Category Archives: Immigration

HispanicLatinos: A Different Deal at an Important Moment for the Country

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Through the years most Americans have believed that their country is exceptional and assume it is eternal.  Indeed, its ability to provide opportunity and freedom and to convert human potential into spectacular scientific and technological progress eclipses other nations, and America remains a shining example of the promise of humankind.  Despite its faults and shortcomings and because it is not a perfect union, it could have become a slave-holding, colonial-imperialist power for longer than it was tempted.  Enough of its people, however, chose differently.

Americans have spent hundreds of thousands of lives and invested trillions of dollars to make the world a safe and better place for humankind.  Most Americans – including the vast majority of HispanicLatinos for whom loyalty is almost part of their DNA – take immense pride in their country, and rightfully so.  Yet history is not destiny; demography is.

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To Be or Not to Be: A Nation in Decline with HispanicLatinos at Its Center

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The United States is in decline and in danger and, like nations throughout history, can fail.  Unless HispanicLatinos – continuously becoming a larger part of the national population – understand the circumstances confronting them and the country, they will jeopardize their own existence and further complicate the viability of America’s future.

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You Can Take It With You

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It is hard right now to quantify the impact that immigrants leaving the country are having on the national economy.  Soon enough, though, a think tank will put pencil to paper and we should have a better idea.  But it stands to reason that those of us who through the years have seen cities revitalized from one coast to the other will not be surprised at the data that will show a downtick in economic activity and increased joblessness across the board.  Indeed, entire towns and industries in the Midwest and in the South are being saved from extinction by immigrants who do work no one else wants.

We seem to forget so quickly that a growing population drives an economy forward.  It is a simple lesson.  The term ‘ghost town’ might invoke scenes from old western movies but it also is an economic epitaph:  No people, no economy.  No economy, no city.

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On Florida and Jan Brewer and Ann Richards

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It is interesting to see the national media try to make sense of the HispanicLatino vote in Florida before the Republican primary on Tuesday.  The media speaks of it as one vote, and it is in a sense.  The HispanicLatino vote next week could be as much as 80 percent Cuban American.  But most HispanicLatinos in Florida now vote Democratic, so the media would be more accurate to describe the group voting next week in the GOP contest as the Cuban Republican vote, and they should point out that it is shrinking as each day passes due to its aging nature.  Continue reading →

Basic Math: A No Vote is a Half Vote

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So a Peruvian student in the country illegally, Lucy Allain, now of New York, last week accosts Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and asks him why he does not support the Dream Act.  The expected confrontation occurs.  He withdraws his hand as if she were trash, she said later.  Aides move Romney away from her.  I can imagine how she felt.  Romney is simply wrong on the issue.  More so, in his world, Romney would be called a cad.

But Lucy is wrong on another, vital matter. Asked by Jorge Ramos on Univision’s Sunday news program, Al Punto, for whom she would vote for if she could, she responded that she would vote for neither Romney nor President Obama, who has failed the HispanicLatino community – and the nation – by not pursuing immigration reform, not pushing for the Dream Act and pursuing a deportation program that in the end will prove counter to the national interest if it stands over a protracted period of time. Continue reading →

Well-dressed by the Depression

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The advertisements for Joseph A. Bank, the men’s clothier with its ubiquitous advertising, scare me.  Buy one suit, get two suits, two shirts and two ties absolutely free.  I do not know what the first suit costs but two additional suits, two shirts and two ties at no charge?  Hardly seems possible, unless we are heading for an economic depression. Continue reading →

Eleven Months of Dithering?

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So as the new year starts, where do we stand?  It seems like things are poised to stay about the same or get worse.  Nothing on the horizon suggests that the economy will start moving again on its own.  All of the long-term factors and components of a changed structural economy are in place and will remain in place for a long time, mimicking an economy in recession.  What is true this week was true last week.  And with Congress dithering on the payroll tax cut extension and undecided on continuing aid to the long-term unemployed, the signs are not encouraging.  Add to that the presidential campaign that officially starts tomorrow in Iowa and that will not be resolved for another 11 months – tempting businesses in and outside the United States to hold back from investing in their own growth.  Hard to make a new year’s resolution to remain optimistic.  However: Continue reading →

HispanicLatinos at a Crossroads

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HispanicLatinos are living through a nationally decisive moment.  The pressure is building on HispanicLatino leaders – elected, appointed, self-proclaimed and otherwise – to step up to a point in history as important as any since the mid-1960’s.  In but a few months, the Supreme Court could waylay the progress HispanicLatinos have made over five decades to achieve social, economic a political parity with mainstream society – and in the process the Court could jeopardize America’s very future.

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The Supreme Court Disrupting the Future

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Redistricting and immigration are difficult and complex subjects and are easily and simply intertwined for one reason:  They relate directly to the power of the two political parties in the country since most HispanicLatinos vote Democratic.

Given the expanding number of HispanicLatinos in the nation relative to the rest of the population, any fair handling of redistricting going forward should favor HispanicLatinos and, therefore, Democrats.  And given that immigration is the lifeblood a country, any mishandling of it could be catastrophic for the long term.  That seems natural and reasonable enough, though the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to confirm the unfairness and outright hostility that state legislatures and other political entities are visiting upon their HispanicLatino populations.

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All for Newt, Newt for All

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Sometimes what passes for political reporting from Washington swamps the senses.  A report in one of the nation’s leading newspapers suggests that New Gingrich has built a network to make inroads into the HispanicLatino vote.  Goodness.  That is news.  Gingrich does not have an organization in Iowa and cannot pull together a full slate of delegates for the caucuses to vote on, but, by gosh, he has a network within the HispanicLatino population.  Yes, and peanuts turn into gold if you stare at them long enough. Continue reading →