America's Voice Blog

Posted 11/24/08 at 07:52pm By Jackie Mahendra

National Republican Trust PAC Controversy, after “Terror-Pandering” Immigration Ad

Today Media Matters has a post slamming political commentator Dick Morris for failure to disclose major contributions that could have led him to provide the National Republican Trust PAC with free publicity during the election. According to Media Matters:

Since the beginning of October, Dick Morris has repeatedly used his columns and Fox News appearances to promote and raise money for the National Republican Trust PAC without disclosing that the organization has paid $24,000 to a company apparently connected to Morris, according to FEC filings. During that time, Morris' email newsletter has frequently included ads that state: "Paid for by The National Republican Trust PAC."

license to killJust what kind of material was paid for by the PAC?

Last month, Factcheck.org ripped apart a highly-charged immigration ad that was circulating during the last weeks of the election, sponsored by the independent PAC. The ad was designated, "one of the sleaziest false TV ads of the campaign," according to Factcheck.org, a site that combs through ads to determine their validity. It conflated the 9/11 terrorists with undocumented men and women working in this country.

Factcheck.org describes it this way:

The ad begins with the ominous warning that "Barack Obama's plan gives a driver's license to any illegal who wants one." More alarmingly, the ad flashes a picture of a Florida driver's license featuring 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta. The ad then goes on to claim that Obama's "plan" provides illegal immigrants with Social Security and health care benefits and would raise taxes to pay for it.

Hardly a word in the ad is true.

What might the ad be lying about? To cite Factcheck.org:

Let's start with the incendiary implication that Obama's "plan" would somehow enable terrorists like Atta. That's ridiculous. It's true that Atta did use a Florida driver's license to board the plane he hijacked. It's also irrelevant. Atta entered the U.S. legally, using a tourist visa, so laws about licenses for illegal immigrants wouldn't have affected him anyway.

That's right. The 9/11 terrorists performed their despicable deed with full and proper documentation. Their horrific acts have nothing to do with our current dysfunctional immigration system, no matter how many times Lou Dobbs tries to convince us otherwise.

But there's more:

For that matter, The Cato Institute's Jim Harper, who advises the Department of Homeland Security on data privacy, describes NRT PAC's claim as "despicable" and says that it is "terror-pandering of the highest order."

With tactics like these flourishing, we have to look at another kind of "terror" that is spreading. It is no coincidence that hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants have reached record levels and that hate speech, death threats, and vandalism are increasing in our cultural landscape, as they continue to permeate our political landscape. The brutal murder of Marcello Lucero, 38, an Ecuadorian immigrant stabbed to death by seven teens in Suffolk County is just the most recent, tragic example.

The latest National Republican Trust PAC controversy uncovered by Media Matters comes as little surprise to those who have seen the depths of where the PAC is willing to go.

This kind of "terror-pandering" has no place in our politics, our immigration debate, or our elections, and this latest development should cause us to further investigate the motives behind these kinds of questionable tactics.

Posted 11/24/08 at 04:48pm By Frank Sharry

Sen. Majority Leader Reid Comment Marks Monumental Shift in Immigration Reform Prospects

Cross-posted on Huffington Post.

In an interview published in Gannet News Service over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke candidly of plans to both address and pass immigration reform legislation in the 111th Congress.

Reid told Gannett News,

"On immigration, there's been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. ... We'll do that."  

The Senate Majority Leader went on say that he did not expect "much of a fight at all,"  and expressed his optimism about passing common sense immigration reform in the near future. 

Why is Reid so confident?

It may have something to do with the failure of anti-immigrant politics at the ballot-box, the growing power of the Latino and immigrant vote, or the realization that Americans are looking to those they elected to tackle and solve the toughest issues of our day.

What's more, in this new landscape, Senator Reid's comments join a distinctly bipartisan chorus. Chiming in are many Republican strategists and leaders speaking out against the GOP's restrictionist, enforcement-only approach to immigration. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) recently said on NBC's Meet the Press:

"There were voices within our party that if they continue with that kind of anti-Hispanic rhetoric, we're going to be relegated to minority status."  

In Newsweek, Karl Rove argued that, in order for the GOP to stay afloat, Republicans must truly support policy that "strengthens citizenship, grows our economy and keeps America a welcoming nation."

Given this new political reality, all signs point to a monumental shift in how immigration reform may be taken up and tackled in the 111th Congress.

