Category Archives: Immigration

From Castro to Rubio: The Attack of the Birthers

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So what to make of Marco Rubio’s problem.  First, to his defense:  Some reason other than respect for the Constitution must motivate the attack of the birthers who believe he is not eligible to be vice president.  They think that Rubio’s parents being born in Cuba disqualifies the Republican U.S. senator from Florida from being nominated by his party.  But, of course, anyone born in the country can run for office – any office.

The trouble brewing for Rubio is not the whacko crowd.  Yet even someone already being compared to Ronald Reagan can have an issue or two, and one of Rubio’s is that he misstated when his parents emigrated from Cuba.  It seems that he has wanted people to believe that they were part of the exiles who fled communism and Fidel Castro, who took power in 1959 – except that his parents had left in 1956, when Fidel was in Mexico in exile reorganizing and trying to find support for his revolution.

The facts do not add up for Marco.  But they do add up rather nicely for others, some of whom could easily be found in the Democratic White House or in the camps of some of his Republican rivals.  They know that Rubio is running for vice president.  Anyone who does not believe it does not know how this works, despite his denials as late as this week.

For the White House and his rivals, Marco Rubio would be a nightmare.  For President Obama, the Republican spin machine is capable of convincing enough HispanicLatinos that the GOP better suits their interests – enough to tip Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Virginia and perhaps New Jersey but certainly Florida.  For Rubio’s potential rivals for the vice presidency within the party, they already face GOP strategists who want to balance their party’s anti-immigration and anti-HispanicLatino rhetoric with a telegenic HispanicLatino on the ticket who is the son of immigrant parents.

The odds for Rubio’s selection most likely are tied to how the economy performs.  If it, as expected, does not improve by late next year and Obama’s standing in the polls remains wretched, Rubio’s chances diminish.  But if Obama is within striking distance and the GOP senses that Democrats have done a good job organizing the HispanicLatino infrastructure, Rubio will be on the ticket.  It is an ironic paradox.   The more effective Democrats are at organizing the HispanicLatino vote, the greater the chance that the GOP will choose Rubio.

So it is to the White House’s advantage to cripple Rubio now.  Other parties interested in waylaying Rubio easily could be supporters of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.  After lightning struck Sarah Palin in 2008, the list of would-be GOP vice presidential hopefuls could run into the dozens.  Thus the fight is on, and Rubio’s current problems are significant – because he has significant opponents.

Rubio’s supporters have their work cut out for them and they should invest some time and energy to see if any former Presidents or Vice Presidents had parents born outside the United States.

After that, they can start to figure out how these many years later they can corral enough voters of Mexican descent who make up almost 65 percent of the HispanicLatino population to support his revolutionary candidacy.

Note:  Next week, a more detailed essay on the 2012 election will be available on this website.

Blogs published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or invariably in between.

 

Surely Al Sharpton or Sheldon Cooper Can Help

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The scripted HispanicLatino stood up to ask his question at the Republican presidential debate in Nevada last week.  The incisive power of the question sucked the air out of the room.  Viewers were left reeling.  “What is your message to the Hispanic community?” was Robert Zavala’s riveting question.

Not: Hey, guys, who has caused the nation more harm in the past 10 years:  Bankers and Wall Street investment companies or immigrants in the country illegally?

Not:  Riddle me this:  You say you want to create jobs.  Why do corporations and banks with more than $2 trillion and perhaps $3 trillion in assets not invest in economic development in the HispanicLatino community – or any community?

Not:  Say, I do not know if you have noticed but Mexico right next door each day edges closer to be taken over by narco-traffickers.  You got anything to say about that?  And I have a follow-up question:  If the United States did not have a massive drug-consumption problem would Mexico have a massive drug-cartel problem?

Not:  I’m curious.  What is going to happen in Cuba when Fidel Castro dies?  A massive migration northward?  And is there anything to fear from Hugo Chávez in Venezuela?

