While many were out marching for an end to deportations and racist immigrant attacks residents of Shanandoah Pennsylvania sent out their own immigration message.  On May 1st despite allegations of racism in jury selection, an all White jury acquitted two of the six murderers of Luis Ramirez. One a young man and the other a teen were former high school football players, who with four other drunken young men, physically assaulted Ramirez and threatened him with racial slurs before a young woman and man attempted to stop the attack.  As the couple attempted to stop the attack Luis was repeatedly kicked in the head with a final kick leaving him in convulsive state with blood and what medical examiners describe as "brain tissue" dripping from his head.  The young men fled the scene with threats and chants of "Go back to Mexico".  As police arrived to the scene they demanded that the couple allow them to search them while ignoring their attempts to get them to pursue the attackers.  The young women, a teen from the local high school the football players attended, identified them to police who did not immediately respond.  Luis an undocumented immigrant and former farm worker, died shortly after the attack. Days later when friends and family attempted to question police about football players not being arrested police responded with "more important things to do". It is rumoured that many local officials have connections to family members of young men involved in the attack. According to residents of the small town, the football team is regarded very highly and respectfully due to political ties. Following the incident when charges were finally filed, the young man who assisted the teens, Derrick Donchak, was filmed at a Halloween party wearing a border patrol t-shirt. However, this was not the only inflammatory incident that took place.  Local politicians and anti-immigration activists attempted to both rationalize and use the attack for their propaganda purposes. A local media campaign painted Ramirez as an aggressive "illegal immigrant" who had he not been in the U.S. would be alive in Mexico.  Rather than acknowledging the murder or simply letting Ramirez rest in piece and the courts do their job many in the town rallied residents to their cause.  Sensing this, the prosecution attempted to push the trial to another town but was denied. Despite the head juror protesting that many other jurors he served with were outright racist, the trial was allowed to proceed and the acquittal stands. Luis Ramirez is survived by his two children.

As a side note the Southern Poverty and Law Center has claimed the number of attacks on Latinos in the US has continued to rise. However they also site that their numbers are very conservative and it is likely a majority of attacks are not going reported due to fear of deportation.