Posted 11/21/08 at 04:47pm By Patty Kupfer

God 3, Minutemen 0

Immigration reform advocates around the country are celebrating the historic turnout of Latino voters in this election. And, rightly so. These new voters are a huge part of the equation for winning immigrationreform. But, not the only part.Winning the battle ahead will take allies far beyond immigrants and their families. Enter: God.

No, really. The faith community is emerging as a powerful voice confronting the hateful rhetoric ofanti-immigrant demagogues and stepping up in other ways as well. I count three important steps in the past week alone:

  1. Faith groups scored a victory yesterday with the unanimous approval of a bill in the Illinois State Legislature allowing clergy access to serve and minister to immigrants caught up in the state detention system. State Representative Daniel Burke stated, "The passage of this bill is a step forward towards compassion for the most needed and it will provide some relief for the spiritual needs of thousands of immigrants held in detention for days or months."

  2. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a new poll this week showing that 69 percent of Catholics support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Conference Director, Johnny Young celebrated the results: "Like other Americans, Catholics want a solution to the challenge of illegal immigration and support undocumented immigrants becoming full members of our communities and nation."

  3. Not to be outdone by their Catholic colleagues, the Protestants have announced efforts to raise the issue in their churches. Church World Service and the National Council of Churches USA, which represent 35 Protestant denominations, have passed a new resolution calling for humane immigration reform and an end to workplace raids. More importantly, to advance these principles, they've unveiled a new task force dedicated to educating and mobilizing their thousands of congregations to advocate for undocumented immigrants.

So, congratulations to all the faith groups that are joining togetherand calling for comprehensive immigration reform. With you, wewill be praying that the new administration and congressional leaders will follow your lead and fix our broken immigration system.

Posted 11/21/08 at 12:35pm By Frank Sharry

Welcome to My World, Janet. Now, Please Restore Some Dignity to It

Cross-posted on Huffington Post

First things first, kudos to the President-elect on his likely pick for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (D) is a superb choice to lead DHS, which-I think we can all agree-is ready for some real leadership.  But why exactly did Obama choose Napolitano for this task? MSNBC's Mark Murray concluded that the pick hinged on immigration:

The pick of Napolitano indicates that immigration may have been Obama's primary concern in making his decision on this post.

It's hard to isolate which of Napolitano's credentials won the day. What's clear that, when it comes to immigration, Janet gets it. As Governor of a major border state, Napolitano has had to make tough decisions to deal with the consequences of our dysfunctional immigration laws. She's managed to do so while maintaining record approval ratings. And that's in a state often labeled "ground zero" of the immigration debate.

There's no doubt she would bring this experience to bear as head of DHS, which runs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As Governor, she held fast in support of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level. Her kind of reform would secure our borders and bring immigrant workers out of the shadows (and onto the tax rolls).

I can just picture the Michael Chertoff equivalent of the recent Condoleezza Rice memo, "Welcome to My World, Barack."  (In the memo, Rice lamented, "Comprehensive immigration reform is the one thing I wish we'd been able to do, and it's going to have to be done, and I hope it's done soon.")

The title of Chertoff's memo? May I suggest:

Welcome to My World, Janet... Now, Please Restore Some Dignity to It.  

Let's face it: both DHS and ICE have seen their dignity dive-bomb under Chertoff's rule. After immigration reform was murdered by anti-immigrant forces in 2007, ICE took matters into its own hands.

The agency's showy immigration raids have focused on rounding up immigrant workers and tearing them from their families to generate splashy headlines. Of course, this comes at the expense of not prosecuting dangerous criminals or unscrupulous employers.

But rounding people up is just the beginning. Recent New York Times and Washington Post exposés have revealed the outrageous deaths of seventy immigrant detainees, many of whom died because of poor conditions in privately-traded, expanding ICE detention centers.

What's more, ICE has been slamming workers with trumped up identity theft charges and executing mass trials that have trampled our deeply-held values of due process and basic justice. The Supreme Court is set to investigate one such identity theft case next year.

Finally, we can't ignore former ICE head Julie Myers' moments of sheer incompetence, stupidity, and apparent racism. These only served to further tarnish ICE's reputation. Most recently, her Operation Scheduled Departure, a "self-deportation" plan that netted eight (8) unlawful immigrants in total, was a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.

Incidentally, Ms. Myers scheduled her own departure from the Agency right after Mr. Obama was elected.

If Napolitano's likely appointment to Secretary of Homeland Security is anything, it is a welcome departure from business as usual at DHS. It is a chance for a courageous leader to restore dignity to a highly politicized agency that has spiraled out of control.

