Lori McAllen is an Oregon DOT (Department of Transportation) employee who was suspended from her job after her racist Facebook comment went viral. On Facebook, McAllen wrote that she thinks that immigrant children should be “killed.”
“I personally think they should shoot them all at the border and call it good… it’ll save us hardworking AMERICANS billions of dollars on our taxes!! ;),” McAllen wrote on Facebook.
Following the discovery of her vile comment, the publc immediately called for the Oregon DOT to fire McAllen. In response to the backlash, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced they are investigating the matter and that McAllen is suspended until further notice on Thursday, June 21.
Dave Thompson, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said that the outcry was so severe that the DOT “received thousands of posts online and probably more than 100 phone calls.”
via Oregon Live:
McAllen, a Linn County resident, currently earns $2,883 a month as an full-time DMV employee, a position she’s held for less than a year, the agency said. Screen captured photos from her Facebook page, since deleted, show her wearing an ODOT badge in an office setting.
The Oregon Department of Transportation called the remarks “offensive & abhorrent to the values of our agency,” in a statement published Wednesday to Twitter. The agency’s human resources department is now conducting an investigation into the Facebook post.
Dave Thompson, a transportation spokesman, said his department has received hundreds of phone calls from around the country in the last 24 hours about the post. The agency has also fielded thousands of angry comments online from people around the world, he said.
The Oregon Department of Transportation released a statement on Twitter in regards to McAllen’s comments:
“We’re aware of a post that has been rapidly circulating through social channels espousing views offensive & abhorrent to the values of our agency. There is an active investigation into the matter. Thank you to those who have shared your concerns and we take this matter seriously.”
https://twitter.com/OregonDOT/status/1009544302991691776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Foregon-dmv-employee-lori-mcallen-comment-about-shooting-immigrants-facebook-under-investigation%2F
McAllen’s racist comment comes just a month after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced our nation’s new ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy.
Under this new policy, all those apprehended entering the country illegally — including those seeking asylum — would be criminally charged which generally led to children being separated from their parents.
At this time, McAllen has yet to publicly comment.
