Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is being highly criticized after labeling five family members who reportedly were slaughtered “almost execution style” by a neighbor, “illegal immigrants.” He’s also wrong, according to an immigrants rights activist who posted what he says is the green card of one of the victims, which would mean she was in the U.S. lawfully and legally.
On Friday the suspect – still at large –38-year old Francisco Oropeza, was asked by one of his Cleveland, Texas neighbors to stop shooting off his AR-15 in his front yard, Reuters reports, because it was keeping their baby awake. He then allegedly went to their house and shot to death the mother, her 8-year old son, and three members of their extended family who were at the house at the time.
Abbott waited until Sunday to make his remarks about the massacre, including a $50,000 reward. Friday’s massacre is the 174th mass shooting this year (there have been 10 more since).
The victims are: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8. Guzman owned the house she and her family members were slaughtered in. Contrary to Governor Abbott’s claim, she is a legal U.S. resident, according to Carlos Eduardo Espina, who posted a copy of her green card to social media. The Houston Chronicle cited the green card post in their reporting.
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There are unconfirmed reports on social media that at least some of the victims were in the U.S. seeking asylum, which would also mean they were not “illegal immigrants.”
Criticism is coming in hard and fast, with many noting that the victims’ immigration status has absolutely nothing to do with their deaths, and Abbott calling it out dehumanizes them. This latest criticism against Abbott for not recognizing the victims’ humanity echoes criticism he received last year, after his response to the deaths of more than 50 people found in San Antonio locked in a tractor-trailer that crossed the border into the United States. Abbott blamed the deaths on President Biden and his so-called “open-border policies.”
“Nice way to try and blame 5 victims of your gun policies—including an 8 yo, and the two little kids who survived—as the problem, you utter moral stain,” tweeted Mother Jones Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery, who is also the President of the American Society of Magazine Editors.
“How do you honor a family who was just tragically murdered?” asked Democratic strategist Larry Huynh. “Praising the parents who sacrificed to offer their child a better life? Offering condolences to the family members & hundreds of community members mourning their loss? Not if you’re sociopath Greg Abbott.”
“8 innocent ppl incl. an 8 year old child murdered, but the Gov remains focused on the political benefits of dehumanizing them,” tweeted former President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Sherrilyn Ifill. “The moral rot that has been revealed in so many political leaders tells me that we are a short distance from having the capacity to do & allow the worst.”
Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor for the Atlantic, responded: “Moral rot. The prefect descriptor for Greg Abbott.”