 

Posted 11/18/08 at 11:39am By Web Team

On NPR, Frank Sharry lays out new landscape for reform

On yesterday's NPR Morning Edition, reporter Jennifer Ludden took a few moments to turn conventional wisdom on immigration on its head:

In recent years, political advice on immigration in both parties has gone something like this: "It's the third rail of politics." "The less said, the better." "If you say anything, talk tough."

Frank Sharry, America's Voice She cut to America's Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry:

"What the election showed is that the conventional wisdom on why immigration reform is too hot to handle is wrong..."

(Watch out: conventional-wisdom-shattering may be addictive).

Just take a look at the numbers we've been predicting for months now:

More Hispanics than ever voted, and they voted 2-to-1 for Obama over McCain. Sharry says Latino support was decisive in helping deliver the swing states of Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida. And polls show it was the immigration issue - specifically some in the Republican Party who demonized illegal immigrants - that helped drive Latinos to the Democrats.

Even in states line Virginia and Indiana, not traditional Latino states, Latino voters helped to turn those states blue.

"The large, vocal anti-immigrant vote that has hijacked the Republican Party - they have a lot of bark but not a lot of bite," Sharry says. "They couldn't turn elections."

Where's the proof?

PDF picDuring the election, Immigration08.com tracked close races where immigration was an issue. Well, nineteen pro-reform candidates beat enforcement-only candidates in twenty-one battleground house and senate races across the country. The latest report, The GOP: Fenced in by Immigration, details how the immigration issue became a big fat loser for the Republican Party.

Ludden went on to analyze how the economic downturn could affect prospects of passing immigration reform, speculating that there may be fewer low-skilled jobs created- but countered with comments from Craig Regelbrugge of the American Landscape and Nursery Association:

Still, even if there's no support for bringing in new workers, Regelbrugge sees an argument for legalizing agricultural workers already in the United States. Seventy percent of them are believed to be undocumented, and he says these jobs do not disappear in a bad economy. Regelbrugge says efforts to find Americans to take agriculture jobs have failed, but each immigrant worker supports three to four other U.S. workers. 

"So to the extent that Freida the fertilizer salesperson or Chuck the cheese factory worker are worried about their own well-being, so too they should be worried about Miguel the milker and Pepe the peach picker," he says. "Their jobs are here together, and if the production moves, the American jobs move, too." 

In other words, if ‘Pepe' gets booted out, Joe's ‘plumbing' business heads South of the border, too (or across the ocean, as the case may be).

The good news is...powerpoint slide

The latest polling shows that, even with a deflated economy, voters are more likely to support immigration reforms that move undocumented workers out of the shadows and onto the tax rolls.  Common sense solutions that aid the economy and fix our deeply dysfunctional immigration system are a win-win.

Add to all this the growing power of the Latino and Immigrant Citizen Vote, and the failure of anti-immigrants at the ballot box,  and you've got yourself a no-brainer.

Posted 11/13/08 at 04:53pm By Web Team

New Immigration08.com Event Analyzes Future of Immigration Policy, New Swing District Polling

 

This morning, at an event hosted by National Council of La Raza, leading analysts and advocates gathered to discuss how the issue of immigration played a key role in the 2008 elections and to assess the future of immigration policy.

The event was moderated by America's Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry and included analysis from Janet Murguia, President and CEO of National Council of La Raza and Simon Rosenberg, President of NDN.

The presentations of new polling by pollsters  David Mermin, Partner at Lake Research Partners and Pete Brodnitz, Principal at Benenson Strategy Group examining voters' attitudes on immigration reform are available here: www.AmericasVoiceOnline.org/Live.

Check back for more detailed analysis and video soon.

Posted 11/12/08 at 06:17pm By Web Team

New Report: GOP Fenced Itself In on Immigration

 

Until now, conventional wisdom held that illegal immigration was a wedge issue that worked to mobilize "the base" in the Republican Party and to hurt Democrats who supported comprehensive immigration reform.  This same wisdom asserted that the number of Latino voters who could hold anti-immigrant politicians accountable for their nasty rhetoric was too small to make a difference outside of Democratic strongholds. 

Well, if there's one thing we can all agree on right now, it's that this election has ripped conventional wisdom to shreds.

A new report by America's Voice, The GOP: Fenced in by Immigration, details how nineteen pro-reform candidates beat hard-liners in twenty-one battleground house and senate races across the country.

Here's the essence: swing voters chose candidates that stood up for a more comprehensive approach to immigration reform than their hard-line opponents.  Latino voters turned out in record numbers and voted down the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Republican Party.  Their participation in the 2008 elections contributed to Senator Obama's wins in key battleground states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Florida, and also helped Democrats win contested House and Senate races in these states and beyond. 

