Logan Smith, Palmetto Public Record, January 7, 2013

A Mexican restaurant in South Carolina is raising eyebrows for its T-shirts depicting “how to catch an illegal immigrant” — with old-style box traps using tacos as bait.

Taco Cid is located on Charleston Highway in West Columbia. On Sunday, the Free Times’ Corey Hutchins posted a photo of someone who appears to be a Taco Cid employee wearing the offensive shirt. If the shirt’s meaning isn’t clear enough, the letters are colored with the red, white and green of the Mexican flag.

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After Palmetto Public Record’s story on the racist T-shirts went national on Monday, Taco Cid updated its website to respond to the controversy. “Our t-shirts were created as a witty and comical statement regarding ILLEGAL immigrants,” the statement reads. “There are NO racial nor hate remarks towards any specific ethnic group.”

This is, of course, a bald-face lie, since the T-shirts are clearly aimed at Latinos. As we reported above, the lettering uses the colors of the Mexican flag — and the taco trap wouldn’t make much sense if the shirt was referring to illegal immigrants from, say, Canada. {snip}

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“As most tax paying Americans, we do believe ILLEGAL immigrants are taxing the system we support and live under, thereby, causing us to work harder and pay more taxes in support of their illegal activities which our government has simply chosen to look the other way.”

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