Remembering Luis

(This originally appeared on Rock the Trail -- a project of Rock the Vote and WireTap)

I was shocked when I found out that three teenagers beat a 25 year old Mexican immigrant to death. The Washington Times reported: "Three white teens were charged in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town."

Three caucasian teens were the cause of this heinous crime. I am 19 and these kids are 18, 17, and 16 years of age- just a year or two younger than myself. How can they be capable of doing this? These three teenagers beat up Luis Ramirez until he was left unconscious. He later died in the hospital.

I honestly thought that racism in our generation was a thing of the past -- I guess I was wrong. As these three young men were yelling racial slurs to Ramirez, they kicked him repeatedly in the head and in his body and he was left for dead. The three teens were yelling as they walked away and told Ramirez to go back to Mexico and that he didn't belong in this country. The words allegedly hurled at Ramirez, and the perceived sentiments behind them, have led prosecutors to label his death a hate crime. What were these kids thinking? The boys who committed the crime will be tried as adults in this case and their lives are guaranteed to change forever.

We need to understand that as a generation we must stick together and break the barriers of racism. According to CNN, "Eileen Burke, a retired Philadelphia police officer, had stepped out of her home after hearing Arielle Garcia's pleas to stop the beating. Burke recalled hearing one final ominous threat as the teens ran. "They yelled, 'You effin' bitch, tell your effin' Mexican friends get the eff out of Shenandoah or you're gonna be laying effin' next to him,' " she said.

"There's outrage among Anglos and Latinos over what happened, and I think that's representative of the attitude here," said the Rev. George Winne, who is in charge of Hispanic ministries at Annunciation. Other community members in town acknowledge that Ramirez did not deserve to die. They say violence has been brewing for some time.

Racism doesn't get us anywhere in life. It actually tears friendships and communities apart. The small town in Pennsylvannia is heavily shaken by the crime. Ramirez had just moved here with his family in May, and he would have never imagined that this country would become a death trap. Luis Ramirez was taken off life support two days after the fight. His body was flown back to his mother in Guanajuato, Mexico, with donations from the parishioners of Annunciation Church in Shenandoah.

I wish, I hope, I dream that one day immigrants will be able to be treated with respect and given the dignity they deserve. We need to find a way to allow them to come to this nation legally with the chances of letting them pursue the American Dream. First, though, we need an immigration policy that is fair to all those who are concerned and then we need to demonstrate to America that immigrants are the biggest helping hand in this nation!