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 [...]
Read More »

09/06/12 History was made last night at the Democratic National Convention when Benita Veliz–the first DREAMer ever to speak at a convention–took the podium to tell her story. You can watch the video of her remarks here: And the transcript: My name is Benita Veliz, and I’m from San Antonio, Texas. Like so many Americans of [...]
Read More »

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 [...]
Read More »

09/05/12 Today, our Executive Director, Frank Sharry, joins Ron Brownstein from National Journal, Jake Tapper from ABC News, and Maria Elana Salinas from Univision on a panel at the Democratic National Convention entitled “The Democratic Party in Tomorrow’s America: The Hispanic Surge and the New Landscape of American Politics.” The panel “examines how growth in the [...]
Read More »

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 [...]
Read More »

08/30/12 Yesterday, during MSNBC’s coverage of the Republican National Convention, Reporter Ron Mott secured an interview with Governor Jan Brewer – one that turned out to be gleefully surprising for us…and perhaps horrific for her (which, I must say, added to my joy). Mott asks: Let me ask you, if you’ve had conversations with Governor Romney [...]
Read More »

08/28/12 Mitt Romney won’t give an answer as to what he’ll do about the deferred action policy for DREAMers  if he wins, but Texas GOP Senate candidate Ted Cruz isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. Cruz wants Romney to end it. Via Elise Foley at Huffington Post: Ted Cruz, a Republican senatorial candidate from Texas, [...]
Read More »

08/28/12 Our colleagues, Maribel Hastings and Van Le, are in Tampa covering immigration news at the Republican National Convention. Today, the Republican Party will unveil its 2012 platform, which is chock full of anti-immigrant language. Under the leadership of Kris Kobach, the GOP is doing its best to turn away Latino voters. As the poll of Latino [...]
Read More »

08/17/12 America’s Voice supports Univisión’s efforts to have the presidential candidates participate in a candidate forum focused on the array of issues most relevant to the Latino community. Univisión, the nation’s largest Spanish language network, this week issued an invitation to the presidential candidates to participate in a candidate forum after the official plan for this [...]
Read More »

08/16/12 Yesterday’s official launch of the deferred action program for DREAMers offered a reminder about how public policy changes can sometimes directly affect people’s lives.  Unfortunately, yesterday also brought a reminder of the way politics can butt in on even the most celebratory of days, bringing into view the sharp distinctions between the parties on immigration [...]
Read More »

08/13/12 Cross Posted at Latino Decisions and Latino Vote Matters: New analysis of state voter registration counts by Latino Decisions reveals strong growth in Latino registered voters across the 50 states.  In July, Ruy Teixeira and William Frey first analyzed the May 2012 Census data, and found that steady increases in the Latino citizen voting age population (CVAP) could [...]
Read More »

08/10/12 While Team Romney hits Obama with a Nevada ad that highlights the administration’s deportation record, Obama hit the campaign trail in Colorado yesterday, slamming the GOP presidential hopeful on his immigration plan. According to CBS News: “Romney believes in self-deportation” and the Arizona immigration law, Mr. Obama told the crowd in Pueblo, Colo., Thursday. However, [...]
Read More »

08/09/12 Read here the analysis by Maribel Hastings about the pro-Romney Spanish-language ad directed to Latino voters of Nevada that targets the Obama administration’s record number of deportations. Here’s an excerpt (in Spanish): “Disfruto de los refranes porque no hay mejor análisis que la sabiduría popular. Al ver el anuncio en español No más Mentiras dirigido [...]
Read More »

08/08/12 On Friday, the Obama Administration released guidelines for the President’s decision to provide qualifying DREAMers with a two year work permit and temporary relief from deportation. This relief is without a doubt the most significant victory our movement has seen in decades.  Now, with less than two weeks to go until August 15th – the [...]
Read More »

