Quotes of the day

The idea that the Hispanic vote hinges on one issue — immigration — is the most ridiculous and patronizing notion. Sadly, Reid isn’t the only politician guilty of this gross generalization. Nothing is more infuriating to me than the way the media and political parties conflate Hispanic-Americans and illegal immigrants. We are not one and the same, and our interests and priorities are often very different…

My advice to Republicans: Stop worrying about the “Hispanic” vote. Focus on being true to your party platform, because the party that can deliver economic opportunity along with traditional family values will prevail with Hispanics — and most other Americans.

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The anger Wilson and Prop. 187 provoked in the Latino community and its consequences are well-documented. The well-worn admonition that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it still holds. The NALEO poll reveals that strong majorities of Latino voters in five key states believe that Republicans were not making or were not interested in making an effort to reach the Latino community.

One major conclusion of the Hispanic Federation/League of United Latin American Citizens poll is that Latino voters feel that their community is “under attack.” So the party leading that systematic attack — from Arizona, to Virginia, to revising the 14th Amendment — should not think you can just come back in the next election wearing a different face, as if nothing happened..

On immigration, Republicans are choosing to trade sound national policy for cheap political points. Yet they are sacrificing more than that. If they continue, they are likely to receive little support from Latinos not just this year but for many elections to come.

***
Indeed, it was the Bush team itself that botched the party’s Hispanic outreach efforts and on the exact subject that remains a hot-button today: illegal immigration. By advancing legislation that amounted to amnesty for illegals in 2006, Republican leaders greatly misjudged the frustration and anger shared by many in their party about the influx of undocumented aliens into the United States and the federal government’s inability, even unwillingness, to enforce its immigration laws. What’s more, the administration’s wobbly effort helped revive the schism between the party and the Hispanic voters it coveted…

A reasoned and thoughtful discussion of the failure of the nation’s immigration laws does not have to drive Hispanic voters from the GOP—they respect America’s laws too. This was a message the Bush team never seemed to understand.

How much better off the GOP would have been if its leaders had worked harder to differentiate between expressing concerns over illegal immigrants and welcoming legal ones—or if it concentrated on making it easier for skilled foreign labor to become guest workers through a rational, fair, and legal process. Instead the party remains split over the mess its former leaders had created. Here is hoping a new generation of the GOP has learned something from the party’s past mistakes.

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Why, then, has repeal of the 14th Amendment become the subject of the day, consuming hour upon hour of cable news coverage at the expense of the real issue that Americans want addressed thoughtfully and rationally — fixing our broken immigration system?

Make no mistake — the lack of consensus on immigration reform frustrates us all, especially because it has unleashed some of the most divisive forces in America in decades. But that means it is time to renew the push for comprehensive immigration reform, not resort to a contrived conflict and fake solutions — with the short-term goal of winning a few more votes for a political party…

The sad reality is that, behind closed doors, you won’t find a senator who really believes that any constitutional change is coming to end birthright citizenship.