Every week the editorial board reflects on a current issue in Our View. The position taken does not reflect the opinions of everyone on the Hilltop Views staff.

Once again, the University of Texas at Austin’s student-run political organization chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas has made headlines for their unsavory and bigoted actions. The YCT created the “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event on Facebook that is scheduled to take place on Nov. 20. Here’s how the game works: volunteers will walk around campus wearing labels that identify them as “illegal,” and students who “catch the illegal immigrants” and bring them to the YCT table will win a $25 gift card.

These type of events are racist and inflammatory. There is not a point to this so-called “game” other than to cause a ruckus and to get attention.

UT should shut this event down. Even the university’s president Bill Powers has said that the Young Conservatives’ actions go against the values of their school.

If an event similar to this were to occur at St. Edward’s University, there is no doubt administration would shut it down immediately based on the school’s mission: “St. Edward’s expresses its Catholic identity by communicating the dignity of the human person as created in the image of God, by stressing the obligation of all people to pursue a more just world.”

We should not be creating a divide at between citizens and undocumented immigrants on college campuses. We are all here for the same purpose: to learn.

Instead of targeting a group without knowing each individual’s story, students should reach out and learn more about their peers. This could be the driving force behind a campus, city or even national conversation to get Congress moving on immigration reform.

Possibly the most appalling aspect of the YCT’s “game” is that the leader of the group Lorenzo Garcia, UT junior, is Hispanic and, more specifically, Mexican-American. By organizing an event with the focus of “catching illegal immigrants,” who would most likely immigrate Mexico like Garcia’s family, is a form of racism— internalized racism. Garcia should be conducting himself better than this, bout as a student and a Latino.

If Garcia and his group wanted to facilitate a conversation about illegal immigration, then their goal has backfired.

The YCT is the same organization that held the “Affirmative Action Bake Sale” earlier this year. It should be noted that education equality is not the same as brownies, and the message of the bake sale is based on false analogy.

UT has an active Hispanic population interested in social justice. Oscar Salmeron, a senior and member of United Students Against Sweatshops, spoke about the event.

“People have to remember that free speech does not mean freedom from criticism. There are consequences,” Salmeron said. Freedom of speech should not mean infringing on other people’s integrity. Regardless if a person is an American citizen or not, they are still human and should be respected like anyone else. Without respect, society would collapse.

When asked why YCT is holding such an event, Salmeron responded that the students were doing this out of bigotry and ignorance.

“They wouldn’t be doing this if their parents were undocumented. They are lucky enough to be born in the states,” Salmeron said.

Undocumented immigrants living in constant fear of deportation and are desperate enough to work under-the-table jobs just to survive. Students like Salmeron would be happy to hold a real discussion like the one YCT claimed they were “sparking.” Undocumented students want a forum where they can tell their story, not an event that dehumanizes them.

If Attorney General Greg Abbott has turned his back on YCT, then UT should follow suit and shut down this event.