Meanwhile, the anti-immigrant forces that have all but hijacked the Republican Party proved to be inconsequential at best, except for their role in potentially driving the GOP into the political wilderness with Latino and New American voters.

As the pundits create the latest conventional wisdom coming out of this historic election, we are left with one question... Anyone have a new wedge issue for the GOP?

Download the report.

Posted 11/11/08 at 03:37pm By Paco Fabian

Republicans Reflect on Latino Voter Loss, Immigration, and Red Meat

As the pundits move away from discussing how Latinos turned out in favor of Democrats at historic levels in 2008 to analyzing why this shift occurred, Republican analysts are chiming in: the GOP encouraged the kind of "red-meat" xenophobia within its ranks that blocked immigration reform. And it backfired, bigtime.

Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson, in a column highlighting why Republicans must shift directions to stay viable electorally, stated:

"Here's the truly ominous trend for the Republicans: Hispanic voters nationwide chose Obama over McCain by 67 percent to 31 percent. This is a huge shift from 2004, when George Bush won an estimated 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, and the trend was instrumental in moving states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado into the Democratic column last Tuesday. How did the Republicans manage this feat? By blocking sensible immigration reform and appealing to the red-meat conservative base with rhetoric that could only be taken as xenophobic. Hispanics constitute the nation's biggest and fastest-growing minority. Apparently they have no place in the "center-right America" of Republican fantasy." 

The Latino vote comprised 9% of the electorate nationwide in 2008, a figure that totals over 11 million voters. This turnout represents a jump of over 3 million voters since 2004, when 7.6 million Latinos cast ballots, and is approximately double the Latino turnout of 2000. Ominously for Republicans, the Latino vote broke overwhelmingly Democratic in 2008. After supporting Democratic candidate John Kerry by a 56-44% margin against George W. Bush in 2004, Latinos gave Democratic candidate Barack Obama their support at a 67-31% margin against John McCain. As the New York Times showed, Latinos' movement towards Democrats was one of the biggest demographic shifts from 2004 to 2008.

As Latino polling expert Sergio Bendixen stated:

"The debate over immigration started driving Hispanic voters toward the Democratic party, and the economic black hole clinched it."

A prominent Republican, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), stated on NBC's "Meet the Press":

"The very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans...there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we're going to be relegated to minority status."

To top it off, William McKenzie, editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, examined the subset of the Latino Evangelical vote and concluded:

"It's safe to say enough Latino evangelicals marched away from the GOP to matter in states such as Florida and Colorado. Barack Obama won there after George W. Bush prevailed in 2004." McKenzie quoted prominent Latino Evangelical leader, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who said "Immigration, and immigration only, cost Republicans. The Pat Buchanans drove Latino evangelicals away with scary rhetoric about immigration during Congress' recent debates on the subject." McKenzie concluded his column by stating, "the GOP can't keep narrowing itself, forcing out minority voters. The party either expands or shrinks into irrelevancy."

But the clincher is, it wasn't just the Latino electorate who voted in favor of common sense and humane immigration policies. Many non-Latino voters refused to support leading anti-immigrant crusaders such as Marilyn Musgrave (CO-4), Thelma Drake (VA-02), Lou Barletta (running for Rep. Kanjorski's seat in PA-11), and Virgil Goode (VA-5) and, in many other close races across the country, supported candidates with more comprehensive approaches to immigration reform.

The Republican Party is at a cross-roads. Either it cuts out the red-meat xenophobia and gets on the right side of the immigration issue, or it stands in danger of being relegated to "minority status" (a fairly ironic term, all things considered) for the foreseeable future. 

Posted 11/10/08 at 06:47pm By Web Team

As anti-immigrant political power plummets, violence on the rise

 

Last week we saw anti-immigrant candidates losebig in races across the country. We saw a new day for New Americanand Latino voters, who flexed their political muscle by turning out in massivenumbers on November 4th. Well, it is not yet the new day we were hoping for.

Today wegrieve with the family of MarcelloLucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who was stabbed to death in Suffolk, NY, byseven teens. These teens, between the ages of 16 and 17, admitted they, “wantedto beat up someone who looked Hispanic,” according to newsday.com:

"These individualstold detectives that they were looking to beat someone of Latinoheritage," said Det. Lt Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the homicide squad,adding that the victim, Marcello Lucero, 37, is of Ecuadorian descent.

