01/14/13 At Crooks and Liars, Dave Neiwert has an excellent post titled “The Coming Fight on Immigration Reform: What Progressives Want.”  He lays out a very clear agenda, setting the stage for the upcoming immigration debate from a position of strength. Given the results of the 2012 election, the fact that the American people want reform, Democrats [...]
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01/04/13 Today, the above-the-fold headline in the Washington Post reads: ”Obama prioritizing immigrant issues” (which matters because many people here still get the Post delivered).  The headline of the online version of the article is: “White House pushes forward on immigration ahead of bigger reform fight.” There is a new conventional wisdom for immigration reform, and the Obama [...]
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12/14/12 A new video from America’s Voice Education Fund, “From the Latino Vote in 2012 to Immigration Reform in 2013,” captures the Republican Party’s challenge with respect to Latino voters and the GOP’s need to push for immigration reform. The video starts with Ronald Reagan arguing for “amnesty,” followed by Mitt Romney announcing hardline immigration positions [...]
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12/13/12 Latinos and the Republican Party haven’t seen eye-to-eye much recently.  However, leaders of prominent Latino-focused organizations and leading Republican pollsters each made news yesterday and reached a similar conclusion: the Republican Party needs to play ball on real immigration reform or else pay an escalating political price.  There’s a consensus that changing demographics and the [...]
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12/06/12 Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker reversed his stance on a previously held immigration position yesterday, when he said that he would actively fight against the progress of an anti-immigrant, SB 1070-style bill in his state. “I think that it would be a huge distraction for us in this state,” Governor Walker said according to Politico.  “I [...]
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12/05/12 In an interview with CQ yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reiterated his support for comprehensive immigration reform and even “suggested that he could support citizenship…with preconditions, including an emphasis on granting citizenship first to immigrants who are currently waiting to receive it,” writes CQ reporter, John Gramlich.  Said Graham, “I don’t like the European model [...]
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12/05/12 Cross-posted at Latino Decisions, Latino Vote Matters, and Daily Kos: In the wake of the 2012 presidential election, the Latino vote in states like Colorado has been held up as a critical and influential factor.  Latino voters turned out in record high numbers and their 75% vote for President Obama nationally set a new high [...]
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12/05/12 Cross-posted at Latino Decisions, Latino Vote Matters, and Daily Kos:  A month seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the outcome of Colorado’s 2012 general election and the role of Latino voters in both the Presidential and state-level contests.  In many respects, the election reflected a continuation of the state politics apparent in 2008 [...]
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12/04/12 A panel featuring pollster Ruy Teixeira and Obama for America organizer Jeremy Bird at the Center for American Progress today underscored the impact of the minority vote in last month’s election, and highlighted just how instrumental record numbers of minority voters were to President Obama’s reelection effort. As Ruy Teixeira said in a PowerPoint presentation [...]
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12/04/12 Since the election last month, when Mitt Romney lost the Latino vote to President Obama by more than a 3-1 margin, Republicans who acknowledge that the party must do better with immigration and Latino voters have mainly fallen into two camps. There is the camp of the token proposal, which has pushed out legislation like [...]
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12/04/12 Matt Rhoades, Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, has added his voice to the ranks of other Republicans lamenting choices the Party made on immigration.  At a forum hosted by the Harvard University Institute of Politics and reported on yesterday, Rhoades admitted that the campaign’s decision to move to the hard right on immigration during the GOP [...]
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11/28/12 Cross-posted at Latino Decisions, Latino Vote Matters, and Daily Kos: The results of the 2012 election have awakened the Republican Party to their impending demographic disaster. Substantial growth in the size and power of the Latino vote—and an overwhelming tilt in that vote against their nominee—paints a bleak future for Republican electability. Coupled with startling [...]
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11/27/12 At Crooks and Liars yesterday, our friend David Neiwert eviscerated columnist Ruben Navarratte’s latest column for trying to rewrite the history and politics of immigration. Dave, who follows the issue very closely, is having none of it. You have to read the whole thing to fully appreciate Dave’s work, but here’s how it begins: Ruben Navarrette, [...]
