THE ISSUE
“Elizabethtown Borough Council, by a vote of 4-2, approved a resolution Thursday directing police to fully cooperate with external law enforcement agencies ‘when encountering undocumented individuals,’ ” LNP | LancasterOnline reported Saturday. “Council President J. Marc Hershey and Vice President Jeff McCloud voted against the resolution, which was discussed publicly and listed on the agenda as a ‘nonsanctuary city’ resolution. ... The resolution makes Elizabethtown the latest of several Lancaster County municipalities to follow the lead of the county’s two Republican commissioners in adopting some form of ‘nonsanctuary’ resolution.”
When elected officials respond hysterically to complex issues such as immigration, they risk making statements that cross the line from ignorance into racism.
Exhibit No. 1: Elizabethtown Borough Council member Jay Hynicker’s comments at last week’s meeting.
In an attempt to boost support for Elizabethtown Borough’s “nonsanctuary” resolution, Hynicker offered up this scenario: “Imagine one of you ladies is walking your dog and you come across a group of people we don’t know anything about and you’re murdered or raped.”
He said: “We are responsible as council members to protect our citizens. And if you’re not legal, you’re not a citizen.”
And then Hynicker, a Republican elected in 2021, said this: “We’ve had Blacks in Elizabethtown for a long time. We’ve never had a problem with them.”
So much is wrong about Hynicker’s comments that we have to examine them each in turn.
First, let’s address the specter of rape and murder he raised. Anti-immigration extremists have seized on the February killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a horrific crime for which an immigrant who entered the United States illegally has been charged.
But the reality is that U.S.-born people are far more likely to commit crimes than immigrants.
As NPR reported in March, Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky has found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people. Other research has found no link between illegal immigration and a rise in violent or property crime in communities.
Hynicker’s fearmongering raises this question: Why is sexual violence mostly mentioned by Republicans to gin up fear about immigrants? (Victims of such violence deserve more from public officials than to be treated as political pawns.)
Then there was Hynicker’s suggestion that officials need to protect only U.S. citizens in Elizabethtown Borough. Elizabethtown College’s website notes that its “current international student population represents over 30 countries.” We’re guessing Hynicker’s comment would alarm the parents of those international students.
And then there was this jaw-dropper: “We’ve had Blacks in Elizabethtown for a long time. We’ve never had a problem with them.”
In an LNP | LancasterOnline letter to the editor published Tuesday, Elizabethtown resident Jim Metzler asked: “Does Hynicker not consider ‘Blacks’ to be citizens of our country?”
That’s a fair question, because that’s what Hynicker’s words suggest. That and a certain Archie Bunker-like ignorance (without the laugh track).
Hynicker could be dismissed as a bigoted outlier, but his mindset reflects a deeply disturbing strain of thought.
It’s a mindset that puts Black Americans in the category of “others,” along with immigrants, particularly immigrants here illegally. In this category, Black Americans aren’t granted full citizenship — or the full rights of citizenship.
When Hynicker said “We’ve never had a problem with them” — “them” being Black Elizabethtown residents — he reveals that he expected that Black residents would be a problem and has been surprised to find they haven’t been. This is racism, plain and simple.
As political analysts have pointed out, talking about Black Americans in the same breath as immigrants is a deliberate strategy by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters to convince Black Americans that they’re losing out to immigrants.
The Democratic Party appears set to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian American woman, for president. The racism that’s going to be directed at her likely will be horrendous, making racist language like that used by Hynicker seem less significant in comparison. But racism in any setting, of any degree, must be strongly rebuked.
Hynicker apologized — rather defensively — Tuesday for his remarks.
“I shouldn’t have picked out just Black (people). I apologize. ... I’m not racist if that’s what people are calling me,” Hynicker told LNP | LancasterOnline. “I’ll make a statement and apologize ... for creating a mess. Don’t we have free speech?”
Of course he has the right to free speech. But speech has consequences, and he must now deal with the repercussions of having made clearly racist remarks.
We are frustrated that Elizabethtown Borough Council was even wasting time on its “nonsanctuary” resolution.
These mostly symbolic resolutions transmit the message that immigrants aren’t welcome — a message that counters Lancaster County’s tradition, rooted in religious faith, of welcoming the stranger.
This particular round of racist resolution-o-rama was launched in March, when Republican Lancaster County Commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino passed a measure supporting cooperation with federal immigration officials, but making no actual change to county practice.
The GOP commissioners were responding to Lancaster City Council’s adoption of a “welcoming city” ordinance.
Lancaster city police still comply with federal immigration enforcement when requested. The ordinance just was meant to ensure that city residents who need a city service or “have been victims of crime” or “witnessed a crime” do not fear — whatever their immigration status — contacting city officials, Lancaster city Mayor Danene Sorace explained.
We think the ordinance is flawed because it commits Lancaster city to meeting standards established by Welcoming America, a nonprofit organization based in Georgia. And we believe Lancaster city policy should be established by officials elected by Lancaster city residents.
But we also believe the ordinance didn’t merit the overwrought reaction of the Republican county commissioners and some municipal officials.
A legitimate debate about immigration should be held in Lancaster County and in the nation. But that debate must be waged without making false claims about immigrants and resorting to ugly, hateful language.
Which brings us back to Elizabethtown Borough Council.
As LNP | LancasterOnline reported, only a few of the nearly 50 residents in attendance at last week’s council meeting spoke in favor of the borough’s “nonsanctuary” resolution.
“It puts xenophobia on full display,” resident Amy Karr said.
It certainly does suggest hatred of people deemed to be “other” — and Hynicker’s racist remarks sealed the deal.
In a letter to the editor published today, Alisha Runkle, president of Etown Common Sense 2.0, a public education advocacy group, wrote, “Elizabethtown should be a place where everyone feels welcome and respected, no matter their race or background.”
The bias shown by Hynicker, Runkle wrote, “isn’t something we can ignore.”
She is right. It must be denounced swiftly and vigorously.
