America's Voice Blog

Posted 02/09/12 at 01:51pm By Van Le

Backlash against Kris Kobach Grows as Support for Alabama’s HB 56 Anti-Immigrant Law Wanes

kris kobachAs HB 56, the notorious Alabama anti-immigrant law, faces more scrutiny, the backlash against its architect, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, continues to grow.

The state legislature which passed HB 56 has returned to session in Alabama, only to find a new study which posits that the law could end up costing the state $10.6 billion, activist groups  bent on recruiting the state’s powerful auto manufacturing industry to their anti-HB 56 cause, and a new bill from one of their own—State Sen. Gerald Dial, who originally supported HB 56—which would repeal many of the law’s provisions.

People are fed up with HB 56, and they know Kris Kobach is the one to blame.

From Mary Sanchez at the Kansas City Star:

The rebukes aren’t coming from his usual critics, those who display sanity about the federal reforms needed to effectively deal with illegal immigration.

No, Kobach’s supporters are barking back now. The legislators and taxpayers who bought into his schemes to make the lives of illegal immigrants so hellish that they “self-deport.”

The editorial board of the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala., accused Kobach of banking on exactly what happened there — costly court challenges and a wide-range of unintended consequences for legal residents.

“Alabama allowed itself to be used as a guinea pig on illegal immigration so that a Kansas lawyer could build his political career,” the editorial said.

So Alabama’s legislature has gone to work, figuring out how to rewrite or repeal the damage done by Kobach’s handiwork, measures passed in 2011.

On Monday, the Immigration Policy Center released “Discrediting ‘Self Deportation’ As Immigration Policy.” Yes, you can make life harsh for immigrants, but everyone else suffers, too. Economists predict Alabama’s gross domestic product will lose up to $10.8 billion as a result, and $57 million to $264 million more in state income and sales tax collections could evaporate.

Ouch. 

Furthermore, since GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was so quick to embrace Kobach’s endorsement earlier this year, we predict that it’s only a matter of time before this blowback starts falling on him and his “self deportation” shenanigans, as well.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Posted 02/08/12 at 02:19pm By Frank Sharry

The Incredible Shrinking Rep. Lamar Smith

Lamar SmithDoes anyone (besides Mitt Romney) listen to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee anymore?

This week, Rep. Lamar Smith is looking especially desperate. He's taken to the pages of Roll Call and National Review Online to try to garner some attention on one of his favorite subjects: immigrant bashing. In Roll Call, Smith launched what amounts to another fact-free attack on President Obama.  Smith claims the President is ignoring immigration laws.  In reality, as immigrant communities and advocates are painfully aware, the Obama Administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than any other in history.

Smith is upset because last year Obama ordered the Department of Homeland Security to do what every local, state and federal law enforcement agency in the nation does: establish priorities and focus resources on dangerous criminals.  Coming from Smith, the criticism is sheer hypocrisy.  Back in 1999 Smith asked then-Attorney General Janet Reno to use the same kind of prosecutorial discretion he's now railing about. But Lamar isn't deterred by consistency or reality. 

Nor is his political judgment so sharp.  Last summer, Smith's leading witness at a hearing to denounce the prosecutorial discretion policy was Senator David Vitter.  Yes, the same Senator who has his, um, own unique history with prosecutorial discretion. It didn't work out so well.  

You know time are tough for Lamar when he has to resort to that right-wing bastion, National Review’s "The Corner,"  to whine about -- can you guess? Yep, the liberal media.  The first line of his screed is so outlandish, it's laughable:

"It’s hard to imagine a worse example of media bias than the national coverage of illegal immigration."

Really?  Just because reporters require you to have actual facts behind your arguments, and just because most have come to realize that the nativist case has been propped up for years by junk science peddled by faux think tanks such as the Center for Immigration Studies and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) doesn’t mean they are biased.  It means that most have figured out that your rants aren’t anchored in reality.  

