Thread: Even Hispanics don't trust Bush, Congress on Immigration.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 08/OPINION

Hispanic leaders, journalists doubt Bush, Congress will fix immigration

Charlie Ericksen
Hispanic Link News Service
Sunday, January 15, 2006

Will President Bush and Congress team to produce immigration legislation this year? If so, will it include a guest-worker program or a path for undocumented immigrants to legalize their status?

Hispanic organizational leaders and Latino journalists who cover the community and national scene agree: Yes, maybe, and a frustrated, exasperate, "No way!" They also agree that Bush and Congress do a good imitation of Scrooge when it comes to addressing Hispanic community needs.

Fifty Latino organizational leaders and journalists responded to a Hispanic Link survey soliciting their views. Of the 50, 37 expect an immigration bill will pass Congress and be signed by President Bush. Twenty-four expect it to include a guest-worker program. Just six think it will offer a path to legalization.

While most anticipate the House and Senate will concur on some type of legislation, few believe it will come close to resolving the nation's immigration mess.

National Association of Hispanic Publications President Lupita Colmenero, publisher of El Hispano News in Dallas, expressed their most common fear:

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"Any reform without a path to legalized workers will not solve any problem. The question is if Congress is willing to understand this reality and deal with it."

Asked to grade Bush, the Congress and national Hispanic organizations on their sensitivity to and advocacy for the Latino community, those polled responded:

A B C D F

Bush 1 3 12 18 16

Congress 0 1 11 26 12

Latino orgs. 3 20 18 8 0

Dionicio Morales, 86-year-old founder of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation in California, is still active with the community service provider he built from scratch. With early recognition from President Lyndon Johnson during the War on Poverty and strong corporate support in years to follow, MAOF operates today with an annual budget of nearly $60 million.

Working with Congress and the White House "was simpler back then," he says, noting that the nation's Hispanic population is growing and changing so fast, even its own institutions are having trouble relating to it. "Racism is still here," but younger generations of Hispanics are more into themselves than into advocacy for civic and social reform and it's reflected in Latino organizations, he says.

Survey respondents were requested to rank the three most important issues confronting Hispanics today. This brought a wide range of replies, from crime to housing to poverty.

But the four concerns mentioned most were education (41 times), immigration (28 times), health care (17 times) and employment (14 times).

Jane Delgado, president of the Washington-based National Alliance for Hispanic Health, listed health as her top priority, followed by "how we handle power." She counseled, ""Sheer numbers are not enough. Hispanics need to be inclusive of others."

Threaded throughout the respondents' comments was empathy for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants lured here by the promise of improving their families' chances to live a decent life. Their tortured existence, some respondents suggested, is the product of the ineptitude and callousness of U.S. and foreign political leadership.

Frank Gómez, a former corporate executive now with LatinInsights, a New York research firm, summed it all up, "Few key members of Congress display the courage and humanity necessary to deal with immigration. Our Hispanic organizations, while generally good, lack the fire and spirit of the old days. They lack the passion of the civil-rights era. We need a united voice that has real weight in policy-making, perhaps because we are too divided."

Charlie Ericksen is publisher of Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail at Charlie@HispanicLink.org

Reporter Christine Senteno contributed to this column.

But the four concerns mentioned most were education (41 times), immigration (28 times), health care (17 times) and employment (14 times).

I found this particularly interesting. I hope it worries the dickens out of them that their little anchor babies are going to get kicked out of our schools.

It looks like the Wackident is losing support in all directions even the illegal one.

He probably even ticked off the Good Humor man by now. LOL

I think what is happening is that more and more LEGAL people who are here from Hispanic countries are starting to see that MALDEF and LULAC and the rest of them are not doing them any favors. What they are doing will be bad for them, and they're starting to realize it.

No doubt it makes them all look bad. Perhaps if their own people put a bug in LULAC's ear, they will realize how ignorant they sound demanding rights for criminals.