ODOT Employee Fired For Racist Facebook Comment

SALEM, OR — The Oregon Department of Transportation employee who made headlines this month when she made a grotesque comment about shooting immigrants at the US border has apparently been fired from her position with the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to a statement from ODOT officials.

Lori McAllen was initially placed on paid administrative leave last week when news of her then-alleged comment spread across social media like wildfire.

Last Friday, June 22, ODOT spokesman Dave Thompson confirmed with Patch the agency's investigation into the comment, noting ODOT's Human Resources Department was working to authenticate the origin of the post and conduct a fair process investigation, affording McAllen all the same innocent-until-proven-guilty rights any person being investigated would expect.

In the post, McAllen, apparently responding to another commenter, wrote, "I personally think they should shoot them all at the border and call it good… it'll save us hard working AMERICAN'S (sic) billions of dollars on our taxes!!"

On June 29, ODOT made the following announcement:

The rather under-the-radar and unceremonious announcement was met with immediate applause from most commenters, many of whom had demanded McAllen's termination.

McAllen's original post immediately came under fire and was shared on Facebook and Twitter by appalled users around the world, according to Thompson, who told Patch that ODOT last week fielded hundreds of phone calls from people across the globe and seen thousands of comments on various social media platforms, all calling for one thing: the termination of McAllen's employment.

"It's really just two words," Thompson said. "Fire her."

McAllen, however, was afforded due process like anyone else, he explained, noting that state policies afford state employees a huge amount of privacy.

ODOT's 4,700 other employees took the whole situation rather personally, Thompson said.

"(McAllen's) alleged comment does not reflect the men and women of ODOT," he said, adding that ODOT's role of maintaining the state's roads and informing the public about traffic hazards, road projects, and other initiatives was hampered by the increased attention exclusively being given to McAllen.

McAllen reportedly began working for ODOT 10 months ago. Patch will not publish which DMV McAllen worked due to retaliatory threats that have been made and out of concern for the safety of other DMV employees.

McAllen's comment, and the vitriolic responses, can be seen below:

This post has been updated from its original version to include new information from ODOT.

Image via Gil C/Shutterstock