Free Republic

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Immigration, said on Tuesday he’s seen a marked change in the way Republicans are approaching the immigration debate -- and that he has a key ally in Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Gutierrez said he and Ryan would be talking about immigration reform in Chicago in April. He said that Ryan “was not new” to the immigration debate but that “like many in the Republican Party, his voice was shut out.” Gutierrez said that prior to...

Por favor disculpen mi Espanol. Como creCI en Houston -es un poco ‘espanglish y un poco Tex Mex. I lived, worked, played and grew up alongside Latinos. As a teenager I worked alongside immigrants mowing lawns and putting in landscaping around businesses. I remember once asking one of the immigrant workers how much he was being paid. “Cuanto le Pagan por el trabajo? He responded “tres dolars.” I responded, “Yo tambien. Tres Dolars, por hora . . . ?” He shook shook his head, “No tres Dolars, por dia!” At a young age, I came to understand that it makes...

Let me think about that....NO!A new ad campaign has been launched to extend medical coverage to illegal aliens in the state of California. The California Endowment, a private foundation that advocates for affordable healthcare, wants county-run Medicaid expansion programs called Low-Income Health Programs to be "retooled" to provide insurance for this population - well over 1 million people! Just what the people of California need, right? First they cut tuition assistance for citizen students by $1.2 billion. Then they made illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid, with AB131 - signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Then tuition assistance was...

Ever heard the claim that Latinos are "natural conservatives"? The person repeating the conventional wisdom of the Beltway apparently hasn't examined the evidence. That's why, for Republicans, to buy that canard spells disaster. The most recent evidence comes from a new Latino Decisions poll. It shows two-thirds of Latinos support "comprehensive immigration reform" that includes special immigration privileges for foreign-born gays and lesbians. Of those Hispanic respondents who favored giving homosexual couples the same immigration rights as traditional couples, 92 percent view it as important (very or somewhat) to make the change part of any amnesty bill in Congress. While...

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued the following statement regarding today’s bipartisan immigration reform proposal: I appreciate the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system. There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the...

ST. PETERSBURG -- There are two million Hispanic voters in Florida. It's a constituency that has the power to shift a tight election, so both political parties have tried to sway the Hispanic vote their way. An exclusive Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9 statewide poll shows many Hispanic voters dropping their support for Obama. Last month, 52 percent of Hispanic voters polled said they would vote for the president. That has now dropped to 44 percent. Romney picked up some ground among Hispanics, from 43 percent to 46 percent. And the number of undecided Hispanic voters has doubled from 5...

If the president may constitutionally permit 15 percent of the nation's illegal immigrant population to remain in the United States without fear of removal, why may he not do the same for 50 percent of that population, or for all of it?

With a little under a month remaining until Election Day, the Obama campaign has transitioned into full-blown hispandering mode. This week’s symbolically potent, yet empty, exercise in gestural politics entailed President Obama designating the home of former California labor leader Cesar Chavez a national monument. The ostensible purpose of this decision is to rally support among one of his party’s most reliable voting blocs, i.e. Hispanic Americans. Because even though they still decisively support the President’s reelection, that support does not always translate into votes, as other analysts have trenchantly observed. What makes Obama’s trip to California so fascinating though...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law that will allow hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and vetoed another that would have restricted sheriffs from helping federal authorities detain undocumented Californians for potential deportation. His actions, announced Sunday as the deadline neared to finish work on nearly 1,000 bills sent to him by the Legislature this year, followed an intense week of protests, prayer vigils and lobbying by immigrant advocacy groups. The governor also revived a tax break for Hollywood, allowed juvenile killers serving life in prison a chance for release and outlawed...

Some illegal immigrants could get California drivers licenses under a bill that Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed into law late Sunday. AB2189 by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will let the Department of Motor Vehicles issue licenses to illegal immigrants eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy. The bill requires the department to accept as proof of legal residence whatever document the federal government provides to participants in its deferred action program. Cedillo said his bill will make roads safer while letting young immigrants drive to school and to work. His reasoning drew support from several...

