Hispanic vote: GOP cruelty is their point; 16.7 million families could be ripped apart updated 9/1//2024

 {Update on illegal border crossings: lowest in 3 years thanks to Biden; no thanks to Trump. https://www.cbsnews.com/.../border-crossings-us-mexico.../ Trump sabotaged the only bi partisan bill to address it this past winter. Biden used what executive powers he had and the result was the lowest illegal crossing in 3 years. We would have been on our way to even lower figures without Trump)

I don't get it: 46% of Latinos support Trump and 40% Biden via a recent NY Times poll. Perhaps those figures also include immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela who seem eager to substitute a Trump dictatorship for the ones they had fled. Latinos of all kinds make up 15% of the US vote. All migrants, documented or not will be impacted. Every traffic stop or encounter or a nosy neighbor "turning them in" will cause anyone who looks "Mexican" to be "showing their papers" if they are documented. If they are not, they will be sent first to concentration camps and then deported. 16.7  million families have both documented and undocumented members in them, and all would be at risk if Trump/Vance won.

(Update: 8/8/2024: Nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights group endorsing Harris (msn.com)

(Update: 7/31/2024:  A humane approach to immigration policy is the bi-partisan bill Trump killed because he wanted the issue to still be hot as he campaigns. He tried to pain Kamala Harris as a failed immigration czar, but Harris quickly struck back from a rally platform on 7/30/24 in Atlanta and followed it up with an attack ad...turning the issue back on Trump for killlig the bill...and "talk not walking the walk", not caring about immigration, but only himself.  https://thehill.com/homenews/4801766-kamala-harris-donald-trump-border/)

What was in the bill Trump tanked:

“The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights. The border security bill ends the abuse of parole on our southwest border that has waived in over a million people.Feb 4, 2024" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/new-immigration-asylum-reform-bill-released-senate-text-rcna136602

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

In response, Pres. Biden issued an executive order that at least stopped the surge. This, of course, was not enough to do the whole job. but it does point to the need for Congress to act because executive orders are not enough.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-crossings-plunge-near-level-lift-biden-border-crackdown/ 

Updated and edited:.7/19/2024 follows: 

Trump's RNC Convention nomination acceptance speech was vintage Trump,  delivering the drumbeat of fear-mongering, deception, and lies. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-donald-trumps-rnc-speech-immigration-economy/story?id=112091019 The MAGA's vulnerability and fear have been given a dose of fear and a case of amnesia about how Trump's "crisis" was extended an extra year when he ordered the bi-partisan immigration bill crafted by the Senate killed in the House in February 2024.  Some crisis, Trump. I guess it was not so much it had to be fixed immediately.  The crisis was that the bi-partisan bill would have hurt the effectiveness of his main campaign plank: be very afraid of the invasion of brown people at the border and "only I can fix it"..That Biden could fix it was the crisis Trump faced.

Following media coverage of the RNC Convention, the greatest roar from the crowd was when speakers advocated mass deportation of as many as 20 million of undocumented migrants (called "illegals" by MAGA) , depriving them of human and civil rights, separating families, yanking them out of their homes and from their families, and hyping fears with lies that have failed fact checker reviews..  There is no more evidence of the racist and hatred-driven nature of the members of the GOP who cheered and heartily waved signs promoting mass deportations and ignoring the blatant lies of the rousing speakers. Any solution like the bi-partisan bill Trump shot down this year is not acceptable without the election of concentration camps holding mass deportees.. According to the Census Bureau, Hispanics comprise over 19% of the US population. That is over 65 million. .  Dreamers had no choice as babies carried by undocumented immigrants.  

Trump's policies were not effective. Aside from Trump's cruelty and walls when he was in office, apprehensions at the southwest border were 14.7% higher in Trump’s final year in office, an (indication of how many attempts at illegal crossings,  compared with the last full year before he was sworn in.)  https://www.factcheck.org/2024/04/trumps-misleading-chart-on-illegal-immigration/ He ignores the impact of the pandemic and, in fact, uses it to take credit for doing such a good job.  The deception is where he placed the arrows and took credit for what the pandemic caused.

Funding border patrol and providing more court judges so they could screen border crossers for non-criminality and fit what the law provided for refugees seeking asylum., Economic opportunity, poverty bad governance are not qualifications for granting asylum, but it takes screening to separate the qualified from the others..Continuing to build more of the wall was also part of the bi-partisan, historically conservative Senate bill to immediately relieve the crossings surge.  However, Trump, the demagogue, told the House members to kill it because he needed the surge to continue as the fear factor appealing to his base.  Biden then took some actions using executive orders, and the attempted crossings are now cut in half, and in effect, closed the border to a surge that could not be handled by existing resources.

