American Citizens said following the attack on Villalaz, according to a statement received by Daily Kos. “We are labeled outsiders who don’t belong in the United States. The ‘immigrant invasion’ rhetoric we hear every day leads to murders and violence and it must stop now.”
In fact, just a few weeks after the acid attack against Villalaz, HuffPost released a report documenting 800 instances dating back to the start of Trump’s presidency in which attackers, 90% of whom were white, “communicated some variation of ‘go back’ to their victims.” Nearly 100 instances were part of a physical assault, and three were, horrifically, part of a deadly incident. Trump has encouraged this violence, laughing at a supporter’s suggestion during a rally last year to shoot families at the border.