Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg
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 a difference whether you are a documented immigrant or an undocumented immigrant, that the existence was not easy for the undocumented but that opportunity in America somehow trumped even the poor living conditions and low pay.
I wondered what circumstances must have been like in his country to choose an admittedly tough life in the shadows.
Growing up in Texas I never met a Latino who wasn’t working.
In school, everyone took Spanish. I sometimes wish I had paid more attention in class. As a teenager, I was not always the model citizen that I am today…
In my middle school Spanish class, my exuberance sometimes overcame my restraint and I would be asked to go to the principal’s office. My Spanish teacher would scold me,
“En boca cerrada no entran moscas!”
Cuando no lo escuchaba, I would often be sent to the Principal’s office.
In those days we had corporal punishment. After a few such trips to the principal’s office, I discovered that my Spanish teacher was married to the Assistant Principal and they were getting a divorce.
So when I was sent to the principal’s office, I would make the decision to go instead to the Assistant Principal’s office. He and I would commiserate: Oh man she’s crazy! You’re right kid, just sit here today and go back tomorrow.
As a consequence, I never became as proficient with my Spanish as I would have liked because I spent a great deal of time in detention.
I read Miguel de Unamuno in college. I think he gives Republicans some good advice,
He wrote, “Miremos más que somos padres de nuestro porvenir que no hijos de nuestro pasado”
Republicans need to become parents of a new future with Latino voters or we will need to resign ourselves to permanent minority status.
The Republican Party has insisted for years that we stand for freedom and family values. I am most proud of my party when it stands for both.
The vast majority of Latino voters agree with us on these issues but Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration.
Immigration is a contentious issue in American politics. In our zeal for border control, we have sometimes obscured our respect and admiration for immigrants and their contribution to America.
Republicans have been losing both the respect and votes of a group of people who already identify with our belief in family, faith, and conservative values. Hispanics should be a natural and sizable part of the Republican base.
That they have steadily drifted away from the GOP in each election says more about Republicans than it does about Hispanics.
Whether we are discussing hard work, respect for life or the quest for freedom, immigrants bring with them the same values that previous generations of immigrants did.
Defense of the unborn and defense of traditional marriage are Republican issues that should resonate with Latinos but have been obscured by the misperception that Republicans are hostile to immigrants.
Somewhere along the line Republicans have failed to understand and articulate that immigrants are an asset to America, not a liability.
My German great-grandparents didn’t speak much English when they came to America. They didn’t have much, but they also didn’t ask for much-all they wanted was an opportunity.
They began in America peddling vegetables. They finally got that opportunity when they started a dairy business in their garage, scraping together a living, raising a family, and constantly working to give their children a better life than they had.
My great-grandfather came to America in the 1880′s. His father died after only six months in America. At 14, my great-grandfather was alone.
He survived and ultimately thrived in his new country with a new language. In their home and their church they spoke German.
Republicans who criticize the use of two languages make a great mistake.
As the son of immigrants, my grandfather, who only had an 8th grade education, would live to see his own children all go to college. They became ministers, professors, doctors and accountants and one of them became a Congressman.
My family’s story is like that of millions of others who came to this country. Every generation of immigrants wants these opportunities.
Many have faced intolerance and bigotry. It was not always easy to be German American in the face of two world wars started by Germans. Intolerance is not new, and it is not limited to one language or skin color.
But through our rich history, and for many millions of immigrants who came to America, such sacrifice and hardship was worth it. They wanted what all Americans want-better lives for themselves, their children and grandchildren.
For the American Dream to be achievable for all, we have to have an educational system that believes that all students have the capability to succeed.
Unfortunately, the education establishment seems to casually discard Latinos, blacks, and others into crummy schools with no hope.
I argue that the struggle for a good education is the civil rights issue of our day.
I love the story of Jaime Escalante.
In the area of East Los Angeles, in 1982, in an environment that values a quick fix over education and learning, Escalante was a new math teacher at Garfield High School determined to change the system and challenge the students to a higher level of achievement.
Escalante was at first not well liked by students, receiving numerous taunts and threats.
As the year progressed, he was able to win over the attention of the students by implementing innovative teaching techniques.
He transformed even the most troublesome teens into dedicated students. While Escalante was teaching basic arithmetic and algebra, he realized that his students have far more potential.
He decided to teach them calculus. To do so, he held a summer course in pre-calculus.
Despite concerns and skepticism of other teachers, who felt that “you can’t teach logarithms to illiterates,” Escalante nonetheless developed a program in which his students can eventually take AP Calculus by their senior year.
Taking the AP Calculus exam in the spring of their senior year, his students were relieved and overjoyed to find that they have all passed, a feat done by few in the state.
My dream is that we transform the education monopoly into a thriving, competitive environment where Hispanic students get to choose what school they attend and that no student is forgotten or ignored.