 Fear and lies again are Trump's tools to hype fear and ride that to victory...  Fentanyl is carried mostly in trucks, not by migrants themselves, and there are very effective machines to detect that, but it also needs funding.   That gets ignored by the base of Trump's supporters.  Their goal, expressed on the poster waivers at the RNC convention, was "mass deportations," and anything less just was not cruel enough. Turning back illegal crossings is only part of the GOP's plan. The rest is to kick out those living in the USA, 20 million of them, who have been law-abiding and quietly good neighbors who are beloved and are already part of the fabric of US society but are "others" claiming Democrats want them here for their illegal votes. (Another big lie with no evidence or facts showing that is happening).

What was in the bi-partisan bill Trump ordered killed in the House?  Best discussion and details at

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/us/politics/trumps-support-among-latinos-grows-newespoll-shows.html 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/16/11-facts-about-hispanic-origin-groups-in-the-us/

 .

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/they-just-go-latino-mixed-status-families-uncertainty-way-life-n1086141

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/07/dialogue-with-another-refugee-from.html

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/supreme-court-reinstates-arizona-show-me-your-papers-law-strikes-down-three-other

Democrats, messaging, and the Latino vote updated: 11/14-11/17/22

Democrat Yadira Caraveo's victory in Congressional District 8 in Colorado, a brand new district, reflects the growing Latino population in Colorado. https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/colorado-latinos-voted-for-democrats-in-dominant-fashion-exit-poll-shows/article_05c27822-6477-11ed-a0d7-1b185549ec99.html 

In Arizona, the increasing Latino demographics contributed to that state's shift from red to purple recently. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-suburbanites-latinos-and-the-ghost-of-john-mccain-turned-arizona-into-a-presidential-battleground/ar-AA1jcHYS?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=0ebe0487102d4ec290e853e5d0eaf556&ei=7

This 2022 midterm election provides an opportunity for Democrats to shape national messaging that appeals across the Latino/Hispanic divide of diverse experiences. 

There was a great deal of handwringing before November 8 midterms that there was a shift of Latino voters to the GOP.  It panned out in Florida and less than predicted in Texas.   However, in Colorado, Latinos/Hispanics voted around 70% for Democrats.  The assumption has been that uniform interest was dictated by ethnic identification and that they would vote as a block.  That assumption works in Colorado, but not everywhere, and the Latino experiences in Florida are different than the Latino experiences in Colorado.  In Florida, both Cuban and Venezuelans fled socialism and communism and were most often the more affluent in the countries they were fleeing. They have been given special access to citizenship and immigration.  The Puerto Ricans were once considered mostly Democrats, and Puerto Ricans are  American citizens. Even they departed from the Democrats in 2022.  All three groups do not have problems with green cards, immigration barriers, and voting. Many are now first and second-generation. In Colorado,  some Hispanics trace their roots to the early 1700s and others to the late 1900s.  While my roots of ancestors are very mixed, one great-grandmother, an immigrant from Spain, married to a man from a Missouri French immigrant community,  settled in eastern Colorado in the 1880s, and Spanish was the language of my paternal grandfather's childhood.   The very recent influx of those from Mexico and Central America do not arrive with a green card in hand or the ability to vote. They must rely on those who have attained citizenship by birth or naturalization to vote on behalf of their interests.  Many with family ties in the US  receive a hand-up from them.  Such family ties are a powerful force and a fundamental characteristic of Hispanic culture. 

 How does the Democratic party devise a national message that has universal appeal across this great divide of Latino diversity, ranging from Florida to the American southwest?  First, realize Latino voters are those that have achieved or have been born to US citizenship and have various views of the current wave of immigrants coming from central America.  While all politics is local, there are some national sentiments held in common by this very diverse group that favor Democrats.  What they all share is what other immigrants to America sought. Like all waves of immigrants since the founding of America, they are trying to pursue '" the American dream," to have the ability and the social and political freedom to raise a family and nourish it,  to move up to the next rung in economic prosperity, and some to start and own their own businesses. They want the playing field to be level and look for candidates who support fairness regardless of race or national origin. Those are aspirations as old as the nation, founded on the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on the basis that all men were created equal.  My late husband immigrated to America, escaping a Communist dictatorship, and was one of the post-World War II immigrants to America. While he was from South Eastern Europe, he found a kinship with Latinos in their aspirations and even a cultural affinity.  His medical practice was bi-lingual. 