Of course, somebody has to take the blame for Chairman Smith’s less than stellar legislative record this Congress. Besides the Vitter debacle on discretion, Smith's signature piece of anti-immigrant legislation is a bill called mandatory E-Verify.  According to Smith and his running buddies Steve King (R-IA) and Elton Gallegly (R-CA), the bill would free up good-paying jobs for Americans.  It tanked after small businesses complained the bill would create an unworkable and expensive bureaucracy; tea party types and libertarians complained the bill would grant the federal government the authority to approve or disapprove every new hire in America; agricultural growers predicted crops would rot on the vine; and the labor movement pointed out that it would actually cost Americans jobs. It would also force vulnerable workers further into the hands of unscrupulous employers. 

So, why the sudden uptick on immigration by Smith?  Perhaps he is looking to change the subject after he suffered a huge loss on another of his signature pieces of legislation, SOPA. That stinging defeat further damaged his already diminished status. 

Bottom line: the notoriously thin-skinned Lamar Smith is flailing. But he shouldn’t get so down.  There is one person who is listening to Smith these days: Mitt Romney.  Just like Lamar, Mitt wants to stop comprehensive immigration reform proposals at every turn, ramp up deportations even further, put in place a federally-run E-Verify system, fight off the DREAM Act (a popular bill that enables undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as children to attend college or serve in the military) and have states pass laws like Arizona’s SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB 56 that purge Latinos from their states.  They call it “attrition through enforcement”  or “self-deportation,”  presumably in hopes of making it sound humane. 

But attempting to make life in the U.S. so unbearable that 11 million undocumented immigrants – a population the size of the state of Ohio – are harassed into leaving the country is not only inhumane, it’s insane. First, it wouldn’t work. But if it did somehow, it would undermine our recovering economy, our global reputation, and our moral compass. 

Lamar and Mitt don’t seem to care.  Both are catering to the far-right nativist wing of the Republican Party, Lamar for ideological reasons and Mitt for political reasons.  And that slice of the GOP electorate doesn’t much like immigrants and doesn’t much care for facts.  Well, here’s a fact that might give them all pause: the GOP presidential candidate needs 40% of the Latino vote to win in key swing states like Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and even Arizona. But with Romney talking up self-deportation, promising to veto the popular DREAM Act and embracing anti-immigrant zealots like Pete Wilson, Lamar Smith, and Arizona and Alabama law author Kris Kobach, no wonder in head-to-head match ups with Obama he draws no more than the 25% of Latinos who reliably vote Republican. 

Well, if he loses, Mitt can always take another page from his friend Lamar.  He can blame the media.

Cross-Posted at Huffington Post and Daily Kos.    

Posted 02/08/12 at 01:38pm By Pili Tobar

Amid Miramonte Elementary School Sex Abuse Tragedy, Immigrant Families Afraid to Turn to Police

miramonte schoolAs the story of sexual abuse at Miramonte elementary school in Los Angeles continues to shock the nation, Spanish-language media is reporting another tragic development.  Parents of some Miramonte Elementary School children are afraid to go to informational meetings or talk to the police because they worry that contact with the authorities could lead to deportation.

According to the Associated Press, “Parents of Miramonte school students . . . told The Associated Press that they aren’t talking to authorities because they are afraid that the Sheriff’s Department, which is in charge of the investigation, will refer them to immigration through the Secure Communities program” (translated from the Spanish by America’s Voice Education Fund).  Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is a vocal supporter of Secure Communities, a controversial federal program that facilitates the deportation of some immigrants who come into contact with state and local police.  According to the AP, the school is 98% Latino, and many of the children come from immigrant families.    

The parents and children of Miramonte are going through an unspeakable nightmare.  The fact that many of them are afraid to work with law enforcement only adds to their tragedy.  This is exactly why programs that blur the line between police and immigration enforcement are dangerous.  They put enforcement of paperwork violations ahead of protecting the community from real crime.

