National pro-immigration reform group Cafe Con Leche Republicans today reacted to the presidential election debacle. Bob Quasius, president, said

Yesterday’s election results show it is imperative that the Republican Party improve Latino outreach or become permanently uncompetitive in presidential and many other races. Exit and election-eve polls put Mitt Romney’s votes among Latinos at 23%, although over 60% of Latinos are center-right, according to Pew Research.

Polls consistently show a majority of Republicans support immigration reform, including a path to legalization, and a PEW Research poll from May 2011 showed that even among staunch conservatives there is a 49/49% split on immigration reform. However, due to lack of engagement and outreach and shrill rhetoric on this issue from a small minority of Republican politicians, Democrats have been successful in unfairly framing the Republican party as anti-immigrant and anti-Latino, particularly in states where there has been harsh rhetoric on immigration.

This trend started in California. Prior to proposition 187, Republicans were competitive in statewide races, but since Governor Pete Wilson jumped on the proposition 187 bandwagon, many Hispanics left the GOP and since then the GOP has not been competitive in statewide races in California.

Latino outreach improved during the Reagan/Bush years, and President Bush won over 40% of the Latino vote during his reelection campaign, proving that Latinos can be swayed to vote Republican with the right messaging and sensible solutions to issues of interest to Latinos like immigration.

However, since SB1070 and other harsh laws were passed, mass exodus of conservative Hispanics has occurred in Colorado following Tom Tancredo’s candidacy for Governor, in Arizona following SB1070, and in Nevada due to harsh rhetoric from Sharon Angle in the U.S. Senate race.

Cafe Con Leche Republicans initially supported Newt Gingrich, and one of our reasons is that Newt’s campaign recognized the importance of outreach to Latinos and a sensible stance on immigration reform, neither mass amnesty nor mass deportations but a solution that addresses our broken immigration system and seeks to strike a balance between accountability for illegal immigration, and the need to keep families together and avoid damaging our economy. Newt’s campaign reached out to us, and ultimately Cafe Con Leche Republicans provided five members of Newt’s national Hispanic leadership team.

When Newt dropped out of the race and Mitt Romney became the nominee, we decided to support Mitt Romney. Numerous attempts to connect with the Romney campaign’s Hispanic outreach proved fruitless. In our one year of existence, we’ve also had just one conversation with the RNC’s Latino outreach, and were left with the impression the RNC wasn’t interested in working with us due to our pro-immigration focus.

A common complaint among Latino Republican leaders is that RNC Latino outreach is dominated by a small clique of Latino Republicans from Washington DC and Florida, to the exclusion of others, particularly from the Southwest. We share the frustration of Latino Republican leaders from outside the DC/Florida clique that Mitt Romney received bad advice to largely ignore immigration, and some of Mitt’s rhetoric and association with immigration extremist Kris Kobach early in the campaign provided useful fodder for Democrats to frame Mitt Romney as anti-immigrant and anti-Latino, which we don’t believe is the case.

It’s time to root out the small minority of immigration extremists from the GOP. That process is already underway, for example Russell Pearce, the author of SB1070, has now twice been defeated by conservative Republicans who differed mainly by having sensible positions on immigration reform. We’d like to see Kris Kobach leave the party. Kobach is a top lieutenant to John Tanton, a notorious bigot and population control progressive, who once bragged how he manipulates Republicans. In a letter to a supporter, Tanton in 2001 stated:

The goal is to change Republicans’ perception of immigration so that when they encounter the word “immigrant,” their reaction is “Democrat.”

Our plan is to hire a lobbyist who will carry the following message to Republicans on Capitol Hill and to business leaders: Continued massive immigration will soon cost you political control of the White House and Congress, given the current, even division of the electorate, and the massive infusion of voters about to be made to the Democratic side. We are about to replay the Democratic hegemony of 1933-53, fueled back then by the massive immigration of 1890-1924.

It’s time for the GOP to recognize this pattern of manipulation, and fully embrace immigration reform based on free market principles, and not arbitrarily low quotas promoted by population control progressives like Tanton. Harsh rhetoric on immigration coupled with lack of adequate engagement with Latinos and race baiting by Democrats has resulted in very low GOP support among Latinos, and we ignore this at our own political peril.

The 2012 election served up lemons for Republicans, but with sensible changes in strategy and direction we can make lemonade instead. Already we’re hearing that party leaders have woken up and ‘smelled the coffee’ and we’re hopeful this situation can be turned around.