Achieving those aspirations of the American dream in the land of opportunity is easier in a  society that respects those who do not look like or even speak like the majority and who believe in less government control and intrusion into their private lives (including supporting women's control over their health care),  Democrats can make the case they are the party that provides the personal freedom and the ability to make it easier to pursue the American dream.  

 We are experiencing a demographic shift.  By 2040, minorities will become the majority. American voters have a choice to delay this shift by suppressing civil and voting rights and limiting immigration of target groups,  or they can realize that demographics are destiny and can make the attempt to live together in peace and acceptance for the sake of future generations.  Democrats, by their liberalism and personal values, have as their mantra to be inclusive of all regardless of religion, race, national origin, and sexual orientation in pursuit of the American dream and have the will to shape a public policy agenda that provides a level and fair playing field for all.  In political terms, that means support for civil and human rights. The GOP has shown a willingness to cater to those within their ranks who advocate freedom for those who are partisans of a certain race, religion, or sexual orientation. and ideology at the exclusion and expense,  disrespect, suppression, and control over others who do not.  Achieving the American Dream is easier with fair access to opportunity and governance by a democracy that reflects a level playing field. This is the view of inclusion that works peacefully in this very diverse nation of descendants of immigrants, more recent immigrants, and the indigenous. 

 Democracy provides a framework and enforcement by the rule of law to provide the level playing field and power-sharing with the public will expressed through the ballot box.  That is a democracy as we have tried to practice it for 250 years. In November 2022, this normal, traditional version won, and in key states, those were defeated who had hoped to deny the will of the voters by controlling who voted and how the vote was counted.  These election deniers planned to use distrust and chaos of the election system to deny that their candidate lost the vote,  to try to delegitimize the ability of the real winner to govern, or to abuse the system to overturn the popular vote cast by the majority.  Their impact on the  2024 presidential election cycle would be to favor Donald Trump,  an advocate of autocracy and favoring those loyal to him at the exclusion of "others," and the promoter of a  political strategy and goals that would enhance his own personal political power.  A fair and level playing field is not a plank in his platform. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/   Election deniers are still a threat and still are in a position to damage to democracy in 2024.How Election Denial Lost the Midterms - The Atlantic

Voters Push Back Against Election Deniers in Key States | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)

Democrat Yadira Caraveo wins competitive District 8 race to represent Colorado’s newest congressional district | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

Biden fast-tracks work authorization for migrants who cross legally (usatoday.com)

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/colorado-latinos-voted-for-democrats-in-dominant-fashion-exit-poll-shows/article_05c27822-6477-11ed-a0d7-1b185549ec99.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/13/latino-voters-midterm-elections-republicans-00066618

Latino voters critical to Yadira Caraveo victory in CO's 8th district (denverpost.com)

ELECTION 2022 | The 'unrealized potential’ of Latino voters in Colorado elections | News | coloradopolitics.com

Midterm Election Results Highlight Importance of Engaging the Growing Hispanic Electorate | UnidosUS

What happened to the Republican Hispanic wave? - Vox

Border crisis is a shame

The border mess of 50,000 children and families escaping violence in Central America is a matter of shame.  Clear and simple: they should be treated as refugees as the current law requires,, whether they have been trafficked by Coyotes or motivated to flee to the US by misinformation and lack of understanding of our laws.

Shame on  GOP politicians pandering to their anti immigrant constituents to  take advantage of a crisis to bolster their core support instead of offering their own plans to solve a problem , all the while blocking  any constructive solutions.

It is shameful that young children are spit at by hate faced demonstrators waiving  American flags. That sets a terrible example to the rest of the world  of how to deal with their own ethnic and religious conflicts and  refugee crises.

75% of Colorado’s 480 thousand  registered Latinos  that voted for Pres. Obama in 2012 and, 70% nationwide, swung key states blue. (source: a Pew poll October 1 2012) They understood that the real culprit is the GOP and a Republican dominated House of Representatives which  has   refused to pass any proposed  comprehensive legislation that would have funded more border patrols and border security in return for a plan to deal with the 11 million undocumented already in our country.

 Should the President visit the border? Did he just commit a Bush Katrina error? Maybe. The GOP is making much of his non visit, but it is a diversion tactic from their own lack of action or sympathy with the plight of the child refugees. Action, though, is more important than photo ops and the GOP as usual is stonewalling action once again.

