Welcome to Arizona Lincoln Republicans, the official blog of Cafe Con Leche Republicans of Arizona! Here we will share blogs of interest, mostly with an Arizona focus but a few of national focus that likely also are of interest to Arizonans.

Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who seek to make America more welcoming to New Americans, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants, who are going through the process of acculturation to America, and often are just learning the political process. “Cafe Con Leche” in Spanish translates to “coffee with milk”, a metaphor describing the process of acculturation taking place for centuries in Latin America, between descendants of Native Americans and Europeans.

In a GOP context, this metaphor also refers to the fact Republicans are predominantly white and New Americans, especially in states like Arizona, are predominately non-white. We don’t define ourselves as a Hispanic Republican group, though most of our leadership happen to be Hispanic. We welcome anyone who shares our guiding principles and mission as a member.

We are unapologetic Republicans. We believe the Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Barry Goldwater, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ronald Reagan. We chose the name “Arizona Lincoln Republicans” for this blog as more than a few Arizona Republican politicians have strayed far from the roots of the Republican party, and we seek to promote traditional Republican values of free-market capitalism, and limited constitutional government. We intentionally limit our leadership to registered Republicans in keeping with our Republican character, and to ensure our credibility as a Republican organization.

We believe most New Americans have values more consistent with those of the GOP, and passing harsh laws that negatively impact ALL immigrants are only helping liberal progressives win teh votes of New Americans, who are critical swing voters. Ironically, the root causes of our current immigration mess lies in our legal system of immigration, which originated in the American progressive era (1880-1920s), when early modern progressives sought to slam the door shut on immigration from outside Europe, with strict quotas on immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. True free market conservatives seek practical solutions that would all free markets to set immigration levels, and government’s role is border security, screening out criminals, etc.

It is foolhardy, perhaps even suicidal, for Republicans to embrace immigration “enforcement on steroids” and use harsh rhetoric in discussing the immigration issue. For example, Hispanics are America’s fastest growing demographic. 38% of U.S. Hispanics are foreign born, and a large majority of the 62% who were born in the U.S. have parents or grandparents who are immigrants, or have other family or close friends who are immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. Since most Hispanics are closer to the issue, most Hispanics also better understand our broken immigration system. While most Hispanics don’t approve of illegal immigration and want our border secure, they also don’t view undocumented immigrants in such a negative light either.

We won’t hesitate to criticize Republican politicians who engage in immigrant bashing or propose only harsh solutions that harm all New Americans. However, one thing you won’t hear from us are generalized attacks on the GOP. There is clearly a small minority of Republicans who pander to immigration extremists by demonizing immigrants, while a majority of Republicans, including 49% of staunch conservatives, support sensible immigration reforms, including a path to legalization, according to a recent survey by PEW Research. We don’t think it fair to portray all Republicans as immigration extremists, when in fact it’s more accurate to say Republicans are deeply divided over immigration reform.

If you’d like to learn more about us, be sure to visit our web site. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

thank you,

Bob Quasius, Sr.

President, Cafe Con Leche Republicans