Although it was supposed to focus on deporting dangerous criminals, the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program has actually resulted in the deportation of tens of thousands of people who have committed no crime.  As of December 31, 2011, 26% of the people deported via Secure Communities (43,028 individuals) were non-criminals, and 57% (92,544) had either committed no crime or were guilty of only a minor offense, including traffic violations.  In Los Angeles County, 22% of these deportations consisted of non-criminals and fully 44% were either non-criminals or had minor violations.  In addition, a recent Warren Institute/Cardozo report revealed that Latinos are disproportionately targeted by the program.  It’s no wonder that immigrants fear law enforcement in their community and see Secure Communities as a deportation dragnet sweeping up innocent people—because it is.      

Community and business leaders across the country, as well as law enforcement experts, say that the program is hurting public safety by destroying the relationship between police and the community that is no vital to reporting, investigating, and prosecuting real criminals.  Last year, the governors of New York, Illinois and Massachusetts attempted to pull their states’ participation in the program because of these concerns.  But not only has the Department of Homeland Security not allowed these states to opt out (despite earlier promises), it has continued its effort to bring Secure Communities to every corner of America by the end of this year.

For more on Secure Communities and its impact on public safety, see:

Posted 02/08/12 at 12:40pm By Van Le

Valentine’s Day in Montgomery: One Heart, One Alabama Rally to Repeal HB 56

repeal hb 56In Alabama this Valentine’s Day?  Help us take a stand against HB 56, Alabama’s immigration law.  The state legislature returns to session this week and we need to show them that there is NO love for HB 56 in Alabama.

Here’s the post from the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice:

One Heart One Alabama: Rally and Lobby Day to Repeal H56

February 14 is the kick-off of a series of lobby days to show legislators that Alabamians want HB56 to be repealed immediately. We cannot continue to let our state suffer under this economic, moral and civil rights crisis. WE LOVE ALABAMA!

Tuesday, February 14

11:30 am -3:30 pm

Alabama State House, 11 South Union Street, Montgomery, Alabama

For more information, email acijteam@gmail.com or call 312-593-6411

Spread the word on Facebook.

The Valentine’s Day event is just the first in a series of rallies pushing for the end of HB 56, and pushing for the promotion of immigrant and minority rights.  On March 4, activists will begin a five-day march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where civil rights marchers were famously gassed and beaten by state troopers in 1965.  That rally will bring civil rights, labor, and immigration activists together to protest state laws they say will dampen black and brown voter participation.

Posted 02/07/12 at 05:07pm By Pili Tobar

Major Changes Needed as Alabama Legislature Considers “Tweaks” to HB 56 Anti-Immigrant Law

hb 56As the Alabama state legislature begins its new legislative session today, the costs and consequences of the state’s “papers, please” anti-immigration law is the hottest political topic in the state.  In light of the many controversies and unintended consequences related to the law’s provisions, including the sticker shock of up to $11 billion the law would cost the state’s GDP, changes to the immigration law are likely during the legislative session.  While some of the law’s original backers are calling for minor tweaks to the law, a chorus of voices is highlighting the costs and consequences of the law and making a strong case for its wholesale repeal:

Editorial in Mobile’s Press-Register Highlights Role of Kris Kobach in Law Debacle:  The editorial in the Press-Register, entitled “Alabama Paying for Failed Experiment,” highlights the role of the law’s architect, Kansas Secretary of State and Mitt Romney immigration advisor Kris Kobach (R), in shaping the costly and unworkable law: “Alabama allowed itself to be used as a guinea pig on illegal immigration so that a Kansas lawyer could build his political career. The unintended consequences of the new law, proclaimed as the nation’s toughest, are legion: It has embarrassed the governor, discouraged industry, scared legal immigrants and, according to a recent report, been a drag on the state economy it was supposed to help… Meanwhile, the immigration law has been a serious distraction for a state that has too many problems to solve — a budget shortfall, low test scores and high poverty — to shoulder a national issue like immigration. And why Alabama, anyway, where immigrants make up a very small percent of the population?  Maybe because we said yes.  In return, what have we gotten for playing the guinea pig? Crops rotting in the field, a net loss to the economy, higher racial tensions and a PR black eye, to boot.  Does any of this matter to an up-and-coming politician in Kansas?  Sure doesn’t sound like it. Anyway, it’s just part of Mr. Kobach’s Alabama experiment.”

