Thread: Ruben Navarrette Jr.: A fear of Latino voters

To Navarette: Yes! There are really people who believe illegals vote! I'm one of them.

March 25, 2007

One of the most distressing aspects concerning the eight fired U.S. attorneys is what happened to David Iglesias of New Mexico, and what it tells us about how allegations of voter fraud have become a proxy for anxiety over illegal immigration.

First, try this: Whenever you hear the phrase “voter fraud,” substitute “surging Hispanic political power.”

Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson were so fearful about voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”) and how it might hurt Republicans and benefit Democrats in New Mexico, that they tried to pressure Iglesias to make prosecutions out of whole cloth. When he refused, state Republican Party officials complained to the White House, where others were also concerned with voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”). After Republicans took a “thumpin' ” in the 2006 midterm elections, Iglesias' name was suddenly added to a list at the Justice Department of the U.S. attorneys slated to get the ax.

Context is everything. This isn't about allegations of the dead voting, or even of live folks voting more than once. In New Mexico, and anywhere in the Southwest, when someone says they're worried about voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”), you know they're talking about the possibility of illegal immigrants going to the polls. And since in these parts, most illegal immigrants happen to be Hispanic, the issue comes with built-in and not-so-subtle ethnic overtones.

Don't misunderstand. It is not that the nation's 40 million Hispanics have to rely on fraud to flex political muscle. They don't. This is a young population, and its influence over the political process will be felt for many generations to come just by relying on eligible voters. Still, it's undeniable that much of the modern-day concern over voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”) is tied to the larger anxiety that many Americans feel about changing demographics and how illegal immigration plays into that.

I asked Iglesias if he thought this issue was really about the GOP trying to suppress the Hispanic vote.

“I think it's a little more nuanced than that,” he told me last week in an interview. “I think the concern wasn't just that Hispanics were voting but illegal immigrants in this country, who have no legal right to vote, were voting.”

Are there people who really believe this? To think that illegal immigrants would hand over their savings to smugglers, trek across the desert, settle into an underground economy, and then suddenly get the urge to risk it all by rushing out to vote. We can't even get sufficient numbers of American citizens to vote, and they don't have to invest anything more than a lunch hour.

Iglesias doesn't buy that scenario either.

“Most illegal immigrants aren't going to put themselves in a dangerous predicament in which they could be rounded up or photographed or harassed,” he said. “They just want to do their work and stay in the shadows.”

So, obviously, Iglesias doesn't think this is the epidemic that it is advertised to be by immigration restrictionists and nativists.

“I'm a little bit suspicious of the theory that there are a persuasive and large number of illegal immigrants who are voting,” he acknowledged. “Have some voted in the past? I'm sure some have. But is it large enough to skew an election? I don't think so.”

While he was still in office, Iglesias set up a bipartisan task force and hot line to investigate allegations of voting improprieties. But few of the tips had any merit. And in none of those cases, Iglesias said, did he and his prosecutors think they could prove what the statute requires: that the intent of the alleged fraud was to influence an election and not simply to profit by registering voters who aren't eligible.

When Iglesias decided he didn't have the evidence to go after fraudulent voting, Republicans in New Mexico decided they had more than enough evidence to go after him.

I can't help but wonder if the suspicion that Iglesias was soft on voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”) had something to do with, oh, say, the fact that he is Hispanic. I asked him if he ever felt he was being held to a different standard and if he thought that – if his name were Smith – he would still have been harassed.

Iglesias pondered the question for a few seconds. Then he acknowledged with a detectable sadness, “There may be something to your theory.”

Let's hope not.

Navarrette can be reached via e-mail at ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-e ... navar.html

Are there people who really believe this? To think that illegal immigrants would hand over their savings to smugglers, trek across the desert, settle into an underground economy, and then suddenly get the urge to risk it all by rushing out to vote. We can't even get sufficient numbers of American citizens to vote, and they don't have to invest anything more than a lunch hour.

Lidia Vidal, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who also participated in last year's marches, said she was disappointed that more people did not turn out. She also expressed frustration that even though there were gains by the immigrant rights movement, reform legislation still had not passed.

"We marched, we voted and nothing," said Vidal, 34, who has two U.S.-born children and has been here 17 years. "I still don't have papers."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... ry?coll=la

Of course they vote! Here's one complaining that her vote didn't accomplish what she wanted.

I agree. Fraud is fraud no matter how you look at it.

People who break the law, especially those who have for 17 years and commit voter fraud should not be allowed to become citizens.

Countfloyd you should send Navarrette this article. I think he would be speechlesss.

Navarette claims to be a citizen of this country. He does seem like he's from "out of space."

“Most illegal immigrants aren't going to put themselves in a dangerous predicament in which they could be rounded up or photographed or harassed,” he said. “They just want to do their work and stay in the shadows.”