President Obama promised to pursue immigration reform during his second term. Due to President Obama’s history of immigration fakery and failure to put anything on the table during his first term, we have reason to doubt this promise, but he is welcome to surprise us. With the election behind us, we have put our partisan hats and boxing gloves aside, and we stand fully ready to work with President Obama and Democrats on immigration reform, which won’t happen without bipartisan support. We hope that President Obama will ‘hit the reset button’ in his relationship with Republicans in Congress, as the hyper-partisanship that has characterized the last four years has been a major stumbling block to governing our nation.

Original link here.

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About Us – Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who welcome “New Americans”, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants. Our mission is to make America and the GOP, more welcoming to “New Immigrants” through political activism, “in-reach” and education within the Republican Party, and lobbying government to adopt more immigrant friendly policies. We also seek to bring more conservative and moderate “New Americans” to the Republican Party. These efforts will strengthen the GOP, and lead more Republicans to embrace welcoming policies for immigrants and their families. We have members nationwide, with chapters in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and California. Our members and leadership are predominantly Hispanic, though we define ourselves by mission and guiding principles, not ethnicity, and we welcome all who share our goals. Our leadership is 100% Republican.

by Linda Vega (re-posted with permission of the author and Latinos Ready to Vote)

In 1990, the Republicans sought to make right the exclusion of young children from the amnesty that had been passed in 1986 by President Reagan’s first round of the Life Act.  Headed by Republican Senator Orin Hatch, from Utah, the idea of the Dream Act was born.  Even then, Republicans were looking at the Long Term importance of the Latinos in the Party.  The “idea” back then focused on education and internships for the young who were virtually excluded in the first round of “amnesty.”  This version was to help stimulate the economy and it did.  Unemployment was at a low at 7.0 and then dropping to 5.3.  As a result, the Life Act passed with a large majority.  Coupled with tax cuts at the time, the economy boomed.  The Republicans at that time were not taken seriously on the idea of investing in the youth, though.

In 2000 and 2001, the Life Act came to life under the law of the INA, under what is called 245(i) in our profession.  Again the idea of “amnesty” came to the public via the low unemployment rate at 4.0 where it remained for the next few years.   The idea was to allow foreign investment to come help stimulate the economy as U.S. jobs were not a threat.  And so this “amnesty” was again considered and passed overwhelmingly.  Again, the U.S. economy soared.  And again, Senator Orin Hatch led the way for A Dream Act, but was not taken seriously;  hence, the investment in the Latino youth stifled.  Not even the liberal administration came to the rescue.

Twenty years later, those youth in 1990 are now about 30 years of age.  Those who have been able to adjust and become Legal Permanent Residents have done so. How did those youth  become “legal?”  Many of these youths are still unmarried so that they could adjust under their parent’s application.  Others have married U.S. Citizens and have adjusted their status.  Yet many of them are still waiting for their Visas to become available.  They have followed the law but are unable to obtain a work permit or attend school.  They are the undocumented that many call “illegals.”  They are not able to adjust because although their applications are approved, they have turned 21 years of age (in immigration law this is a perilous age for a child to turn) and so they must now wait and wait for their visa to become available.  They have followed the law but are in limbo.

Those who have managed to survive this obstacle course, are now U.S. Citizens and are able to vote.  These are the citizens created by President Reagan’s first round of amnesty.  Those who were eligible for the 2001 Life Act amnesty are barely coming through the ranks to become Legal Permanent Residents.  What does this mean?  None of these so called Amnesty accounted for the many youth that the Republican Senators were trying to warn us about with  Life Act legislation.

None of these laws accounted for the working pool that is now available to become part of the U.S.  These are the many that have fallen through the “cracks” and have become the undocumented pool.  Now there are also those who crossed over without inspection (illegally), but many from the 2001 Amnesty cannot even get a work permit because the LAW FAILED at what it was supposed to do, which was to help the U.S. economy in the long run.  Many of these U.S. citizen children were born here in the U.S. to undocumented parents who are still awaiting their turn under the “amnesty” that many decry.  These are the ones many seek to deport or electrocute on fences.  They followed the law and applied, but we failed them and their children.

To those who cry out for the Dream Act and nothing else: You live in a dream world.  The time for caring for our young and their rights under the same slogan has passed.  There is no vision to encourage work because when a candidate like Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry does see the long term benefit for the economy and America when they advocate for the youth, they are strangled with being anti-conservative.  The idea of just protecting the family and the youth is not strong enough to convince as history would show even when the Republicans lead the fight.