 Those  few Hispanics and Democrats  who are criticizing the President for not doing more or too much should be careful not to promote  a plague on both houses mentality resulting in many  sitting out elections.  Election of more anti immigrant GOP members to Congress  or the election of a Republican president would  just put comprehensive immigration  on ice for years or even result in more harmful measures. 

Now the GOP is concocting reasons to  oppose the President’s proposal of $3.7 billion to address the crisis by  quibbling over money, dragging their feet while decrying an immediate crisis ,  or advocating putting  refugees  on the next plane back home ,  depriving them of due process. The purpose of the President’s request:  to add more border agents to process and patrol,  to provide humanitarian detention of the influx and to launch a public campaign to educate Central American parents that their children will not qualify for citizenship and will face deportation. Dare Congress to vote no on this one;  the “party of do nothing, stonewall all with Obama’s name  attached”,   will add to increasing  evidence of the GOP’s  dereliction of duty to  govern.

The GOP stance on immigration reform is a sham, if  not a shame:” secure the borders  first and then we might  discuss some way to send immigrants back from whence   they or their parents came, just so any plan does not include a path to citizenship.”  Whatever is done to secure the borders could never be sufficient  because there is no definition  of when enough is enough. It is much like the old joke: “Mother, may I go swimming? Of course you may, my daughter, but do not go near the water.”

Data source:

http://pewsr.ch/VrJFCu  Pew Poll, October 1, 2012

§  484,000 Hispanic eligible voters in Colorado—the ninth largest Hispanic eligible voter population nationally. California ranks first with 5.9 million.

Some 14% of Colorado eligible voters are Hispanic

The GOP and their struggle to get Hispanics to like them

 While the GOP continues searching its soul for reasons why they lost in 2012, they are beginning to realize that If the GOP  ignores Hispanic views on issues and continues expressing hostile attitudes toward Hispanics,  the party will continue its march toward minority party status like lemmings trekking to the sea. 

 Louisiana Governor  Bobby Jindal of Asian descent   commented  to the Republican National Committee last month regarding the GOP attitude to people of color .  ”The first step in getting the voters to like you is to demonstrate that you like them.”, he said.

How to get Hispanics to like them is a major  challenge for the  GOP..  A  December 2011 survey, conducted by  Latino Decisions found forty-six percent of Latino voters said Republicans "don't care too much" about Hispanics, and another 27 percent said they "are being hostile,". It should have been no surprise that 71% of the Latino vote went to Obama in 2012,  a major factor in  Obama’s  victory.. With growth of  the Hispanic population projected to be able to swing Texas elections by 2018, that state could turn blue soon, duplicating  the 2012 results in  Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. .

Those  Republicans who understood that  have joined Democrats in the US senate to propose a comprehensive immigration bill.  Those who have  not, especially in the House, are still old school…  objecting to the clause giving Hispanics a path to citizenship they call “amnesty”.

 In Colorado,  75% of   Hispanics voted for Obama in 2012 (up from 61% in  2008).  The  percentage of Hispanic   vote in the state had increased from   13% in 2008 to 14% in 2012.  Heavily   Democratic leaning  Hispanics   helped swing the state blue  in the Senate, Presidential,  state legislature and  governor’s races over  the last four years.  Why did Hispanics in Colorado vote even more strongly for Obama in 2012  than they did in the national average and  even  in past years?    Motivation  was  often the   GOP messaging  itself….both at the national level and  especially at the state level.  

Mitt  Romney  added to the alienation. His  policy to solve the 11 million undocumented workers in the US was “self deportation”, with an interpretation held by  Hispanics s GOP government   would make conditions so tough,  the undocumented would want to return to Mexico.   When he said he would overturn President’s executive order which helped Dreamers stay in the US, get a job,  and go to college without getting deported, he hit an even rawer nerve. (Dreamers are hoping to be   college students, undocumented ,   brought as children to the US , who have graduated from US  high schools).

 The GOP also misread the polls when they  concluded Latinos cared more about education, health  care, economy and jobs than immigration, but they falsely  assumed  that meant  conservative solutions  would  also appeal   to them.    Exit polls showed the opposite; Hispanics liked Democratic approaches on those issue  more than the Republican positions.  Even conservative social values did not move Hispanics to the GOP.  73% of Catholic Hispanics and 82% non religious Hispanics voted  for Obama.