Not:  Ah, don’t you get that your trash-talking on immigration makes HispanicLatinos who might vote for you uneasy and is making many more of them angry?

Not:  Excuse me, but:  No one is taking the jobs that HispanicLatino laborers are abandoning in Alabama in wake of that state’s anti-immigration law.  Aren’t we losing jobs and hurting the economy when tomato crops rot in the fields?  Would you as President allow states to override federal law at will?

Not:  You know, insured children are an economic development tool and preventive health care keeps kids out of expensive emergency rooms:  Aside from beating each other up about who had the most uninsured kids in their state when some of you were governor, what do plan to do about it as President?

Not:  With the country nearly bankrupt, how are we going to convince HispanicLatinos – like John F. Kennedy asked the country in 1961 – that they are being called upon to do more for the country than the country can do for them?

Not:  I know you guys are really smart, but HispanicLatinos are, too.  They make up more than 15 percent of the population but only about 6 percent of doctors.  Don’t you think this is something that we should be concerned about as the Anglo population ages?  And wouldn’t some form of affirmative, strategic action help?

I do not know Mr. Zavala but I have a question for him:  What planet do you live on?  Perhaps the geeks on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory can help.  Koothrappali, who cannot speak to girls, whispers into Wolowitz’ ear to ask questions.

At least Koothrappali knows what to ask.

Blogs published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or invariably in between.

 

Not Gone With the Wind

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And so the average HispanicLatino is watching the evening news.   Alabama’s new anti-immigrant law is front and center.  The upshot is that from this day forward, if you are HispanicLatino, you are automatically suspected to be a criminal — a little more than a runaway slave back in the time.  It does not matter if you are an attorney from Miami coming to close a real estate deal in Birmingham or an optometrist from San Antonio in for a conference or a student from Seattle changing planes at the airport or a hotel worker recently relocated from Chicago.  If your skin is brown and you’re in town, you are a target.  It is that simple.

How exactly should HispanicLatinos feel about this?  First, any HispanicLatino who supports these laws would be well-advised to stay away from Alabama.  Dreamlands have a way of collapsing.  Having been the only HispanicLatino in line at the driver’s license bureau a few years ago and having been the only one asked to prove his citizenship, my younger brother, who before that moment had never cared about politics and had hardly voted, is a changed person.  Imagine how the blood of a HispanicLatino veteran would curdle with rage at being confronted by anyone about his or her citizenship status.

As more local and state governments enact Alabama-style laws, they are increasing the probability that each HispanicLatino will face such a moment if they have not experienced it already.  It is a moment of truth that will shape America’s future.  Are we seriously thinking that, having taken its cue from Arizona, Alabama is the way forward to how the country deals with immigrants who are in the country illegally?  When it separates all HispanicLatinos from the whole and makes HispanicLatinos feel more separate within themselves?  Does watching HispanicLatino immigrants flee Alabama make the rest of HispanicLatinos in the country feel any better about themselves?

When it defended its citizens’ “right” to own slaves – and took up treasonous arms in rebellion to do so – Alabama invoked the Bible but had little inkling of how civil conflcit would harm the state.  Through the years as a result of a war, it lagged behind socially and economically so that today Alabama is barely more than Mississippi.  Today the descendants of those gone-with-the-wind ironically invoke the same Constitution they once trashed to target HispanicLatinos.  The result will be just as harmful, for in the years ahead, when America needs to be the most united and unified, states like Alabama will have caused disunion again.

In a day when the nation will try to survive global demograhic competition that is putting hundreds of millions of hands to work to outproudce the country, shouldn’t we be welcoming immigrants and educating all of them – and educating everyone else in the country –  instead of making suspects of an ever-growing HispanicLatino population?

And shouldn’t average HispanicLatinos unperturbed as Arizona and now Alabama swirl around them stop and consider how quickly their résumés already are being deleted from the computer screen in human resources departments – and how quicker still will be those of their children in the future?

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