Oh really. They had no qualms about marching in the streets, carrying Mexican flags or signs telling Europeans to leave the continent - actions which clearly indicated who they were, where they were from, who they pledged allegiance to. I'd say they had no concerns about putting themselves in potentially dangerous positions - of being photographed, rounded up or harassed. In fact, many were photographed. What a silly notion that the people of whom he speaks were not willing to take such risks.

Navarette is just another member of the Big Lie school of journalism.

Just keep repeating the lie enough times, and people will believe it, no matter how outrageous it is.

First I want to thank Mr. Navarette for having led me to this site.
This is an email letter I sent in response to Mr. Navarette's most recent article that was posted on CNN's website.

Mr. Navarette,

Please don't dilute yourself into thinking that you are a journalist,
that would defile those true journalists from the past and present
like: Edward R. Murao, Walter Cronkite, Truman Capote, Lillian Ross,
Gay Talese, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Friedman. These are the kind of
journalists that would speak to the truth even if it didn't follow the
lines of their political ideology. I would only describe you as a
political commentator as you have a specific agenda.
You have definately shown your colors now if you haven't before.
You're a closet conservative that doesn't hesitate to bash those that
don't agree with you, as many conservatives do. You call those that
don't agree with you liberals, even though they may not be. It's just
the way conservatives react when the position they take has no defense
or merit.
I'm neither a conservative or a liberal. I like to think of myself as
a free thinker as I don't need to either identify with or associate
myself with a particular ideology, as apparently you do.
There comes a time in one's life when speaking the truth should take
precedence over taking a political stance, but I guess you feel so
strong toward your ethnicity that anything your people may do wrong as
a group you will still find justification. Whether it be illeagal
immigration, drug smuggling, border guards being jailed because they
were protecting the border, illegal aliens striking jobs (when they're
not here legally anyway) attempting to cripple those who have helped
them (which should teach those employers a lesson about hiring such
people). While you're standing up for your people, how about joining
them in the streets and protest the harm that the Hispanic gangs are
committing against not only their own communities but all the
communities at the same time overloading law enforcement, the penal
system and financial costs to all Californians and Americans. Maybe,
we can create a seperate society within the illegal community whereby
they bare the additional costs that the illegal community costs
taxpayers and relieve all the American people the financial burden
that the illegals bring. Here's a novel idea for you, through your
jounalistic efforts, why don't you start encouraging those that are
coming here to find a better life to stand up to change their
government so that everyone in Mexico and the Latin Americas can have
a better life? Or is it that you feel stronger toward the Mexican
government than you do our own government? What will happen when all
Latin America comes to the US, will the people who have EARNED the
right or deserve to be here have a better life or will they be looking
somewhere else for a better life. What do colonies of locusts do once
they have destroyed a field? They move on to the next one. Have you
once thought why it is you have a better life? It's because right now
there is a better life available, but it won't be that way forever.
And have you thought that maybe not everyone can have or deserves a
better life? There is something everyone has to learn from where they
are in life and leaving one's country for another doesn't mean you'll
have a better life. I don't see that the color of your skin defines
who you are as a man, but rather the kind of man defines who you are
in humanity.
So, I have one question, what are you first, an American or Mexican?
If you are first Mexican then you owe allegence to Mexico and that is
where you should live. If you are American first, then you should owe
your allegence to America and to speak the truth, not a political
ideology nor some sense of ethnic loyalty, but speak to what is right
for all Americans. Your nationality (being where you are from) should
not be preceeded by your etnicity (being your heritage or family
background). So, if you feel stronger about your ethnicity than you do
your nationality, again, you should go live amongst your ethnic people
in the land of their fathers and help them to make a better society
for them and NOT live within a multi-cultural society and attempt to
have them change their ways just to make yours better.

Welcome to ALIPAC lwaterusa1

Mr. Richardson "gave" over thousands of illegal immigrants driver licenses so "they could work." These driver licenses are one means of registering to vote in New Mexico. However, when the Republican Party wanted to names of the illegal immigrants who were afforded driver licenses, our "Honorable" governor refused to release the names, claiming "executive privilege." I feel there is a great possibiltiy that many of these illegal trespassers registered to vote. I think it was paramount in protecting our rights as U.S. citizens that the government investigate the roles to insure only legal residents voted. This was not done - but, oh well, Richardson is giving New Mexico back to Mexico.

It isn't the "surging Hispanic political power". It is the fraud that comes along when half of the Hispanic population is illegal. Phoney id's are all over the place today. Everything from birth certificates, driver's licenses, and Social Security Numbers are readily available on the black market. For a hundred bucks you can get them all. This opens the door to voter fraud. Of course Americans should be concerned.