Call for Foreign Auto Makers to Join the Effort for a Full Repeal of the Law:  Foreign automakers have already felt firsthand the consequences of the anti-immigrant law, as a legal German executive from Mercedes-Benz and a legal Japanese plant worker for Honda were each taken into custody under provisions of the law.  Many business voices have expressed frustration with how the law has damaged the state’s reputation as a “new” Alabama, and has dragged the state back to its older, intolerant roots – and scared away business in the process.  Now, a number of leading national civil rights, human rights and worker rights organizations including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Council of La Raza, NAACP, Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers and Southern Poverty Law Center are calling on the three major foreign car companies with manufacturing plants in Alabama to join the full repeal effort.  Said Wade Henderson, the President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, "The truth is, there is no fix for (the law)…The only option that makes any sense — and the only option that will help Alabama restore its reputation in the U.S. and with the international business community — is for the Legislature to approve a complete repeal of this obnoxious law."

Protestor Against Law Tells NPR, “You Can’t Tweak Hate”: A story in National Public Radio (NPR) highlights organizing that is happening locally to push back on the law, and the effort by some lawmakers to tweak the bill.  Our good friend, William Anderson, a University of Alabama at Birmingham student, had the best response: “Everybody that voted for HB 56 should be ashamed of themselves…They should all be pushing for full repeal, not tweaking anything – you can't tweak hate."

In addition to these voices, the cost-benefit analysis of Alabama’s “papers, please” anti-immigration law from University of Alabama economist Dr. Samuel Addy is still making waves.  Dr. Addy, the director of the University’s Center for Business and Economic Research, estimated that implementation of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law would shrink the state’s GDP by “possibly as much as $10.8 billion.”  Dr. Addy concluded that “Instead of boosting state economic growth, the law is certain to be a drag on economic development even without considering costs associated with its implementation and enforcement...While the law’s costs are certain and some are large, it is not clear that the benefits will be realized.” 

Posted 02/07/12 at 04:42pm By Mahwish Khan

Dear Mitt: Not That You Care, But to Latino Voters, Pete “Prop 187” Wilson Is Still “El Diablo”

Pete WilsonCalifornia Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative to prohibit undocumented immigrants from health care, public education, and other social services.

At the time, Gov. Pete Wilson was its most ardent supporter. And now, former Gov. Pete Wilson is Mitt Romney's. 

Yesterday, the Romney press camp sent out a statement touting the endorsement from the latest member of Mitt’s anti-immigrant task force:  

“I’m honored to have Governor Pete Wilson’s support, because he’s one of California’s most accomplished leaders,” said Romney.

And the feeling between the two is mutual. In the same press statement, Wilson waxes poetic about the former governor of Massachusetts, claiming that only Mitt has the qualities to “restore America's strength and credibility, and win back respect for America from both our friends and our enemies.”

Maybe not from your enemies, Wilson. Peter Wilson, who will serve as honorary chairman of Romney’s California campaign, is well known in the Latino community as “El Diablo,” which translates quite literally to “the Devil.” So hated was he that the bill he championed mobilized enough Latino voters to vote Democratic. California has been blue ever since.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

An analysis today on Univision, the Spanish-language network, passed around by the Democratic National Committee, speculated that the Wilson endorsement “could further wreck (Romney’s) reputation with Latino voters, the fastest-growing voting bloc, in the general election.”

Latino voters will play a key role in new battleground states like Colorado, Nevada, Florida, and Arizona.  On a press call, this Thursday at noon EST, pollsters and political experts will discuss how the issue of immigration has influenced politics since the days of Proposition 187; the numbers behind the Latino vote in key states like Nevada and Colorado; and the impact Latino voters will have on the general election. 

Will Mitt Romney’s embrace of Pete Wilson, Kris Kobach, and other luminaries in the anti-immigrant movement help him or hurt him in the general election?  What lessons do Republicans in these purple states need to learn from the California experience?  What does the name “Pete Wilson” mean to entire generation of Latinos—and how personal is the issue of immigration to Latino voters? 

