Despite all the smoke and mirrors that are out there, we have known all along how Latino Catholics feel about Republican political candidates who are hostile

DeeDee Garcia Blase has a history of protesting Sheriff Arpaio at his own Catholic Church.

towards the Latino community.

The Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a history of not supporting the DREAM Act when he was the Massachusetts Governor.  Little does Romney know how many undocumented Irish immigrants are living in the state of Massachusetts who benefited from the Deferred Action President Obama gave.

However, the Arizona Catholic Church leadership here in Arizona is causing Latinos to question the Catholic leadership’s spinal fortitude in doing what is right here locally and in Arizona.

We are still waiting to see if any major Catholic Newspapers or the local Arizona Catholic diocese will  condemn Sheriff Joe Arpaio since Arpaio is a member of the Catholic Church and take a look at Independent Candidate Mike Stauffer for Maricopa County Sheriff). 

(Independent candidate) Mike Stauffer for Maricopa County Sheriff

For the record, Mike Stauffer has officially supported the Utah Compact and is a good Catholic who has no domestic violence background in his history — and as a woman, I cannot support Paul Penzone who has a domestic violence police record in his history.

The Catholic leadership here in Arizona has only a couple of weeks (before election day) to publicly condemn Sheriff Joe Arpaio in light of the mysterious Mexican deaths he is responsible for and is occurring in his prison.  In fact, a Latino Veteran of the Armed Forces died in Arpaio’s jail.  I am a veteran of the Armed Forces who served in Gulf War I, and I cried and was deeply troubled when I learnt a former military soldier and veteran died under the rule and iron fist of Arpaio.  Indeed Veterans should receive just treatment because they are the ones who risk their lives for this great Nation.

Will the Arizona Catholic leadership take a pro life position with regard to what is happening to my people in Joe Arpaio’s prison systems?

The Tequila Party Movement has been protesting the Tea party favorite Sheriff Joe Arpaio at his own Catholic Church, see here. We battled it out with the Tea Party during our first protest and our protests reached the news in Fountain Hills (Arpaio’s own backyard).  Our protests of Arpaio were also well documented by other local and national media outlets.

Will the Arizona Catholic leadership  be remembered in history as turning a blind eye to Chicano needs and the Mexican-American community?

In the meantime, enjoy the story below where 75% Latino Americans are behind Obama.

Three-Fourths of Latino Catholics Back Obama in Pew Poll

I was invited to be on The Takeaway again tomorrow morning to discuss Mitt Romney’s speech at NALEO.  I will share the MP3 audio once it is online and available. The Takeaway is a national show that is co-produced by the New York public Radio, Public Radio International, the BBC and the New York Times. As you may already know, the Tequila Party is a Latina counter movement to the extremist Tea Party people.Most pundits believed Obama would wait (like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush waited) to address the DREAM Act or immigration related issues only after being re-elected to a 2nd term.  They were wrong, and now the relief offered to babies, children and our youth via the Deferred Action MEMO has become  historic immigration news –  particularly for those of us who are legal immigration reform activists.

Bottom line:  I stated that Mexican-American / Latino voters should NOT gamble their voting chips away on Mitt Romney who has aligned himself with protectionists, economic isolationists and restrictionists  via Pete Wilson and Kris Kobach.  It is a calculated risk for Latinos to invest their voting chips on an incoming 2nd term President via President Obama because both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush waited to confront legal  immigration reform related policies until after they were re-elected.  President Obama addressed some partial DREAM Act relief within his first term in an era where anti-immigrant activists have demonized us and made the issue a toxic one.

We have American history to learn from regarding this issue, and it should not surprise anyone that not one single American President over the last 100 years has confronted or taken on immigration-related reform within his first term as President of the United States (aside from continued Cuban Amnesty via the Cuban Adjustment Act).  The one American President who addressed immigration within his 1st term as President was President Benjamin Harris (of Ohio) when he designated Ellis Island as the first federal immigration state that helped Irish, Italian, European, Latin immigrants and etc. from all over the world.   Ellis Island was established in 1890 (over a century ago), and it is time for legal immigration reform to be addressed once again. This nation was founded by immigrants that helped our Nation to become a beacon and a Shining City on a Hill to the whole world.

Finally, it would be advantageous for Latinos to invest their vote on an incoming 2nd term President rather than to gamble our voting chips away on Mr. Multiple Choice Mitt Romney who has flip-flopped so many times we don’t know who is who with him anymore.  Mitt Romney is the same man who was for ObamaCare initially but flip-flopped and now states he is against government health care — even though he created RomneyCare that helped lay the foundation to ObamaCare.

It is my view that it is better to have 4 more years of Obama than 8 more years of Mr. Romney.  If Romney sincerely wants the Latino vote by November Election Day, he would have to round up enough Republican Senators and Republican Congressman to pass a fair, full and comprehensive legal immigration reform bill and have it passed before November 6, 2012.  Latinas and Latinos cannot afford to throw their votes away anymore because this issue has been used as a political football for far too long, and we have no choice but to make the best calculated decision for the sake of all immigrants from all over the world.  Immigration does not affect only us (Mexicans and Latinos), it affects the Irish, the Asians, the Europeans, the Canadians and etc.

A healthy and legal immigration solution will secure our borders, create a safer North American Continent and promote a stronger relationship with our contiguous neighbors.  Enforcement-only initiatives promote a situation that emulates the failed days of Prohibition, which serves only to encourage the underground labor market.  Our government needs the additional tax revenues that new immigrants generate in order to sustain the burgeoning entitlement programs baby boomers require as they continue to retire.  By developing a reasonable legal immigration plan, we create a system where immigrants share American tax burdens as they continue to contribute millions of dollars into our tax coffers.  New immigrants sharing our tax burdens will help discourage our government from increasing taxes, because under the current system these entitlement programs will drain all federal revenues within 15 years.