Path toward immigration policy is finally taking right turn
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Path toward wise immigration policy is finally taking right turn
November 21, 2006
BY MIGUEL PEREZ
Some people are still denying it, but the tide has turned in the right direction. America's heritage as a nation of immigrants is on the right path again.
For the last couple of years, it seemed as if those who appealed to our worst instincts, those who became "leaders" by spreading divisiveness and xenophobia, were driving this country away from that great tradition. They used the attacks of 9/11 and the war on terrorism as an excuse to declare war on all immigrants.
But, as usually happens, justice is beginning to prevail. The political pendulum has begun to swing in the opposite direction -- with a vengeance. First, some of the senators and many of the House members who staked their futures on scapegoating illegal immigrants were vanished in the midterm elections. Adios!
Chances that Congress will continue passing draconian immigration laws have been greatly diminished, the probability that comprehensive and compassionate measures will be enacted considerably enhanced.
Then those who had predicted that the Latino vote would not make much difference, and that the backlash against Republicans for practicing racist politics would be insignificant had to eat their words. A huge number of Latinos who had been swayed to vote for Republicans in the last few national elections went back to the Democrats this year. Polls say that Democrats regained as many as 10 to 13 percent of Latinos who voted for President Bush in 2004.
Now, some of the towns that had been taking federal laws into their own hands are suffering major setbacks. Local ordinances designed to violate the human and civil rights of immigrants are being rejected by higher government officials, voters and the courts. In New Jersey, for example, three municipalities that had been practicing different ways of bashing immigrants have suffered major setbacks recently:
• • After trying, unsuccessfully, to censure a Spanish-language McDonald's billboard, Bogota tried to hold a referendum on whether English should be the town's official language, in an effort to deny bilingual services to immigrants. But the town was overruled, first by a county clerk, who ruled that such action could only be taken by the state or federal governments, and then by a court that upheld the clerk's ruling.
• • After passing an ordinance that penalizes businesses that hire and landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, Riverside is being challenged in court by several civil rights organizations. But the voters didn't wait for the courts. On Election Day, the two men who led the drive for the ordinance were booted out of office.
• • After several years of harassing immigrant day laborers, last week, Freehold reached a settlement with lawyers who had been suing on behalf of the workers. It agreed to stop the harassment and to shell out $245,000 in legal fees for opposing lawyers and $33,000 to reimburse Latino residents who had been unjustly fined for loitering or housing-code violations.
You can bash Latino immigrants some of the time. But you can't trample over the rights of the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc and expect to get away with it indefinitely.
Last week's selection of Hispanic Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) to head the Republican National Committee is a clear indication that moderate Republicans are recognizing that the right-wing extremists in their party have alienated a powerful voting bloc they will need in the future.
Yet some right-wing zealots are still in denial. You hear them on radio and TV denying that anti-immigrant attitudes had an impact on the midterm elections, unwilling to accept the fact that they alienated Latino voters and were hurt by a backlash. In the 2008 presidential election, Latinos will not only have many more voters, but much more influence.
In the midterm elections, Latinos could not get rid of some xenophobic zealots in certain districts where the Hispanic population is low. But let's not forget that Latinos are largely concentrated in several states that could swing a presidential election -- Florida, Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico -- to name a few.
In the presidential election, unless Republicans nominate a moderate on immigration, like John McCain or Rudy Giuliani, they are doomed.