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11/26/12 When Rahm Emanuel served in Congress, he was also the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He was not particularly helpful when it came to immigration reform–in fact, he was often hostile. Here’s what then-Congressman Emanuel said about the issue back in October of 2007: For the American people, and therefore all of us, [...]
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11/21/12 Last weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)  criticized Mitt Romney’s post-election “gift” comments and offered advice to the Republican Party regarding its lurch to the right on immigration policy and its thumping by Latino voters: “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.  He [Romney] keeps digging.” Added Senator Graham, “The Hispanic community, 71 percent voted for [...]
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11/19/12 During the fall, we wrote several times about the race between the race between Republican incumbent Rep. Mary Bono Mack (CA) and Democrat Raul Ruiz. America’s Voice included this match-up in our spotlight of fifteen competitive House races important to Latino and Asian voters — and all those who care about common-sense immigration reform. Ruiz won. Today, [...]
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11/14/12 At the Center for American Progress this afternoon, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) discussed what he believes immigration reform should look like and called it the “civil rights issue of our time.”  After host Neera Tanden, the President of the Center for American Progress, called Latino voters “THE story of the 2012 elections,” Menendez said that [...]
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11/14/12 Cross-posted at Latino Decisions, Latino Vote Matters, and Daily Kos:  Gary Segura recently provided a discussion of how exit polls often misrepresent Latino voters (Badly!), pointing out that exit polls often rely on small samples of Latino likely voters, rarely utilize fully bilingual interviews, and utilize samples that are not reflective of the Hispanic/Latino population in [...]
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11/14/12 In his first press conference post-election, President Obama took a question about immigration and said that a bill would likely be introduced in Congress soon after his inauguration. Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, had the following reaction to President Obama’s immigration comments: President Obama made it clear that comprehensive immigration reform is [...]
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11/14/12 Momentum keeps building on behalf of immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice: From the President to conservative leaders to the American people themselves, the stampede towards broad immigration reform that will put 11 million new Americans on the road to citizenship is [...]
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11/14/12 Voter ID struggles from this year’s election have culminated in Arizona, where 324,362 ballots remain uncounted.  Between the seriously questionable pre-election materials that were distributed, local officials’ delayed response in counting all the ballots, and the fact that the ballots could make a difference in who wins key races in Arizona—the voting crisis is quickly [...]
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11/14/12 Over the past week, there’s been an avalanche of punditry and discussion about the new, post-election politics of immigration reform. Much of the focus has been on the Republican Party’s serious problems on the issue, caused by chronic catering to its anti-immigrant nativist wing, led by the likes of Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Lamar [...]
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11/13/12 Immigration reform has rocketed to the top of the national agenda in the past week, after Latino turnout and overwhelming support for President Obama and his party were key to holding the White House and Senate for the Democrats and gaining slightly in the House. Today, Lake Research and The Tarrance Group released a new [...]
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11/13/12 Last week, we reported on the alarming number of provisional ballots left over from last week’s election that still to be counted in Arizona.  Here’s a quick recap from the Arizona chapter of the ACLU: According to the Arizona Secretary of State, as of November 8 there were more than 630,000 ballots yet to be [...]
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11/13/12 A week out from the 2012 elections, it’s clear that Latino voters’ decisive role in the electorate has boosted the prospects and accelerated the timetable for passing immigration reform legislation.  Here are two key reasons why: 1. Without a significantly improved performance among Latino voters, the Republican Party’s future as a nationally competitive political party [...]
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11/13/12 If one thing is clear coming out of the election, it’s this: the movement demanding citizenship for 11 million new Americans have triumphed over the anti-immigrant crowd. Mitt Romney embraced the anti-immigrant policy of “self-deportation,” thinking we would let it slide. He was wrong. In fact, many analysts have concluded it was Mitt Romney’s anti-immigrant policies [...]
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11/13/12 Cross-posted at Latino Decisions, Latino Vote Matters, and Daily Kos: In his 1996 re-election President Bill Clinton attained 72 percent of the Latino vote, the highest level of Latino support of any presidential candidate—before this year. In 2012, President Obama set a new record, winning his second term in office with the support of 75 [...]
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