From LongIsland Wins:

Thehorrible murder of Marcello Lucero is thelatest and deadliest of a series of anti-immigrant attacks in SuffolkCounty. The seven young men charged in the attack come from an area a few milessouth of the hamlet of Farmingville, the epicenter of anti-immigrant organizingon Long Island. Farmingvillefirst gained national attention in 2000 when two young men abducted a pairof Mexican day laborers and tried to beat them to death. It was in theheadlines again a few years later when five high school students burned downthe house of a Latino family, whose sleeping occupants barely escaped withtheir lives.

Unfortunately, there is nothing isolated about thisincident. For the fourth solid year in a row, hate crimes against Latinos areon the rise. According to a recent report by the SouthernPoverty Law Center:

Hate crimes targeting Latinos increased again in 2007, capping a 40% rise in the four years since 2003, according to FBI statistics released earlier this week.

As anti-immigrant propaganda has increased on both the margins and in the mainstream of society - where pundits and politicians have routinely vilified undocumented Latino immigrants with a series of defamatory falsehoods - hate violence has risen against perceived "illegal aliens."

Hate Crime Incidents

Organizations that advocate on behalf ofLatinos, such as NCLR and CASA Maryland, have also been primetargets of this frightening trend-as well as major forces to counteract it.NCLR recently launched a website called "We Can Stop the Hate," and has wona battle in court over deaththreats to immigrant advocates.

Imagine2050 captures the way that the immigration debate has reignited the ugliesttendencies of our society:

Underneath this raging battle thatdivides communities, neighbors, friends and families a simple factremains-forced economic migration, more popularly known as"undocumented immigration", has become its own vocabulary, a way totalk about race, in a society in which race has often been aconversation coded in meaningless terms such as "reversediscrimination," "dual loyalists," "illegal alien" and "playing therace card." 

‘Race' was a major issue in this election,for obvious reasons, but most pundits have overlooked one major way that racismhas made its comeback of late. An out-of-control immigration debate, left tofester in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, has given rise tonew waves of racial hatred against anyone perceived as "Latino."

It is time for politicians on both sides ofthe aisle to come together to condemn the kind of rhetoric we've let pass for"debate," and to pass a humane, common-sense immigration reform.

Posted 11/10/08 at 02:54pm By Simon Rosenberg

GOP Senator Admits Scapegoating of Hispanics Endangers His Party

Originally posted at NDN.org

Earlier today on Meet the Press Tom Brokaw cited NDN in asking Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) whether the weak showing of the Republicans these last few years with Hispanics was endangering their Party's ability to be a majority in the 21st century. The transcript:

MR. BROKAW: Senator Martinez, as you know, politics is about keeping score. I know this is tough for you to hear, probably, but you were 0-for-3 last Tuesday. You're a Republican; you are from Florida, that went to the Democrats; and you're Hispanic, or Latino in some parts of this country, and the Hispanics went overwhelmingly for the Democrats this time. Jill Lawrence wrote in USA TODAY: "`If the Republicans don't make their peace with Hispanic voters, they're not going to win presidential elections anymore. The math just isn't there.'" That's according to Simon Rosenberg, head of the NDN, a Democratic group that studies Hispanic voters." How do you get back to the Hispanics?

SEN. MARTINEZ: Governor Jeb Bush--former Governor Jeb Bush last week made a comment that if Republicans don't figure it out and do the math that we're going to be relegated to minority status. I've been preaching this for a long time to my colleagues within my party. I think that the very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans. The fact of the matter is I think in Florida there was not a great ideological shift, but I think there was plenty of room for improvement in how that state was looked upon.

The fact of the matter is that Hispanics are going to be a more and more vibrant part of the electorate, and the Republican Party had better figure out how to talk to them. We had a very dramatic shift between what President Bush was able to do with Hispanic voters, where he won 44 percent of them, and what happened to Senator McCain. Senator McCain did not deserve what he got. He was one of those that valiantly fought, fought for immigration reform, but there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we're going to be relegated to minority status. (bold added). 

For three years now NDN has argued that the way the Republicans had handled the immigration issue - by demonizing Hispanics - was one of the biggest political mistakes made by a political party in the last 50 years of American politics.  As Peter Wallsten writes in the LA Times today, this failure with Hispanics may have cost them 4 prominent states in this election, but may cost them Arizona and Texas in the coming years.  If that comes about it is game over, lights out for the GOP in the Electoral College for a very long time. 

And see here for Jill Lawrence's piece in USA Today mentioned by Brokaw, and here for our landmark study that lays out this argument, Hispanics Rising II.  

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