America’s strength has always been that we are a melting pot with room for those who dare to dream. I’ve seen firsthand what it is like for new immigrants in Texas.
I’ve never met a new immigrant looking for a free lunch.
The question is: How do we now reflect this in our 21st century immigration policy?
It is absolutely vital for both the success of our immigration policy and for the purposes of national security that we finally secure our borders.
Not to stop most immigrants from coming-we welcome them and in fact should seek to increase legal immigration.
The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you.
In order to bring conservatives to this cause however, those who work for reform must understand that a real solution must ensure that our borders are secure.
But we also must treat those who are already here with understanding and compassion.
The first part of my plan – border security – must be certified by Border Patrol and an Investigator General and then voted on by Congress to ensure it has been accomplished.
This is what I call, Trust but Verify.
With this in place, I believe conservatives will accept what needs to come next, an issue that must be addressed: what becomes of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States?
My plan is very simple and will include work visas for those who are here, who are willing to come forward and work.
A bipartisan panel would determine number of visas per year. High tech visas would also be expanded and have a priority. Special entrepreneurial visas would also be issued.
Fairness is key in any meaningful immigration reform, but this fairness would cut both ways:
The modernization of our visa system and border security would allow us to accurately track immigration.
It would also enable us to let more people in and allow us to admit we are not going to deport the millions of people who are currently here illegally.
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Conservatives, myself included, are wary of amnesty. My plan will not grant amnesty or move anyone to the front of the line.
But what we have now is de facto amnesty.
The solution doesn’t have to be amnesty or deportation-a middle ground might be called probation where those who came illegally become legal through a probationary period.
My plan will not impose a national ID card or mandatory E-Verify, forcing businesses to become policemen.
We should not be unfair to those who came to our country legally. Nor should we force business owners to become immigration inspectors-making them do the job the federal government has failed to do.
After an Inspector General has verified that the border is secure after year one, the report must come back and be approved by Congress.
In year two, we could begin expanding probationary work visas to immigrants who are willing to work. I would have Congress vote each year for five years whether to approve or not approve a report on whether or not we are securing the border.
We should be proud that so many want to come to America, that it is still seen as the land of opportunity.
Let’s make it a land of legal work, not black market jobs. Let’s make it a land of work not welfare. Our land should be one of assimilation, not hiding in the shadows.
On immigration, common sense and decency have been neglected for far too long. Let’s secure our borders, welcome our new neighbors, and practice the values of freedom and family for all to see.
Some say to generalize about any ethnic group is be a racist. There is a hilarious Seinfeld episode where Jerry admits that he loves Asian women but he frets and worries, “Is it racist to like a certain race?”
So it is with trepidation that I express my admiration for the romance of the latin culture. I am a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
In Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez gives some advice that Republicans might consider,
“. . . human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, . . . life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
Likewise, Republicans need to give birth to a new attitude toward immigrants, an attitude that sees immigrants as assets not liabilities.
No one captures the romance of the Latin culture more than Pablo Neruda.
I love how Neruda in “Si tu me Olvidas” issues a passionate threat but ends by saying,
“Pero
si cada día,
cada hora,
sientes que a mí estás destinada
con dulzura implacable,
si cada día sube
una flor a tus labios a buscarme,
ay amor mío, ay mía,
en mí todo ese fuego se repite,
en mí nada se apaga ni se olvida”
How can we not embrace such passion. How can we not want that culture to merge with and infuse the American spirit. They are not called the romance languages for no reason.
As we move forward on immigration reform, I for one will work to find a solution that both adheres to the rule of law and makes room for compassion.
My hope is that today we begin a dialogue between the GOP and Latinos.
A dialogue that shows that the GOP sees all immigrants as assets and that Latinos can come to see the GOP as the party of opportunity, the party of the American Dream, — El partido del sueňo Americano.
I was just thinking of a way to ‘grade’ these idiots who will probably be running in 2016.
Due to the dumbing down of everything, it would have to be a PASS or FAIL system.
Which ones do you give a FAIL to on a given issue?
Which ones do you give a PASS to on a given issue?
==
I have gotten to the point that I just don’t know.
I used to think the best were from the governors ranks, but 2012 and since has many Pubbie governors folding faster than the Washington Pubbies on Obamacare, etc ...
It is getting harder and harder to distinguish Pubbies from the Dems, so-called conservatives from the progressives.
It is disappointing to hear Paul promote this plan. I just don’t understand why he believes it will work and not further destroy the US.
I had no idea that legal immigration was so high. Thanks for that info.
