A-B Tech instructor e-mail re: immigrants draws heat

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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In a copyrighted story, local Hispanic publication La Voz Independiente writes that an Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College instructor called undocumented immigrants “leeches and criminals,” but maintains that he’s not racist. Click on the link to see the story.

Here’s a portion:

ASHEVILLE.– An electrical engineering instructor at A-B Technical Community College whose message from his state email account called undocumented immigrants “leeches and criminals” maintains he is not racist nor opposed to immigration through normal channels but did not back down from his opinions.

Tom Sharar said his comments, contained in an email to a staff person at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, are his opinion as a private citizen and not those of the state-supported community college whose email system and Internet connection he used to express them.

“The presence of tens of millions of these leeches has a devastating effect on our economy and presents a real threat to our national security”, wrote Sharar in the email dated Tuesday, April 29. “They are over-taxing our legal system and our healthcare (sic) facilities. They fill our jails and prisons with their illegal actions. Their mere presence is a danger (health and physical) to all of us.”