The governor signed a bill Sunday that will let hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants qualify for California driver’s licenses. Young people would qualify if they are accepted by a federal program giving work permits to those who came to this country before they were 16 and are now 30 or younger. …

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will pledge to Hispanics on Monday that if elected he will fix the troubled U.S. immigration system in an appeal to a rising voter bloc that overwhelmingly favors Democratic President Barack Obama... Romney will vow to "work with Republicans and Democrats to permanently fix our immigration system," while stressing that any plan must first ensure the integrity of U.S. borders - a problem on which the Obama administration says it has already made progress.

My Hispanic can beat up your Hispanic!” pretty much captured the Convention kick-offs. “Republicans chose Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, to introduce Mitt Romney, “reported the AP. “Democrats picked Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, a Mexican American, as keynote speaker. Both are considered rising stars.”Ah! But what FUN the Republicans missed! Given the era’s political-correctness, politics in the U.S. get pretty boring nowadays. No present-day politician or their slick consultants could possibly publicize what’s forthcoming in this article. So please stick around, because I belong to neither profession. Most immigrants arrive in America poor (especially by U.S....

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) on Tuesday said Republicans aren’t going to close the gap with Hispanic voters until they “stop acting stupid.” Bush said many Hispanic voters share the GOP’s commitment to faith, family and small government but have been alienated from the party by exclusionary rhetoric on immigration. But that, he said, is finally changing. “I promise you this is where the conservative cause is going, and thank God it is,” he said to cheers at a lunch sponsored by the center-right Hispanic Leadership Network. The advantage that Democrats have with Hispanics is a...

Mitt Romney is on track to lose the Latino vote by a wider margin than any Republican presidential candidate in over a decade, and strategists in both parties say he may have made a bad situation worse with his selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. What’s clear is that Romney’s lagging fortunes among Hispanics are unlikely to receive any boost from choosing a vice presidential candidate who has voted in Congress against the DREAM Act and supports overhauling entitlement programs that are extremely popular among Latino voters. The Republican ticket’s dire position among Latinos has even...

Hispanic lawmakers unhappy with Charlotte contractsBy ANNA PALMER | 8/3/12 1:20 PM EDT Hispanic lawmakers are peeved at the Democratic National Convention Committee for not hiring more Latino-owned businesses for next month’s convention. Upset over the lack of contracts, Hispanic lawmakers exchanged heated words Wednesday with a top DNCC official in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Afterward, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) suggested that DNCC Chief Executive Steve Kerrigan should be fired if things don’t improve. If the situation isn’t rectified, “there will be a recommendation that the person who is in charge will not be in charge,” Baca told...

On the same week that the U.S. House of Representatives found him in criminal contempt, the nation’s embattled Attorney General professed solidarity with a radical leftist Latino group, proudly celebrating its socialist mission of “uno para todos, todos para uno” (all for one and one for all). It wasn’t enough for Eric Holder to earn the accolade of being the nation’s first sitting Attorney General to be found in criminal contempt by Congress for stonewalling the investigation of a disastrous experiment conducted by his office. Known as Operation Fast and Furious, the project allowed Mexican drug traffickers to obtain U.S.-sold...

Meet Mayra Hidalgo. She was introduced yesterday to the CNN viewing audience as a "student" who happened to question Gov. Mitt Romney after his speech to Latinos in Florida. She made for great television for CNN because Ms. Hidalgo asked Romney to explain his position on illegal immigration and the DREAM Act. When the governor would not pander to her, she bolted to the nearest camera crew she could find to explain how terrified she was for her future if Romney were elected. CNN more than obliged. CNN actually reported on Hidalgo twice yesterday, each

Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama's immigration plan on Thursday, saying that as president, he will "put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the President's temporary measure." That plan is still vague, but it does not involve a path to legalization for any of the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants except for people who enlist in the military, according to a release from the campaign. "As President, I won't settle for a stop-gap measure," he said during his speech to to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Annual Conference in...

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ”Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events … by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.” Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought...