HOUSTON—Some Houstonians believe there could be a backlash against immigrants in the wake of the Juan Quintero verdict.

Quintero on Tuesday was given life in prison for the shooting death of HPD Officer Rodney Johnson.

It was a controversial end to a controversial trial.

Quintero was in the country illegally when he killed Johnson.  He’d already been deported once after he was convicted for indecency with a child.

Rafael Perez, a Houstonian who became a naturalized U.S. citizen Wednesday, said he worried the verdict would negatively affect other immigrants.

“People are going to think that people who are trying to do things the correct way, that they shouldn’t have a citizenship,” Perez said.

While that remains to be seen, many readers who responded to a poll about Quintero on KHOU.com expressed anger about the verdict.

“Just another reason to crack down on illegals,” one reader wrote.

“How long are we going to take our illegal Mexican nationals?” another said.

Others share Perez’s concern.

“It really does create an ambiance of fear and retaliation and just prejudice and racism, which shouldn’t happen,” Cesar Espniosa said of the verdict.

“The anti-immigrant community generalizes and feels like all immigrants should be treated like criminals just because of the mistakes one immigrant made,” he added.

But even if there is ill will against immigrants in the wake of the verdict, the naturalization process is something that the Quintero outcome can’t change.

“For legal immigration, it’s two separate avenues, so it really has no affect on anyone who has a legal means of immigrating to the United States,” Sharon Howard of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services said.