In order to begin to solve the web of deceit and lies of hope, let’s settle on the truth that the Dream Act, as it is tossed around at present, is just a dream.  Tough conservative publication like The Economist, and the Wall Street journal support a type of Dream Act and its economic benefits. Similarly, the CBO projects that a type of Dream Act would increase revenues by $2.3 billion over 10 years. And it is true that the economic benefit that we as a nation are to gain by helping the youth and those who were deceived should be of great consideration for the Republicans. But when those groups that are professional activists acting like “militant clowns,” shout Dream Act or nothing, imagine someone shouting fire in a crowded room.  They are misleading the youth with this draconian uninformed shouting.   They fail to realize that the Dream Act legislation in its current form is a kiss of defeat as it stands.  Just the name creates political gridlock.

There is malice behind some these people when they demand Dream Act or nothing.  Their notion is to hurt the U.S., the Latino Community, the Latino youth, and any idea of Immigration Reform by creating the idea that there is no room for compromise.  Like Romney and Santorum who fail to make the connection of Immigration Reform to the Economy, these groups are misleading not only the youth but America.  If the economy is not important enough to withstand the idea of compromise, then it should not matter who wins.  I believe Mitt Romney and Rich Santorum do not understand the terms of immigration or the economy.  The only candidate who has a vision is Newt Gingrich who understands the connection between Immigration Reform and Economic recovery.  He was, after all, available and involved in the times when the U.S. boomed in the economy and “amnesty” programs that triggered this boom passed.  Those who shout the fire mantra, need stay put and away from any hope for reform.  Because of your lack of knowledge on the subject matter, your voice is smothered into non-credibility like those candidates who shout that the Dream Act is Amnesty.  It is not, but because of your misleading militant voice it remains,  just a dream.

by Linda Vega (re-posted with permission of the author and Latinos Ready to Vote)

Words are strong and can persuade.   They can create division or they can unite.  Words can hurt or they can heal. It is the rhetoric that will drive Latinos away from the GOP, many contend.  What many journalists and bloggers, and other people scream about is what is not being said regarding Latinos. And it matters. The Liberals state that GOP Presidential candidates cannot count on the Latino vote because of the rhetoric that has instilled fear in the Latino community.  They are correct.  However, what they fail to address is that actions speak louder than words.  Actions brought to light by the present administration are dangerous to Latinos because they are perilous to the Latino families and community.  In implementing Secured Communities, which by all accounts was supposed to secure the U.S. and Communities across the nation, the Obama Administration has managed to use Secured Communities to deport Latinos (U.S. citizens and not), separate families, and drown out opportunity.  In fact, this Administration has done more to discourage, separate families, and harm the Latino community than any other previous Administration, Republican or Democrat.

In a study done by the Berkley School of Law and the Cardozo Law Center, the Obama Administration deported 400,000 Latinos in one year using the Secured Communities as an excuse.  My reaction at first was great, it is doing what it intended.  Secured Communities, as it was introduced by President Bush in April 2008, was intended to help keep our communities safe by identifying those in the U.S. who were criminal illegal aliens, and those who were in the U.S. with the intent of furthering any bombing or terrorists activities.  However, the present Administration took it a step further and began mass deportations of Latinos.

The use of the word “discretionary,” in the law allows (as it is in SB 1070) authorities to apprehend, question, detain, and often times deport, those looking “illegal.”  This has never been defined exactly.  Instead, authorities are given “discretion” to question those looking “illegal.”

No one in the media like CNN, NBC, or Latino Fox News has reported that out of the pool of 400,000 in one year 1.6% of these persons detained by ICE were U.S. citizens.  This is more than the Bush Administration deported (even with errors) in 4 years.  In fact, DHS Secretary Napolitano boasted that the program was doing its share and was helping to keep American safe.    What the DOJ and the Obama Administration failed to voice was that at least 1.6% of those arrested were U.S. citizens.  In a further law recently signed by the President, these U.S. Citizens can now be detained indefinitely under the  National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Further studies by AILA, American Immigration Lawyers Association, report that deportations are closer to 1 million in two years.   That amount is close to the total population of San Antonio, which is at 1.33 Million.   Imagine, an entire city gone, by “legal means.”   What is more alarming is that while there is an alleged 11 million undocumented in the U.S.,  only 77% are Latino/Hispanic.  Those detained and arrested under Secured Communities were 93% Latino.  There is a disproportion in usage of this program.  In other words, this Administration is targeting Latinos.

Rather than report on this truth, the media  and their articles concentrate only on Republican rhetoric.  While words are powerful, do we, as Latinos and Americans, not feel in danger when Latino U.S. Citizens are randomly selected, harassed and incarcerated by this Administration as law breakers?  When the Attorney General and the President use their power, over Congress, to increase deportations they are not deporting Europeans, Asians, or other immigrants.  They are deporting Latinos.  So while the rhetoric in the GOP may be against illegal immigrants, this current Administration is effectively doing the cleansing of America by deporting Latinos, illegal and U.S. Citizens.