07/31/12 With the national conventions of both parties on the horizon, the countdown for the November 6 election begins. This means that it is also time to mobilize Latino voters. What will the candidates do? Read here the Spanish-language analysis by Maribel Hastings.
Read More »

07/25/12 This afternoon, NBC, the Wall Street Journal and Telemundo released its latest polling, which includes an oversampling of Latino voters. The President maintains a commanding lead: President Barack Obama remains broadly popular with Hispanics, a key voting bloc in this fall’s election, according to new data from the NBC-Wall Street Journal-Telemundo poll. The president leads presumptive Republican [...]
Read More »

07/25/12 Yesterday, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) took to the stage at the Center for American Progress to launch a new website featuring the lives and stories of DREAMers.  (We live-tweeted the event here.) Durbin has long been one of the foremost advocates of immigration reform and the DREAM Act, first sponsoring the bill to [...]
Read More »

07/24/12 Yesterday’s webinar revealed the results from polling national latino voters, which included negative sentiments toward Arizona’s SB 1070, unenthusiastic feelings about Mitt Romney regarding his views about SB 1070, and more trust in the democratic party when it comes to immigration. Here’s what others in the media had to say about it. According to Elise [...]
Read More »

07/19/12 Cross-Posted at Jack and Jill Politics: Today, at an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Steve King (R-Peanut Gallery) ominously threatened to sue DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano unless she reversed the Obama Administration’s popular new policy to grant temporary relief to DREAMers. In case you don’t know him, Rep. King is one of [...]
Read More »

07/18/12 Today, while campaigning in San Antonio, President Obama offered a new critique of Mitt Romney’s immigration record, pointing out his support for Arizona’s SB 1070: …We’re not going backwards when it comes to immigration.  My opponent says the Arizona law should be “a model for the nation.” AUDIENCE:  Booo – THE PRESIDENT:  I believe we [...]
Read More »

07/16/12 Today, Latino Decisions highlights the importance of New Mexico in this year’s election. Writing at the Latino Decisions blog, Gabriel R. Sanchez, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico and Director of Research, examines the current politics of New Mexico by looking at the 2010 elections. For more on how [...]
Read More »

07/14/12 Last month, Latino Decisions and America’s Voice released polling of Latino voters in five battleground states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia. On Friday, July 13th, President Obama campaigned in Virginia. Univision’s Jordan Fabian noticed the President’s stump speech included language on immigration: President Obama briefly departed from his usual stump speech in Virginia Beach, [...]
Read More »

07/13/12 The drumbeat of criticism about the Obama Administration’s so-called “Secure Communities” program continues, as more cities and states push back against its dragnet approach and insist on local control over police priorities.  As we’ve noted before, the ramifications of S-Comm are often eerily similar to the ramifications of Arizona’s SB 1070.  It allows police wide [...]
Read More »

07/11/12 By Mandeep Chahal: For my entire life, just two pieces of paper stood between me and my dreams: a social security card and a work permit. Now with Obama’s new immigration policy, which will begin in mid-August, I will be able to apply and benefit from both of these for at least two years. Last [...]
Read More »

07/10/12 The figures showing Latino support for Mitt Romney are abysmal; and his proposals, especially those pertaining to immigration, are not clear. His absence at the annual conference of the leading Latino organization in the country, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), in a state like Nevada, where the Latino vote will be crucial in the [...]
Read More »

07/10/12 US News and World Report offers two members of Congress with opposing views on President Obama’s bold move to provide relief to DREAMers. On one side is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who supports the President’s action: If anyone still had any doubts about the legal ground on which the president stands with his recent announcement, he [...]
Read More »

07/09/12 Over the weekend, Steve Holland from Reuters wrote an article about “Mitt Romney’s campaign missteps” and how those missteps have caused concern for Republicans. One of the issues highlighted by Holland was immigration: Romney’s missteps on issues such as immigration and healthcare – and images of him on a jet ski during a vacation at [...]
Read More »