'Welfare bedbug scum': Hate mail resumes a decade after Hispanic family was first targeted
April 10, 2025
A southwest Ohio family says they're being targeted with racist hate mail once again, a decade after they first started receiving threatening packages.
Juanita De La Rosa, of Lebanon, said her family first received a disturbing package in 2015, when she opened a box containing an animal skull with the word "muerte," or "death," written on it, reported WLWT-TV.
"Does someone want us to die?" De La Rosa said. "It's scary."
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A second package arrived the following year containing a magazine with a headline reading "Go Team USA," along with some hand-written messages, and then a letter filled with slurs arrived later that year.
"They highlighted 'Go' and underneath they put 'Go back to Mexico,' 'Welfare kids,' 'How many pigs live in your house?'" De La Rosa said. "'Move or risk deportation,' [the letter read]. 'You're criminal welfare bedbug scum.'"
The family didn't receive any letters or packages for nine years, and De La Rosa and her husband thought it was over until another envelope arrived last week address to "home occupants."
"'We've been giving (given) your names and address to Warrent (Warren) County and Butler County ICE offices,'" the letter read. "'To push you illegal cockroaches back to where you belong. Can't do anything about your offspring sucking our taxes, but hopefully you criminals get what you deserve. USA.'"
De La Rosa and her husband hadn't told their four children about the hate mail from a decade ago, but they felt it was best to tell them now.
"It's very hurtful – they're calling us illegal cockroaches," she said. "I'm here legally, I was born in Texas ... They're hurting me, they're hurting my whole family. We're all Mexicans, and we're proud of it. We're Mexican-American."
De La Rosa isn't certain the recent mail came from the same sender as the past hateful messages, but she's hoping Warren County detectives can track them down, and she's grateful for the support she's gotten from her neighbors.
"Everybody is standing beside me like, 'We're not all like this, Juanita, we love you, we want you to be here,'" De La Rosa said. "Thank you, my heart is full."
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