Additionally, when the “fast and furious” debacle came to light regarding the issuance of guns to Mexican Cartels, who were they aiming at?  Those who live along the border and are mainly Mexican, including U.S. Citizens.  Once again, the rhetoric of the GOP pales in comparison to what is being done against Latinos in this Administration.  The idea that the Attorney General would allow such a violent act against a group of people and believe that the guns would not be traced back to the Administration is negligent and contentious.  Latinos cannot begin to believe that a President and a “friend” to Latinos would commit such atrocities, but he has.  In using the laws and his Administration, this President has endangered families and Latinos who continue to view him as the leader of the free world.  What is even more deplorable is that Latino Democrats have not stood up to state that these actions are wrong and need to be remedied regardless of party loyalty.  These acts are wrong against Americans, Latinos, families, and the United States and all of its freedoms.    In fact, this Administration has failed the Latino Community because it lacks the interest and the understanding of what values are embodied within the community.

When Candidates like Newt Gingrich address the actual facts about food stamps stating that Americans have increased as recipients of this entitlement under the Obama Administration, Democrats cite this as racist. But they fail to address the fact that the largest number, of the population, who is receiving food stamps are white Americans not blacks. So why are they playing the race card?  If we ask what Latinos hope to gain under the Obama Administration, let’s look over the last three years, deportations, guns to cartels, cuts in education availability, and separation of families.

When those who attack the GOP as being anti-Latino because of rhetoric that looks to deport illegal immigrants, let us be clear about who is acting on these words.  Unlike that famous speech that then Sen. Barrack Obama delivered at the DNC in which he said, we are not a black American or white America, we are the United States of American.  He forgot to mention the Brown part of America, Latinos.

Tucson, Arizona – After watching the Arizona presidential debate, we’re very disappointed that three of the four candidates are clearly tone deaf on immigration. This does not bode well for the GOP in the general election, as their comments and clear lack of practical solutions will help Obama with New Americans. Immigration is not the #1 issue, but ranks a close #2 among Latinos, according to recent polls.

Of the four, only Newt Gingrich seemed to fully grasp that the root cause of our problem with illegal immigration is our broken legal immigration system, mentioning that Congress did not follow-up the 1986 immigration laws with sensible guest worker program reforms. Historically, whenever our immigration laws are in conflict with free market capitalism the result has been illegal immigration.

Mitt Romney claims Arizona’s e-verify law reduced undocumented workers, when in fact undocumented workers regularly circumvent e-verify by borrowing a real person’s name and social security number, rendering Romney’s statistics dubious. Romney and Santorum both praised the Joe Arpaio policing model, embodied as Arizona’s SB1070 law, introduced shortly after Arpaio was stripped of 287(g) street immigration enforcement authority due to pervasive racial profiling and not following program guidelines.

Arpaio’s policing model is a proven failure. Crime, particularly violent crime, has skyrocketed in areas patrolled by Arpaio due to massive diversion of resources to immigration enforcement, while crime rates fell everywhere else in Arizona. In one community alone, 432 sex crimes went uninvestigated due to lack of resources and leadership. The federal government already has the 287(g) program to empower state and local police to enforce immigration laws, and 287(g) is problem plagued, according to ICE’s Inspector General.

A recent DOJ investigation, using Arpaio’s own traffic stop records, found Latinos are 4-9 times more likely to be stopped by Sheriff’s deputies, and 20% of the stops lacked probable cause, in other words ‘driving while brown.’ Now Arpaio wants the rest of Arizona and nation to follow his failed policing model, throwing the civil rights of 50 million Hispanics ‘under the bus.’

The candidates claim Obama isn’t enforcing immigration laws, when in fact immigration law enforcement and deportations have dramatically stepped up, and our ‘deporter-in-chief’ sets new records for deportations. The immigration court system and detention facilities are already straining at capacity, so more immigration enforcement without addressing other aspects just worsens the problem, and damages whole sectors of our economy such as agriculture.

Ron Paul claims illegal immigration happens due to the welfare state, yet undocumented immigrants have been barred for decades from welfare, and numerous audits in multiple states consistantly failed to find a problem with undocumented immigrants collecting welfare. You’d think as a libertarian Paul would grasp that our current immigration system is a failed progressive solution, and free markets largely determine immigration levels, not government quotas. Ron Paul is clearly a ‘crypto-libertarian’ when it comes to immigration.

The best way to stop immigrants from crossing our borders seeking work in the U.S. is to provide them a line to stand in for visas. For most immigrants, there never was ‘a line to stand in’, but there are jobs here that most Americans don’t want. Newt Gingrich is the only one of the four who fully grasps the problem.

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