Immigration policies and education issues intersected in the Dream Act controversy, too., influencing polling outcome  on both of those issues.  Many Colorado Hispanics who  can vote   have relatives who are  Dreamers and/ or they noted the acidic tone of Republicans in opposing the Dream Act in the state legislature and on the campaign trail. Particularly irksome to  Hispanics was the  unity  of GOP  Colorado legislators  against  giving Dreamers in  state tuition or even reduced out of state tuition.  Now that  Democrats  control of both houses of the state legislature,  a bill allowing  Dreamers to be charged  in state college tuition has an excellent chance of passage. Many Colorado  Republican legislators  must have missed Jindal’s memo as they continue  their vehement  opposition.

The above is a version of my column that appeared in the Sky Hi Daily News today

See www.mufticforumespanol.blogspot.com .

http://latinovotematters.org/blog/the-sea-change-in-colorado/

http://www.pewhispanic.org/topics/2012-election/

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/11/07/latino-voters-in-the-2012-election/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/12/12/143601214/new-poll-suggests-latino-voters-see-hostile-gop?sc=emaf

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20121111-hispanic-population-boom-will-reshape-texas-politics-but-question-is-when.ece

Also posted today, an excellent piece by Colorado pollster Floyd Ciruli on public opinions of immigration reform:

http://fciruli.blogspot.com/2013/02/immigration-reform-has-chance.html

Gifts were not why the GOP lost; attitudes, policies toward minorities and women were the culprits

While the GOP sorts out the reasons they lost in November, Democrats can only hope they come to the wrong conclusions, keeping the U.S. swinging blue for years to come. Here is some advice to Republicans:

The first step in the GOP's recovery is understanding that both their policies and the attitudes of their members need an extreme makeover. They need more than cosmetics, candidates who have Spanish surnames, a certain racial complexion, or a different gender. They need more than a better sales job. The GOP tried this election to make the case more conservative social policies and trickle down economics would be better for them, but other GOP attitudes and policies drowned out those messages.

Mitt Romney's post-election rationale for losing, that President Obama won by giving “gifts” to certain targeted groups, exemplified a wrongheaded attitude. Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put his finger on it, calling Romney's “gift” remarks as “absolutely wrong ... If we want people to like us, we have to like them first. And you don't start to like people by insulting them and saying their votes were bought."

Romney's “gift” remark was revealing. In the spring, Romney made comments to the Florida fat cat contributors that 47 percent were not going to vote for him because they did not pay taxes and liked being dependent on government programs. Romney's blaming “gifts” has become the defining evidence that his comments were more than inelegant; they showed a basic misunderstanding of those he disdained.

What Romney did not understand was that lust for more gifts did not drive those groups so much as it was the fear a GOP victory would take away gains already made and a party would control Washington that supported policies that were unsympathetic to their needs and tolerated those who were hostile toward them.

Certainly, Hispanics feared they would lose any hope that Obama's commitment for a path to citizenship for their undocumented relatives would be fulfilled since the GOP was opposed to “amnesty” and certainly Hispanics welcomed a temporary dream act, but it was more than just a matter of immigration policy differences. Even Florida Puerto Ricans and Cubans (the first time in modern history) who already had citizenship rights voted for Obama over Romney.

Minorities also saw many GOP supporters expressing “nativist attitudes.” A poll conducted by Latino Decisions before the primaries found “forty-six percent of Latino voters said Republicans ‘don't care too much' about Hispanics, and another 27 percent said they are being hostile.”

Let's face it. The GOP these past four years has tolerated and supported candidates who “dog whistled” to Southern racist attitudes (“welfare queens, train their kids to be janitors”). They have been over the top in their vehement support of policies that are targeted against racial groups, the Arizona “show me your papers” law, restriction of poll access by making poll schedules inconvenient and proof of citizenship more difficult, and “self deportation” as the solution to the undocumented problem. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) dared to take a moderate position on immigration and was ridiculed and drummed out of the primaries.

For women, the issue was loss of control over their health care that they already had. The GOP tolerated candidates who advocated government and physically intrusive policies, including radical definitions of when life begins that would ban forms of birth control, promising to overturn Roe v. Wade, raising the cost and access to care from mammograms to pills, requiring vaginal probes, and calling some rapes legitimate and others not. The accumulative effect was that for many women it looked like the GOP was hostile to them. The GOP had hoped futiley that women cared more about economic issues than having rights taken away, but the gender gap did not close.

Also published in the Sky Hi Daily News today.