04/02/13 When it comes to immigration reform, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has a problem. In Spanish we’d say “quiere quedar bien con Dios y con el Diablo”—he wants to get along with God and the Devil. In other words, he’s trying to have it both ways. This past weekend, Rubio responded to news that [...]
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03/11/13 Editor’s note: Maribel Hasting’s analysis of the key players in the immigration debate was originally published in Spanish at Univision. Below is an excerpt. Washington, DC – As Congress gets ready to debate immigration reform bills, the players that are part of the discussion are as diverse as their interests. In past debates this diversity [...]
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03/06/13 Editor’s note: This column by Maribel Hastings was originally published in Spanish at La Opinion and Huffington Post Voces. The Spanish language version can be viewed here. WASHINGTON, DC – In an interview on NBC’s Today Show Monday, former Florida governor Jeb Bush said it’s premature to declare whether he’ll aspire to the Republican presidential nomination [...]
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02/07/13 By Maribel Hastings, Senior Advisor at America’s Voice The House Judiciary Committee’s first hearing on immigration reform clarified that many Republicans are opposed to a clear path to citizenship. Even Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) identified the “question of the day” as whether there was a third way between two “extremes”: mass deportation and citizenship. [...]
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11/02/12 Maribel Hastings is a senior adviser to America’s Voice: Barely a month ago, I started attending a Methodist church in my neighborhood. Like other majority-black churches here in Washington, D.C., the topic of the election was never far from anyone’s minds–or their prayers. The foremost request: the reelection of President Barack Obama. I haven’t gone [...]
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10/18/12 Maribel Hastings is a senior adviser to America’s Voice: WASHINGTON—When immigration finally came up as a topic in a presidential debate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s response earned him the title of Cynic-in-Chief. He continued to attack President Barack Obama for failing to pass an immigration reform bill that neither he nor the Republican Party supports; [...]
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09/06/12 CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – California Congressman Xavier Becerra, an Obama campaign surrogate, is one hundred percent certain that the president will be re-elected. And when that happens, Becerra said yesterday at a forum on the Latino vote and immigration, he will deliver the comprehensive immigration reform bill he promised to pass in 2008. “It’s not [...]
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09/05/12 Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor at America’s Voice: CHARLOTTE, North Carolina—In close elections like this one, the Latino vote can be decisive not just in traditionally Hispanic-heavy states, but in other states where a few thousand votes can tip the balance and determine whether there’s a change of occupant in the White House. For [...]
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09/04/12 Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor at America’s Voice: CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – Barack Obama has made history in stadiums. In 2008, he accepted his party’s presidential nomination at Invesco Stadium in Denver, CO, with the promise of change. This week, he will accept the nomination for a second term at Bank of America Stadium [...]
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08/27/12 Maribel Hastings is a senior adviser to America’s Voice: TAMPA, Florida – Hurricane Isaac shouldn’t be the only thing on Republicans’ minds as they congregate in Tampa this week for the Republican National Convention, which is expected to officially crown Mitt Romney as the party’s candidate for President of the United States on Thursday. What [...]
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06/22/12 LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney didn’t tell his audience at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) annual conference whether or not he’d rescind the Obama Administration’s temporary relief from deportation for certain DREAMers. He promised that if elected “I will put in place my own [...]
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06/18/12 This week, President Barack Obama will arrive at the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in Orlando, Florida, with more in hand than a broken promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. He’ll arrive on the heels of his announcement of temporary relief from deportation for certain DREAMers-a decision [...]
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06/14/12 WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, still hasn’t offered any immigration proposals that might  make him more sympathetic to many Latino voters-especially after taking positions in the primaries promoting “self-deportation” and promising to veto the DREAM Act. But some on the Republican side are looking to cut some evangelical voters out [...]
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06/13/12 ORLANDO, Florida – If the Obama campaign counts Florida among the states that could swing either way come November 6th, a visit to the central region of the state shows why. The Hispanic voters I interviewed here expressed a lack of enthusiasm with the political process; some are already sure they won’t vote at all, [...]
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06/06/12 ORLANDO, Florida – The group gathered at New Covenant Baptist Church last Thursday night wasn’t large, but it was determined. And the community leaders, faith leaders and activists had reason to celebrate: a federal judge blocked some sections of Florida’s 2011 voter-registration law, HB 1355. The controversial law, signed by Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott, [...]
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05/15/12 President Barack Obama’s announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage came, he said, as the result of a process of “evolution” and a question of principles. The announcement was a risky political move, to be sure, to make a handful of months before the general election; it will undoubtedly help him with a broad and [...]
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05/09/12 The newest “talking point” we’re hearing from Hispanic Republicans about immigration is that Barack Obama hasn’t fulfilled his promise to push for immigration reform during his first year in office, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. For good measure, they point out that the Obama administration has deported more undocumented immigrants each year than [...]
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04/19/12 As frenzied political junkies begin to chatter about the fight for the Latino vote in November, another fight is coming to Washington much sooner. Next week, the highest court in the land will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070. The Court has the potential to, in the name of [...]
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02/29/12 It's no coincidence that Barack Obama's 2012 campaign will open its fourth Arizona office in the middle of the heavily Latino neighborhood of Glendale. Betting on the increase in eligible Latino voters, and on the mobilization generated by anti-immigrant politics here, Democrats are hoping that Arizona won't just be competitive in November, but that it will swing to the Democratic column.
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02/27/12 Mr. Manuel Ramírez Chávez was born in Michoacán, Mexico, but arrived in the United States when he was eight years old. Fifty-six years later, at the age of 64, he's finally becoming a citizen. He didn't do it earlier, he said, "because I'd never seen as much discrimination as (I see) now, so much racism, so much persecution against Hispanics."
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02/24/12 In order to win over the most conservative, extremist voters in the Arizona Republican primary (which will be held Tuesday, February 28th), presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the state's immigration policy a "model" for others to follow.
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02/16/12 Conservative Republicans want Marco Rubio to be the vice-presidential candidate in November's presidential election. At least, that's what the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) showed last weekend.
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02/09/12 DENVER-They may be undocumented, naturalized, or first- second- or third-generation citizens, but if one thing unites many Hispanics in Colorado it's their discontent with the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the Republican primary.
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02/06/12 Republican caucus attendees in Nevada chose Mitt Romney to carry their standard (and delegates) in the campaign for the presidential nomination, and all eyes there are now fixed on November's general election.
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02/03/12 Although the Republican primary process has barely begun, Mitt Romney is looking like the inevitable nominee. This Saturday, he's expected to repeat his 2008 triumph in the Nevada caucus, winning a state that will be decisive in the fight for the White House in November, and where the Latino vote will be instrumental.
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02/02/12 To many, the winner of last night's primary in the Sunshine State has practically guaranteed himself the Republican presidential nomination. Erasing his loss four years ago, Mitt Romney, the improbable candidate, won Florida on the way to his coronation as Barack Obama's opponent this November.
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01/31/12 They call Casa Marín, "the lucky corner" ("La Esquina de la Suerte" in Spanish), and the restaurant's owner assures me that candidate Mitt Romney's visit to his establishment on Sunday guarantees his triumph in today's Republican primary.
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