The answer to these questions and more, here, on Thursday. Follow us on twitter for a live-tweet of the call. 

Posted 02/07/12 at 12:31pm By Van Le

Immigration Policy Center Report Investigates Consequences of “Attrition Through Enforcement”

going out of businessThe hot new immigration buzzword these days is “self-deportation” (recently made popular by Mitt Romney), also known as “attrition through enforcement,” and the Immigration Policy Center has a new report this week explaining the full, frightening reality of what it is. 

As the introduction to the report reads:

The plan is called “attrition through enforcement” (sometimes called “self deportation”) and the groups behind it have created a web of federal and state legislative proposals that seek to reduce illegal immigration by making it difficult, if not impossible, for unauthorized immigrants to live in American society. While individual proposals may appear to be relatively benign, they are part of a larger systematic plan that undermines basic human rights, devastates local economies, and places unnecessary burdens on U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants.

IPC’s blog at Daily Kos has more:

They say they’re just enforcing current law, but in reality, they are creating new laws new penalties for violating those laws.

While attrition through enforcement might, at first, seem more reasonable than mass deportation, the goal is the same—make sure all unlawfully present immigrants leave the US, regardless of how long they’ve been here, how rooted they are in their community, and how many US citizen family members they have. The result has been undermining human rights, devastating families and communities, hurting local economies and placing unnecessary burdens on all Americans.

While not every state legislator who is legitimately concerned with unauthorized immigration or who introduces an immigration-related bill is promoting a national strategy of attrition through enforcement, it’s not too hard to see that some state laws are part of an organized strategy. Arizona’s SB1070 says right in the law that the “intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.”  State Senator Scott Beason of Alabama stated that his recently passed law “attacks every aspect of an illegal alien’s life” and is “designed to make it difficult for them to live here.”  Alabama’s state Representative Mickey Hammon said his law “was not designed to go out and arrest tremendous numbers of people. Most folks in the state illegally will self-deport and move to states that are supportive of large numbers of illegals coming to their state.”

Read the report here.

Posted 02/06/12 at 07:01pm By Pili Tobar

Romney Announces New Member of Anti-Immigrant Task Force: Gov. Pete Wilson Joins the Team

Pete Wilson and Mitt RomneyIn his apparently endless effort to write off Latino voters, Mitt Romney’s campaign today unveiled the endorsement of yet another notorious anti-immigrant leader: former California Governor Pete Wilson (R). Wilson’s endorsement joins that of Romney immigration advisor and Alabama/Arizona “papers, please” law architect Kris Kobach and leading congressional mass-deportation champion Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in an illustrious pantheon of anti-immigrant endorsers.  

Frank Sharry, our executive director, explained the significance of the Wilson announcement:

Isn't Romney supposed to be a facts guy?  Didn't any of his so-called smart operatives tell him that Pete Wilson has lower approval ratings in the Latino community than the devil himself? Combined with his embrace of Kris Kobach and Lamar Smith, Romney’s message to Latino voters seems to be the same message he is sending to Latino immigrants: get lost. 

With his unrelenting far right approach to immigration, Romney seems intent on writing off Latino-heavy battleground states such as Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada this fall -- all because he wants to prove to the nativist fringe in the GOP he's "one of them." Well, he has succeeded on both counts.

As a refresher, here’s some background on the Romney campaign’s leading anti-immigrant endorsers: 

  • Pete Wilson – the Man Who Turned California Blue:  As Governor, Pete Wilson championed California’s Proposition 187 in 1994, which would have kept undocumented immigrants from enrolling in public school or using other public services.  The proposition passed, but was struck down by the courts.  The most lasting impact was political, as the Prop. 187 battle helped to mobilize Latino voters, turning what was a purple state into a solid blue state ever since and helping to make Pete Wilson a figure forever remembered by Latino voters.  As Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County AFL-CIO, told the Washington Post, "We ran against Pete Wilson for years after he was out of office.”  Perhaps Gov. Romney should ask his supporter Meg Whitman,  California’s 2010 Republican gubernatorial nominee, about the effects of a Pete Wilson endorsement.

