http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14944937.htm

Volunteers go door to door in Milwaukee for Hispanic voter drive

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE - Dozens of volunteers went door-to-door Saturday trying to sign up Hispanic voters as part of a national drive.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, capped off a weeklong League of United Latin American Citizens convention by helping to kick off a massive voter registration drive of Hispanics.

Huerta told several hundred people at the Midwest Airlines Center Saturday that "politicians will not count how many of us are in the streets, but they will count how many vote."

Her speech touched on many of the themes other speakers mentioned, including U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner's House bill aimed at immigration reform.

Huerta told the crowd that they need to distinguish between what she labeled "extremist" Republicans like Sensenbrenner from more "moderate" Republicans like Sen. John McCain from Arizona.

"We have to separate people who are decent Republicans from extremist Republicans," she said.

The House bill calls for strict enforcement efforts against illegal immigrants, while a Senate version includes a path to citizenship and provisions for a guest worker program.

Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., did not attend the convention. His office released a statement Friday saying activists at the convention exhibited a harsh tone and that "this type of misleading and divisive rhetoric only makes it more difficult to reach agreement on how to fix our border and immigration problems."

The voter registration drive was coordinated by Voces de la Frontera. It was is part of a national campaign to register 2 million new voters.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com