New York Times
By Maggie Haberman
February 12, 2016
Abandoning
a plan to run strictly positive ads in South Carolina, Donald J.
Trump’s campaign released one that focused on the 2008 murder of a black
teenage athlete in
Los Angeles by an illegal immigrant.
The
ad features Jamiel Shaw Sr., the teenager’s father, supporting Mr.
Trump, who has embraced a hard-line stand against those in the United
States illegally and vowed
to build a wall along the southern border.
The
ad conveys a sense of menace without attacking any of the other
Republicans in the race, and highlights a core argument of Mr. Trump’s
campaign. It is in some ways
evocative of the well-known “Willie Horton” ad that ran against the
1988 Democratic presidential nominee, Gov. Michael Dukakis of
Masschusetts. That ad, which featured a black man who killed a white
person after being released from prison under a Dukakis administration
program, was overtly racial; the Trump ad does not mention the
nationality or background of the man convicted in the 2008 killing. The
testimonial from the elder Mr. Shaw softens what is otherwise a
tough-on-crime, tough-on-illegal-immigration spot. And without
a specific attack on another candidate or person, it diffuses a key
element of what made the Horton spot famous.
Regardless
of how people view the politics of the immigration debate, the spot is
certain to stand out amid a clutter of advertising on the South Carolina
airwaves.
Mr.
Trump has been criticized by Hispanic groups and others since June,
when in announcing his candidacy he said of Mexican immigrants: “They’re
bringing drugs. They’re
bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
His
stands on illegal immigration, however, have also fueled his
popularity; in easily winning the New Hampshire primary, he performed
best among voters who said immigration
was the issue most important to them, according to exit polls.
Mr.
Shaw’s son, Jamiel Jr., 17, known as Jas, was shot dead by an illegal
immigrant who, prosecutors said, mistook Jamiel for being a member of an
opposing gang because
of the color of his backpack. The immigrant, Pedro Espinoza, was
convicted and sentenced to death in 2012.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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