  • Kris Kobach – the Man Behind Arizona and Alabama’s “Papers, Please” Anti-Immigration Laws:  The Kansas Secretary of State, Kobach is simultaneously both an endorser and advisor to Romney on immigration issues and the architect of the series of state-based “papers, please” laws in states like Arizona and Alabama that illustrate the real world consequences, costs, and impracticality of Romney’s stated “self-deportation” immigration policy goal.  Kobach’s vision has already resulted in an $11 billion price tag to Alabama.

  • Lamar Smith – the Man Whose Single Mission in Congress is Mass-Deportation:  Rep. Lamar Smith is both a Romney endorser and the leading architect of anti-immigrant legislation in the U.S. Congress.  Smith’s stated policy vision is “attrition through enforcement” – another name for the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, the majority of whom have been here for over a decade contributing to American communities and often living in mixed status families.

Posted 02/06/12 at 04:46pm By Van Le

Immigration Advocates Ask Auto Manufacturers to Stand Against HB 56, Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law

repeal hb 56 nowActivists fighting for a repeal of Alabama’s immigration law, HB 56, announced today that they have called on the state’s auto manufacturers to stand with them against Alabama’s “backward immigration policy.”  (We live-tweeted the press conference here.)

“There is no fix for H.B. 56,” Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said during the call.  “The only option that makes any sense – and the only option that will help Alabama restore its reputation in the U.S. and with the international business community – is for the legislature to approve a complete repeal of this obnoxious law.”

Activists want to make clear that HB 56 is causing a civil rights and humanitarian crisis across the state, and that the silence of foreign investors who do business there is effectively an endorsement of Alabama’s extremist law.

As Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza said:

The companies we have approached through this campaign are some of the most innovative in the world.  So we ask, why would these 21st century companies want to do business in a state that is trying to replicate some of its most egregious sins of the past century?

Auto manufacturers and their foreign employees in Alabama have already crossed paths with the noxious immigration law.  In a well-publicized embarrassment for the state last year, two business executives with Mercedes-Benz and Honda were detained for driving without an Alabama driver’s license.  A St. Louis paper in neighboring Missouri promptly put out an editorial enticing foreign companies to invest in their state instead, emphasizing that “we are the Show-Me State, not the ‘show me your papers’ state.”

Other speakers on the call emphasized that a moral stance against the law was in investors’ economic interests.  As Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union said:

H.B. 56 is a PR disaster in the Latino community. Latinos are not going to be drawn to brands that are manufactured in a state steeped, once again, in racism and discrimination that targets them. Foreign investors will think twice about being associated with that brand.

This push echoes a similar effort nearly twenty years ago, back in 1993, when Alabama had to be persuaded to remove the confederate flag from atop its state capitol.  Daimler-Benz then announced plans to open a manufacturing plant in the state, beginning a foreign investment revival that jumpstarted Alabama’s economy.  Foreign investors—many related to the auto industry—flocked to Alabama, expecting a good business environment and a healthy labor market. 

HB 56, however, has tarred much of that promise, with extremist provisions that have split families apart.  The ugliness has already prompted an exodus of immigrants and Hispanics, and an economic analysis published by the University of Alabama has found that this migratory outflow could cost the state as much as $11 billion.

Watch the campaign’s video here:

Posted 02/06/12 at 03:19pm By Maribel Hastings

After Nevada: placing bets on the Latino vote in November

voz y votoNote: America's Voice's Maribel Hastings, who wrote this post, is in Nevada covering the GOP caucus. She'll be filing regular reports on the campaign as part of our "Voz Y Voto 2012" series.

LAS VEGAS – 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. Republicans are betting that discontent among Latino voters over the failure to pass immigration reform will mean fewer votes for Barack Obama, while Democrats wager that Republican anti-immigrant rhetoric will work in the president’s favor at the polls.

But if anything is worth highlighting from Saturday’s caucuses, it was the drop in turnout among Republican Latino voters relative to 2008, explained pollster Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions.

In the 2008 caucuses, 8% of Republican voters were Latino, according to entrance polls. This year, only 5% were Latino.

