by Marisa Treviño
It’s no secret the Republican Party wants the Latino vote. Hessy Fernández, John McCain’s spokeswoman for Hispanic media, says the campaign’s goal is to secure 45 percent of the Latino vote. McCain Fernández, tells us, “is a true friend of the Latino community.”
Well, according to the Republican Party platform, a “true friend” seems to depend on who is defining “friend.”
While all issues are important to Latinos — education, health care, national security, the economy, etc. — certain ones impact Latino communities almost exclusively. The Republican platform addressed those : immigration, the Dream Act, undocumented immigrants and the English language.
Yet, overall, it is a disappointing read because when it came to the issues dealing with immigrants, the same old, tired, refuted exaggerations were regurgitated and adopted by the party as fact.
The McCain campaign won’t win over Latino communities with threats saying they want to guarantee “to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay — and correcting court decisions that have made deportations so difficult,” adding “It does not mean (providing) driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does sellit mean that illegal aliens should receive Social Security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law.”
What they failed to say honestly was that because of this Administration’s policies — a.k.a. Republican Party — it’s common practice to criminalize undocumented immigrants by charging them with identity fraud.
Law enforcement officials who work with these fraud cases have gone on record in the past to say that the majority who perpetuate the damaging fraud against citizens, are their own fellow citizens.
From the adoption of their platform, some teens who want to go to college would be forever denied this possibility.
In this regard, McCain campaign workers will have their work cut out for them. Don’t they know that while “Dream Act” kids would not be allowed to vote, even though they grew up alongside friends who can and who are registering in record numbers this election season? If they don’t think these kids will cast a vote for the opposition in honor of their friends they see being left behind, the Republican Party is short-sighted and out of touch.
Punitive measures passed in state after state to assure undocumented immigrants don’t take advantage of Social Security or welfare benefits have turned into obstacles for citizens taking advantage of their benefits.
Again, state directors have gone on record saying undocumented immigrants don’t take advantage of Social Security and welfare benefits.
Another part of the platform makes you wonder just how some people envision this country’s future. They say our ties with Canada and Mexico “should not lead to a North American union or a unified currency.”
For the sake of argument, why is it a bad thing? We’ve seen European countries maintain their sovereignty and working in unison by joining forces.
Elsewhere they want, perhaps unconstitutionally, to curb the 2010 census, which apportions congressional representation, by saying it should not count every person, only those “legally abiding in the United States.”
Regardless of the intent, it’s not wise to shut your eyes and pretend 12 million people don’t exist. But pretending seems to be the name of the game among the committee which drew up this platform.
In one last example, the Republican Party platform says, “Gang violence is a growing problem…(which) has escalated with the rise of gangs composed largely of illegal aliens,” that “victims are law-abiding members of immigrant communities” and “illegal alien gang members must be removed…immediately upon arrest or after the completion of any sentence imposed.”
While it’s true gang violence has increased and many victims are immigrants, the assumption is not true that gangs are largely comprised of undocumented immigrants. Gang experts, usually in law enforcement themselves, say there are no studies to corroborate the figures, although they estimate the number is closer to 10 percent. That’s hardly a majority.
By clarifying the party’s positions, the Republican Party spells out for the Latino electorate just what true friendship means in a Republican context. Hispanic Link.
(Marisa Trevino, of Rowland, Texas, is a free-lance writer. She may be contacted through her blog Latina Lista.) ©2008
