On September 25, 2016, Claud “Tex” McIver shot his wife in the back, through the seat of her SUV. He killed her. McIver is an older white man, a lawyer, and a man married for more than a decade to the wife he killed. The couple was wealthy.

Most of the above makes Tex McIver a part of several cohorts to which I belong: old, married, white guys.

He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced. But nobody attempted to blame me and others like me for the crime. Nobody screamed out that old, white guys should be tarred with the brush marked “murderer.” In fact, I would guess that the thought crossed very few, if any, minds.

On February 14, 2018—Valentine’s Day—Nickolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 people—14 students and three staff members—and wounded 17 more. The murderer was an ex-student, one who had been expelled from the school. But there was no uproar calling for the targeting of students, ex-students, or even expelled students.

In fact, the most noise raised in protest regarding the shooting was when Marjorie Taylor Greene twice accosted David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, mocking him.

It’s illogical, but not surprising that the only time we spread the blame over whole populations is when those populations don’t look like us.

We’re watching that play out right now. On February 22, 2024, Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan native who entered the United States illegally, allegedly killed Laken Riley. Ibarra has not yet been tried or convicted. However, he has become example number one of the dangers of illegal immigrants. The Georgia legislature has said so. The US Congress has said so. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted out Riley's name during Biden’s State of the Union address. Katie Britt, in her rebuttal to the State of the Union address, declared that President Biden was responsible for the death of Laken Riley.

Nobody can deny the tragedy of this death, just as we cannot deny the tragedy of the other violent deaths that occur all around us every day. Laken Riley was a nursing student, someone whose life not only had potential but also the potential to help relieve the suffering of others. That potential will never be realized. We should mourn for her. We should feel the loss.

But that’s not what this is about. As tragic as Laken Riley’s death is, that tragedy has been both stained and overshadowed by the rush to use it as a weapon in the political wars. After the Parkland shooting, Ted Cruz said the following in an interview: “As soon as night follows day, you can bet the Democrats are going to be looking to advance their own political agenda rather than to work to stop this kind of horrific violence and to keep everyone safe.”

This, of course, is a man from the same party as the woman who accosted David Hogg on the street, accusing him of being a puppet and only speaking scripted lines.

That Republicans (at least those of the Trump persuasion) are hypocrites shouldn’t surprise anyone. Their religious leaders wrap their arms around a man who has made lying, hatred, and immorality major parts of his brand. Their political leaders shriek in horror at the size of the national debt, ignoring that the greatest additions to that debt have been from Republicans. Now they clutch their collective pearls over illegal aliens while refusing to pass (or even bring to a vote) a bipartisan immigration reform bill already passed by the Senate. Trump has reportedly told his minions that he doesn’t want it passed before the election. He’d rather have an election issue than a solution.

They justify this faux outrage by stressing the lawlessness that follows illegal immigration. The problem they have, however, is that legitimate studies don’t support their accusation that crime figures soar when immigrants arrive. The DOJ, using data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, found that native-born US citizens were twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than undocumented immigrants. Another study found that cities where immigrants have been relocated actually saw a reduction in violent crime.

It is, I think, an insult to the memory of Laken Riley to layer her death with political expediency. It is incumbent on our society to seek and find justice for her death. That means that Jose Ibarra, if convicted, will be properly punished. That will not lessen the family’s grief, but it’s what a civilized country does. We do not use it as an excuse to further our political agendas.

If the Republicans want to do something about immigration, I suggest they deal with the immigration reform bill before them. And so far as Marjorie Taylor Greene is concerned, I would quote what Saint Stephen almost said: Forgive her, for she doesn’t know any better.