Posted on 10/24/2006 7:17:41 PM PDT by freedomdefender
A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign was linked to an intimidating letter sent to Hispanic voters said Tuesday he would not quit the race if he is charged with a crime.
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"If you're innocent and somebody charges you, would you give up? No, you've got to fight," said Tan Nguyen, who is seeking to unseat five-term Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez (news, bio, voting record) in California's 47th Congressional District.
"Innocent people can be persecuted," he told The Associated Press.
The state Department of Justice has opened a voting rights investigation into the letter sent to certain Democratic voters in Orange County.
The letter, written in Spanish, warned: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
Immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens are eligible to vote.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, was interviewed at his campaign office. It was open for the first time since being raided last week by investigators who seized computers, political signs and other items.
Nguyen said he purchased a database of 14,000 Hispanic voters from a Burbank company called Political Data Inc. so he could send Spanish-language fliers to voters. He said his campaign sent four fliers using the database before his office manager forwarded the names to an outside party.
Nguyen refused to identify the office manager or the third party who he said mailed the letters.
He said last week that he believed an employee in his office might have used his campaign's voter database to send the letter without his knowledge.
He reiterated that he did not authorize or approve the intimidating letter and said neither he nor any of his three paid campaign staff members wrote or funded the mailing.
"It has to be clear: I didn't authorize it, I didn't approve it, we didn't send it out from the campaign. People who are saying that it's coming from the campaign is a fat lie," he said.
Asked whether any campaign volunteers were responsible for the mailing, Nguyen referred questions to his attorney.
William Braniff, his campaign attorney, said a volunteer drafted an English version of the letter and e-mailed it to a volunteer who translated it into Spanish. The office manager forwarded the database of Hispanic voters to a volunteer, said Braniff, who declined to give the name of the office manager.
Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the state Department of Justice, had no immediate comment on Nguyen's account. Sanchez's campaign has said it would not comment until after the investigation is complete.
Hedgecock probably let his anti-Asian streak slip out in the interview. We don't get him in this area, but I have heard him in the past. When he's sat in for Rush he usually keeps it under control though.
Immigrants are allowed to vote! ILLEGAL immigrants cannot! Telling a person that can legally vote that they cannot is wrong. His inclusion of LEGAL immigrants as a distinct group in this letter is a problem and wrong.
In looking at this, there could certainly be grounds for a civil and criminal case. There were State officials "intimidating" a Federal elections candidate. I think Tan Nguyen should call for a Federal investigation into the activities of the State officials.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
The first was from OC Weekly writer Gustavo Arellano (He is notorious for his "Ask A Mexican" Column). He said that he asked his parents and they confirmed that usage of the word. Of course, he continued on with plenty of other criticism.
Nguyen and a campaign spokesperson claimed their infamous letter to Latinos in the 47th District warning that illegals and immigrants can’t vote was wrongly interpreted–-the Mexican Spanish word the world took for “immigrant” in the line, emigrado, actually refers to an immigrant who hasn’t become a citizen but is in the country legally. We originally dismissed the semantics as laughable, but a call to mami y papi proved Nguyen right–-but even then, the debate between my parents was loooong. Point is: Mexican Spanish is full of it.Another source was from the California's Digital Library at Berkeley which has various books on line (only some of which are available to the public). It was a collection of writings by a correspondent, the one below from 1962, as published in 1995. Given that the writer also uses the term mojado (for the less than PC term wetback), it appears that the translation may have been slang as opposed to a more "formal" usage as some newspaapers reported earlier. This excerpts are from page 73-74:
But even should the bracero program—which Catholic Archbishop Robert Lucey of San Antonio calls "an international racket"—end, the more complex part of its controversy remains along the border states.It is that of the "international farmhand commuter," the member of the labor army which crosses the border every daybreak.
Many are "green-card" carrying legal residents of the United States. However, they do not reside in the United States but use their highly privileged status to work for American wages and live cheaply in Mexico.
(snip)
"The mordidas (literally 'bites,' that is, bribes) I had to pay Mexican bureaucrats came to 600 pesos, but luckily I was able to borrow it from my brother who had just returned home from Texas as a mojado (wetback)," Contreras said.
"My bracero days 10 years ago were good. Americanos are muy extranos (very strange) to me, but they're generous. That's why I always wanted to return. I applied to be a bracero again, but I found out the mordidas were getting too expensive—1,000 pesos they wanted this time."
