The Hispanic immigrant population is America’s newest scapegoat. Because of their newcomer status, their skin color, and “job-taking” stereotypes, these hard-working men and women have recently become subject to a plague of violent crimes, making national news.Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, a rapid increase in demand for cheap labor has arisen in an effort to rebuild New Orleans. This is where the Hondurans, Mexicans, and Guatemalans came in. They soon realized that the land of milk and honey was not always the safest place in which to be a newcomer.

“Various immigrant groups were treated differently according to the particular demands of the labor market and the state of the U.S. economy,” said Professor of History Sarah Malino. “When the economy was expanding and industry growing, many immigrants were welcomed to fill various industrial jobs.”

The Hispanics who have found employment in New Orleans are paid on an under-the-table, day-to-day basis, ending with a wad of cash in their pockets at the end of each day or week.

The men are picked up by vans in the mornings at parking lots, brought into town where they work all day, and dropped off again where they were picked up.

Most of the men do not have cars, and are forced to walk back home in the dark. Because of this, many of the workers, who are often sending the majority of their pay home to their families, are accosted by New Orleans natives, assaulted, and robbed.

The natives have even created a nickname for the workers: “walking ATM’s.”

“You don’t get a chance to do anything,” said Honduran laborer Geovanny Billado to The New York Times. “They just fall on top of you. It’s better to just give the money up front. If you don’t give it to them, they’ll beat you and take it anyway.”

Police reports fail to provide an accurate portrayal of the crimes, as many of the immigrants are undocumented and reluctant to go to the authorities. But local news suggests that at least half a dozen Hispanic laborers have been shot and killed in the New Orleans metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina, not to mention countless robberies.

Perhaps worse is the violence occurring in New York-violence driven more by hatred and racism than a monetary incentive.

On Nov. 8, Marcelo Lucero, an immigrant from Ecuador, was stabbed to death in Patchogue, N.Y.

This was not an isolated incident, but rather part of a string of hate crimes performed by seven teenagers, who saw their behavior as a form of sport they referred to as “beaner hopping,” according to court documents.

“I don’t go out doing this very often,” said one of the seven boys to the authorities. “Maybe once a week.”

“To them, it was a sport,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota, during a news conference after the defendants were arraigned. “We know for sure that there are more victims out there.”

But until the incident on Nov. 8, the Suffolk police were unaware of these numerous hate crimes, again mainly due to the fact that many of the victims were undocumented immigrants fearful of contact with police.

“”I told people, here the authorities are waiting for a white to kill a Hispanic or a Hispanic to kill a white,” said Carlos Orellana, an Ecuadoran construction worker who was mugged on July 4 in New York. “They keep attacking and robbing, and nothing changes. There had to be a death, and the death was Lucero.”

Immigrant abuse is something that has been going on since the birth of our nation. As our need for unskilled and low-paying labor rises from time to time, a new group of outsiders is usually brought in, placed on the bottom of the totem pole, and often subjected to forms of discrimination and even violence.

“White Protestants often considered Native Americans, African-Americans and Latinos as groups who could not assimilate into ‘mainstream America’ and legal decisions as well as discriminatory laws reflect this view,” said Malino. “This is a complex subject, and there are a lot of gray areas.