Jose Patino, a 25-year-old undocumented immigrant, said that he was sitting at a table under a pitched tent outside the Phoenix, Arizona immigration detention center with two other immigration advocates when a black car drove up to the curb and stopped on Tuesday morning. The driver honked for their attention and a man rolled down his passenger side window to shout racial expletives before hurling a small object at them. The object landed underneath the table as the car sped off. Patino picked up the object. It was a wrapped burrito with the words “Learn English Wetback. Go back to Mexico.” The term “wetback” is an offensive label for Mexicans.
“This is a shame that this happened in Arizona,” Patino said over the phone with ThinkProgress. He was on his second day of supporting a 14-day hunger strike by seven people who have family members inside the Phoenix immigration detention center. He continued, “The whole reason we’re doing this is because we’re doing a sacrifice so people can understand where we’re coming from.”
Twenty-five-year-old U.S. citizen Sandra Castro was sitting with her back against the street, reading a book when the car honked. She didn’t turn to look when the man hurled the burrito in her direction, but heard it land near her foot. “People have been honking all morning,” she explained. “They either honk to support or honk to counter-protest. Sometimes they’ll honk and shout, ‘go back home’ or shout ‘yea we support you.’ But folks have gotten aggressive. We have three counter-protesters who are sitting in their trucks, eating lunch. They have ‘no open border’ and ’1800 deport’ signs.”
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