"So I again became a mojado, though this time I didn't wade the Rio Grande. I climbed the fence (on many parts of the border only a chain link fence separates the countries) and went to my old patron (boss)."
"When he heard I had jumped the fence he got paler than he usually is. He said he was glad to see a good worker back, but that he wanted no trouble with illegal workers. He told me to go back to Tijuana, and he would sponsor me with papers and everything."
"I finally got a tarjeta verde (green card) and was made emigrado (immigrant). I could live in San Diego, but who can at those prices? So I cross the line every morning at 4:30, am picked up on the American side by a truck from my patron's farm, and taken to work in the lettuce field. It's not too bad, except that by the time I get back home to Tijuana all I'm good for is bed. I have to get up at 3 a.m."
Salazar, Ruben. Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955-1970. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1995 1995. (Link)
Technically, an "immigrant" who has been naturalized can vote. However, "illegal immigrants" have said that people can't be illegal, and they are not all called "immigrants". This letter writer was just being politically correct.
Which, of course, he didn't do. The first paragraph of the letter said:
If you are a citizen of the U.S. we encourage you to participate in the democratic process.
Immigrants who are here legally are not eligible to vote unless they are naturalized citizens. Being a legal immigrant does not automatically make you a naturalized citizen, first you have to get legal residency, and after a certain amount of time has passed, you can then apply for citizenship if you so desire.
You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time.
As stated above a distinction is made via the conjunction or that states that if your residence in this country is illegal or if you are an immigrant. no modifiers are linked to the word immigrant, so this states that the writer infers that all immigrants cannot vote. Twisting the sentence around to get whatever meaning one hopes for is useless.
Thank you. That clarifies it for me without having to try to twist the meaning of the sentence to imply that they only mean illegal immigrants.
He would be disqualifying himself with this letter. I don't think he wrote it.
He should be aware, however, about any mailing going out in his name.
A caller did phone in and suggest Hedgecock was impatient with Tan's manner of speaking. I actually turned it down for a bit and didn't hear the whole segment. What I did hear, it was clear to me Hedgecock was not listening to Tan. Later Hedgecock expressed his suspicion Tan is a Democrat plant.
HELL NO TAN
WON'T GO
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
RALLY
Grassroots activists will rally this Thursday in support of FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
THIS EVENT IS NOT SPONSORED BY THE TAN CAMPAIGN
We don't want to bring any further, undue pressure on the candidate, so we ask that you please keep signs pertinent to the issue - the letter - freedom of speech.
Red, white and blue attire is preferable to "border" attire.
Sign suggestions:
Tan for Congress yard signs
ONLY CITIZENS VOTE
VOTE FOR TAN
FREEDOM of SPEECH
If you don't have a sign - just bring a flag
BRING BIG AMERICAN FLAGS!!!!
"I am not going to quit this race and I am going to win this race," Nguyen told reporters called to his campaign headquarters for a press conference.
Orange County Register
DATE
Thursday, October 26
TIME
4:30pm - 6:30pm
Sunset 6:09 p.m.
End civil twilight 6:34 p.m
LOCATION
Meet at:
Tan Nguyen for Congress Headquarters
12955 Main St.
Garden Grove, CA 92840
I would think that at this point, Nguyen himself is now a naturalized citizen, not just an immigrant. Yes, the letter could have been a little more clear and could have said that legal immigrants, unless they are naturalized citizens, are not allowed to vote.
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with informing people of what the law regarding voting is. I would definitely not consider this a hate crime.
I doubt he's at all happy with the idea of getting represented by a Vietnamese guy in Congress.
Or, alternatively, he's getting some on the side from that Hispanic woman. Maybe someone can call him up and find out for us.
True, but it didn't go out in his name but on a made up letterhead similar to an anti-illegal immigrant group's. The database was from Tan's campaign but he claims his office manager made it available to that third party who did the actual mailing and perhaps created the letter itself.
No idea why he's invite the staffer, initially fired, back to his campaign.
The English version of the letter was very clear. The only issue was that "resident alien" was translated as a word that is the same as "immigrant."
Either the California Dems are the most totally stupid politicians on Earth or they actually do expect for illegal aliens to vote for them and are busy making sure that it can happen.
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