“We know that Nevada has the fastest growing Latino electorate of any state. And despite the fact that Latinos are getting bigger and bigger in Nevada, they are becoming a smaller and smaller part of the Republican Party,” Barreto said.

This is consistent, he added, with the 2010 elections, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won 90% of the Latino vote.

Nevada will be a competitive state in November, Barreto declared, but the drop in Republican caucus participation is a sign that “Latinos are very reluctant to go into the Republican Party.”

In Nevada, he indicated, Hispanics continue to align themselves primarily with the Democratic Party, which “has done a decent job at outreach.” Reid’s reelection in 2010 helped solidify this trend, as the anti-immigrant positions of his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, “has had lasting effects” in encouraging Latinos to continue to register as Democrats.

But Barreto added that Democrats face the challenge of recreating the remarkable enthusiasm and passion of Hispanic voters in 2008, even though “Latinos are definitely leaning at this point towards the Democratic Party and towards president Obama.”

“The question is going to be turnout. How many Latinos vote. And that is what the Democrats and the president need to focus on heavily, taking their message to the community, talking about where they had failures, how they are going to address that, what they’ve done to help Latinos. If they can make those connections, then that will help,” Barreto explained.

Barreto’s bottom line: in the next nine months, Obama and the Democrats have to close “a mobilization and enthusiasm gap.”

The conversations I had with a few Hispanics on the outskirts of a Mexican market in Las Vegas confirmed the existence of this enthusiasm gap, and demonstrated how the immigration issue—and, specifically, the lack of comprehensive immigration reform—figures prominently among Latinos’ central concerns, alongside the economy, jobs, and the housing crisis.

“I feel disappointed,” said one voter, who supported Obama in 2008 but won’t vote for him this year. She’s considering jumping to Romney, she says, because even though the Republican frontrunner doesn’t support reform, “he can boost the economy.”

Others, who are undocumented, lamented the effects the lack of reform has had. “We are with whoever gives us reform,” one said. “It’s the same thing every year, they promise and they don’t do anything and do you know how much pain we’re in?” said another.

But others, like Alejandro Martinez, say that things don’t get fixed from one day to the next and that Obama faced fierce opposition from Republicans on immigration. He’ll vote for Obama again “because he deserves a second chance.”

Fernando Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, thinks this is the mindset of many Hispanic voters in Nevada—including himself. In 2008, despite being a Democrat, Romero voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain because he had a proven record of support for immigration reform.

Now he plans to vote for Obama, because Romney’s positions—opposition to comprehensive immigration reform and a promise to veto the DREAM Act—send a clear message to Latino voters that he won’t stand with them on defining issues.

Romero pointed out, however, that the number of Latino voters registering as independents is on the rise. According to him, the most recent statistics from Clark County, where the bulk of the state’s voters are concentrated, “report that there are 94,000 voters with Spanish surnames: 60% of them are Democrats, almost 17% are Republicans and if you add up the percentages of the rest of them, the number of independent voters is greater than the number of Republicans,” Romero said.

This confirms just how competitive Nevada is. Republicans don’t expect to win a majority of the Latino vote here, but they hope to put a dent in Obama’s Hispanic support.

But that will depend on the candidate and his message—and if that candidate is Romney, his message of “self-deportations” and a DREAM Act veto won’t resonate with Latino voters in Nevada.

Nor did it resonate with René Cantú, a Republican who did not support Romney at his caucus on Saturday.

Initially he supported Rick Perry, “who got beaten up for showing a more compassionate point of view on immigration.”

For Cantú, immigration “is an important issue, but not the most important.” But Romney’s current positions are hardly to his liking.

He doesn’t support him right now, but he anticipates that will change. “I think that after the primary, Romney will soften his position, and all this is just rhetoric.”

It remains to be seen if this rhetoric has already had a lasting effect in driving Latino voters in Nevada away from the Republican Party.

Now, the campaign moves to Colorado—and speculation about the role of Latino voters moves with it. It’s not just in Las Vegas that both parties are placing bets on the Latino vote.

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