People in Colorado are outraged over an anti-immigrant bumper sticker with a violent message, NBC affiliate 9 News reports.
Intended as a joke for people who find the idea of killing immigrants funny, the sticker reads “illegal immigrant hunting permit” over a map of the continental United States. “No bag limit -- tagging not required,” the sticker says.
The sticker is made by a company called Central States Novelty, according to 9 News. The sticker vendor describes itself on its website as “one of, if not the largest, wholesale supplier of novelties, gifts and general merchandise for the convenience store and truck stop industry in the Midwest.”
It wasn’t the first time the image had sparked an uproar. In October 2011, an online retailer in the San Francisco Bay area called CafePress stopped selling a t-shirt with the same "illegal immigrant hunting permit" image after getting complaints.
"This product has absolutely no use other than to spread, incite, promote and justify racial hatred, violence, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred based on intolerance and to demonize immigrants as invaders who should be shot on sight," activist Victor Hoelscher wrote in a petition to CafePress at the time.
Blog Latino Rebels slammed the sticker, calling it racist and calling its anti-immigrant message offensive to Hispanics.
The sticker incident recalled a similar episode in which a Mexican restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina, owned by woman named Leanne Snelgrove drew national attention for selling t-shirts reading “how to catch an illegal immigrant,” with an image of a box over a taco being used as bait.
Many Latinos and immigrant advocates protested the shirt as offensive. The media coverage caused a spike in sales, with the shirt becoming popular among Texas Border Patrol agents, The State reports.
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