Thread: Latino voters betray their brethren

Latino voters betray their brethren

statesmanjournal.com
Written by
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
9:00 PM, Nov. 13, 2011

SAN DIEGO — Latino liberals are preparing to betray their pro-immigrant rhetoric by helping to re-elect the most anti-immigrant president in six decades.

Three reasons: They're loyal to the brand of the Democratic Party; they put their party before their people; and they claim that things will be worse for Latino immigrants if a Republican is elected president.

Really? Based on what? Republicans certainly are in a race to the bottom, but what matters isn't what politicians say when campaigning for president. Barack Obama promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, end the Bush tax cuts, close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and make immigration reform a top priority. None of this happened.

All that matters is what presidents do once elected. In fashioning common-sense immigration policies from the White House, Republicans have fared better than Democrats. Ronald Reagan signed a bill granting amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal immigrants, and George W. Bush started the immigration reform debate that continues today. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton signed a bill making it easier to remove illegal immigrants and harder for them to fight deportation or re-enter legally once removed, and Obama has deported about 1.2 million illegal immigrants — more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower launched "Operation Wetback" in 1954, which forced about 2 million people to leave.

When a president you support does something you can't defend, too many people simply run and hide. Or change the subject.

This seems to be how Team Obama has decided to react to a recent installment of PBS' "Frontline" called "Lost in Detention," as damning an indictment as you will ever see about the administration's deportation and detention policies.

So damning that, rather than challenge the report — which probably wouldn't have gotten them very far — Latino liberals are deploying a three-pronged strategy: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil.

As PBS correspondent Maria Hinojosa pointed out, there is plenty of evil to go around.

The Obama administration is so eager to boost its deportation figures in order to appear tough on border security that it is splitting up families; misrepresenting the program called Secure Communities to states and localities as voluntary and aimed only at violent criminals when really it's mandatory and applies to non-criminals as well; tolerating racial profiling by local police; and removing people who come to the attention of officers through traffic stops and minor infractions.

Also, according to "Frontline," once these people are put in federal detention facilities — either holding cells controlled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or private prisons — before being sent home, some of the male detainees report being physically beaten by guards while female prisoners allege that they have been sexually assaulted. Many of the detained are locked up indefinitely, and few of them ever see an attorney let alone go before a judge.

You can bet that if any of it were happening under a Republican administration, liberals would be up in arms. Instead, for the most part, there is nothing but silence.

Some of those who do speak up blame Republicans in Congress for appropriating the funds that the administration is using to apprehend, detain and deport illegal immigrants.

That is the Democrats' best defense? Congress made the administration do all this?

I don't suppose that lame excuse will sway the 75-year-old woman who wrote me after the "Frontline" story.

"I watched with horror," she noted. "Please, you MUST write more about this inhumane tragedy! NOBODY deserves this treatment! 'Lost in Detention' deserves more attention. I am only one person, but I plan to make all the noise that I can. Please do what you can to make the average American aware. I have not given up on fighting for justice. One just 'knows' what the 'right thing' is. Do the right thing, please."

Liberals are tied up in knots. They know Obama's immigration policies are an abomination, and yet they can't bring themselves to criticize their candidate.

If Obama is defeated in 2012, their problem will be solved. They will rediscover the immigration issue and be free to protest. People will march on the White House, holding signs that demand that the Republican president stop the deportations.

Unfortunately, by then, they will have been exposed as phonies and partisan apologists. And so, no one will listen.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. writes for the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071. Send email to ruben@rubennavarrette.com.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pb ... 1111140304

Obama has not deported nearly enough illegals to be called tough on immigration.

Ruben still spewing his BS, trying to get Hispanic Americans to fall for 4 more years of Obama's Drama!