National

Facebook posts suggesting immigrants should be shot at the border spark outrage

In separate incidents this week, two people faced national backlash for their connection to social media posts suggesting that immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border should be shot.

One is an Alabama-based country musician who has apologized for the remarks and said they have been taken out of context.

One is an employee of the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles who has been placed on leave and is being investigated by the Oregon Department of Transportation for an alleged "offensive" social media comment.

Alabama musician Phillip McCain told USA TODAY he is “truly, sincerely sorry" for his word choice in a comment he posted to Facebook. In that comment, McCain said he would "volunteer" to shoot people "when they approach the border."

McCain, who lives in Birmingham, said in a phone interview that he's received death threats, been fired from his band and lost all his planned music engagements as a result of a national backlash. He said he's gone on local television to apologize as well.

In Oregon, the state's Department of Transportation tweeted Thursday that it had put an employee on leave while it investigated an "offensive Facebook post" linked to the employee. The tweet said that the post was "disturbing and hurtful."

The employee being investigated is Lori McAllen, Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman ​Dave Thompson confirmed to USA TODAY.

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Screenshots appear to document a comment McAllen made on Facebook saying: "I personally think they should shoot them all at the border and call it good... it'll save us hard working AMERICAN'S billions of dollars on our taxes!! ;)"

Photos showing a screen capture of that comment have circulated widely. The Department of Transportation's investigation is attempting to determine whether McAllen posted the message, Thompson said.

Thompson told the Oregonian the incident had prompted hundreds of phone calls to the department and thousands of angry social media comments.

McCain told USA TODAY that his livelihood has been ruined by the backlash to his comment. He said his comment was posted out of a passion for protecting the border.

"I'll tell ya what I'll volunteer to shoot their (expletive)  when they approach the border. ... I don't give a (expletive) about them, their kids, their (expletive) life or asylum," McCain wrote in a Facebook comment, as shown in a screen capture tweeted by Rachel Kay, who lives in New York City.

She told USA TODAY that she saw McCain's comment earlier this week through a former mutual Facebook friend.

Reading the comment made her skin crawl, she said.

Kay said she tweeted the screen capture to help educate. Such expressions are "not allowed any more. It shouldn’t be allowed."

In a tweet, Kay connected McCain's opinions to the Trump administration: "This is what the #maga movement looks like. This is what this Administration has done and these people need to be outted."

“I used a bad choice of words," McCain told USA TODAY. He said the comment came in the context of a heated Facebook debate about immigration.

He said that the response has been disproportionate, that the loss of his livelihood is too steep a price to pay for his comments.

McCain said he is in favor of legal immigration.