Posted on 04/11/2006 10:22:19 AM PDT by Crackingham
Massive street marches to protest a proposed crackdown on illegal immigration have energized U.S. Hispanics and may signal a new day of Hispanic political involvement. The demonstrations, which attracted both legal and illegal residents across the country, mean politicians may face an angry Hispanic electorate in which Republicans would be the biggest losers, activists said on Monday.
Half a million people marched in Los Angeles two weeks ago, and another half a million protested in Dallas on Sunday. On Monday, there were smaller marches in more than 60 cities, all to express displeasure with proposed legislation in Washington aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration. As happened in Los Angeles, the Dallas march stunned the organizers, who expected only 20,000 people in politically conservative Texas.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine half a million people marching in a city that has 1.2 million people," said Lydia Gonzalez Welch, a board member with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, which promoted the so-called Mega March.
"The feeling of celebration and amazement yesterday was powerful and we will make sure that power continues to be demonstrated and the local leaders will feel it," she said.
"This is the first real social movement, bottom-up, grass-roots movement of the 21st century," longtime Hispanic activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez told the Dallas Morning News.
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Democrats stand to gain most from new Hispanic involvement because political analysts say that, typically, two-thirds of Hispanics vote for their party. Despite exuberance among activists, greater Hispanic political activism is not assured because the Hispanic population is not a political monolith, experts say. While U.S.-born Hispanics are largely sympathetic to illegal immigrants, a Pew Hispanic Center survey found that a third of them feel illegal immigrants drive wages down.
Republicans have made gains in attracting Hispanics, but could lose ground by pushing a harder line against illegal immigrants, said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson in Dallas.
They "should take a deep breath here, and ask themselves what a failure to deal with the concerns of immigrants both legal and illegal will mean for the Republican Party," he said.
Republican political consultant Bill Miller in Austin agreed the party is in a difficult position.
"It's a real high risk situation for Republicans, and it's almost all down side," he said. "There is no more sacred issue to Hispanics."
That's a big part of what's at stake here.
in the interim you could go to said businesses that hire them and pay them in pesos at the register.
MEAT CUTTERS?!! What about the health issue? OMG, how perilous hiring undoc immigrants to handle fresh meat! YIKES!
"fired from their jobs as meat cutters"
MEAT CUTTERS?!! What about the health issue? OMG, how perilous hiring undoc immigrants to handle fresh meat! YIKES!
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