http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbc ... 30063/1001

Obama solicits La Raza backing
By Stephen Dinan
July 23, 2007




Sen. Barack Obama told La Raza in Miami Beach yesterday that he marched in an immigration rally.

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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Sen. Barack Obama told the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group yesterday that he earned their support for his presidential campaign by marching in last year's May 1 immigrant rallies and challenged them to learn whether others met that standard.



"Find out how many senators appeared before an immigration rally last year. Who was talking the talk, and who walked the walk — because I walked," Mr. Obama said at the National Council of La Raza's annual convention in Miami Beach. "I didn't run away from the issue, and I didn't just talk about it in front of Latino audiences."



The Illinois Democrat said the recent Senate immigration debate "was both ugly and racist in a way we haven't see since the struggle for civil rights."



The immigration bill failed late last month when a majority of senators, including 16 members of the Democratic caucus joined most Republicans in a filibuster. It would have combined more border-security spending and new workplace-enforcement rules with a guest-worker program for future workers and a path to citizenship for most illegal aliens.



The bill's collapse galvanized Hispanic voters and advocacy groups, who say it exposed an anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic strain among American voters. The groups are vowing to fight back by pointing out when they think the debate turns hateful and are promising to register Hispanic voters so they can show their displeasure at the polls.



Both Mr. Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat and the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, supported the bill and yesterday assured NCLR that they will work to pass a bill as president.



Mr. Obama was the most forceful, promising "in my first term we will make this a priority and get this done." Mrs. Clinton said she couldn't predict an outcome, but would "promise my best efforts."



In remarks during a morning brunch, Mrs. Clinton said she has been trying "to understand where all of the venom and the incredible anxiety came from" in the immigration debate.