Of course, we know that will never happen, because too much money changes hands just to keep the whole thing going. So, I have an idea. The mexicans have announced that their expropriating their state run oil company PEMEX. I say that US companies are allowed to take over all of PEMEX’s assets as repayment for having to support 1/3 of the mexican population for who knows how long. Otherwise, we ship back every single illegal, and let the mexican government have to deal with them for a change.
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Operation_Wetback?o=2801&qsrc=999
Operation Wetback in action
The effort began in California and Arizona in 1954 and coordinated 1,075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies. Tactics employed included going house to house in Mexican-American neighborhoods and citizenship checks during standard traffic stops.
Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions per day. By the end of July, over 50,000 illegal aliens were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal aliens are believed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimated that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their own accord. To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory before releasing them.
Some say we can't deport them all, I say remember Ike!!
Then, watching the Fed suing Arizona for doing the Fed's Constitutionally mandated job of enforcing an international border has been too much to stomach, because of the reality of what that means.
The mental state that has taken over so much of US needs to somehow be countered or we go down.
Perhaps Dr. Paul's speech is designed to lower the resistance some of US have to common sense and the realities of being a careless falling soooper power in a dangerous world.
One has to be careful waking up a sleeping morning after alcoholic. Careful with those bright lights and noise, go slow, be nice, and maybe they'll see things more clearly once they wake up.
The big problem here is that the basis for his reasoning, one of the first things he mentions, is that Hispanics have common ground with Republicans on social and economic issues but are driven away over the stance on immigration.
That simply isn’t true. The overwhelming issue that had Hispanics voting for Dems in 2012 was their support for ObamaCare. That IS a social/economic issue, one that represents a chasm between the GOP and Hispanics.
Moving positions on immigration won’t change that, but it will create more voters who are supportive of Dems on a whole host of other issues.
I like what Rand Paul has been doing on most fronts, but a speech by a Sinator that requires i first 'press one for English' is NOT good...
i suffered through about half of it, and can only say that my grandfathers immigrants, and coountry are NOT what todays immigrants and country are...
*IF* there was a desire by either to assimilate and work for each other, his points would be valid...
sadly, today, "WE the People" borrow money from abroad to advertise our foodstamp program to people in other countries, and those countries actively work to unload their third world population into our gravy train, en masse, to send all those *free* dollars back 'home' to their third world $h!thole$...
who are we kidding ??? my bet is that most could easily obtain papers if they really wanted to do so...removing the stick only emboldens the eating of the carrots from the garden...
and what ive scribbled here is only a slice of the underlying issues with massive invasion of foreign peoples/interests...
but hey, if we're still allowing muzzies from goatpackerabiastan to set up shop and build weapons caches and traing facilities, whats the harm in 20-40 million non English speaking dirt farmers...
that $50/head lettuce aint gonna pick itself...
First Rand called Israel an ally and now this!!!!
The Paulista goose steppers gotta be going wild lol
SCOTUS has determined citizenship issues almost since the inception of the Republic. Here are just a few cases:
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
Lynch v. Clarke,
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Afroyim v. Rusk.
Calling hispanics brought here as little kids say 5 and raised here getting a US public school diploma (maybe even a college degree) criminals for ‘being illegal’ is a great way to get more Wise Latino’s on the court. It looks like putting on a white hood demanding they wear gold stars for being 'illegal'.
Spouting this leftist propaganda and hyperbole doesn't make your argument. I have heard similar comparisons with mass deportation and the Holocaust.
We have the Rule of Law in this country. If a parent is an illegal alien and brings in his/her children regardless of whether the child is 1 month old or 17 years old, they are an illegal alien and are subject to deportation along with their parents. In fact, even a child born to an illegal alien in the US and thus a citizen, can be deported along with the parent unless the parent finds a suitable guardian for the child.
There is not a nation on earth that does not have immigration laws and limits on who can enter their country. The use of the "children" is just some more leftist crap to get a blanket amnesty. Obama has already implemented a backdoor amnesty for the Dreamers that will allow 1.8 million to gain legal status up to the age of 30.
Conferring rights and privileges upon illegal aliens has a corrosive effect on the Rule of Law, the very foundation of our Republic. It is also a slap in the face to legal immigrants who have followed the rules and obeyed the laws. There are millions of intending legal immigrants waiting overseas to enter this country legally--many of whom are children.
Wait till illegals vote in GOP primaries ...
There are millions of legal immigrants who will vote two to one for the Dems. Each year we bring in 1.2 million legal immigrants, most of whom will vote Dem.
Hispanic isnt a race...geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez
You can tell that these guys never get out of DC. What they keep talking about in their speeches is wishful thinking.
The illegals in our neck of the woods.....all undereducated and make very little money. Their American born kids all qualify for cash, food stamps, Medical, WIC, and freen breakfast/lunch programs. Because they have American born children the whole family qualifies for Section 8.
These stupid politicians need to get out of DC and into the real world once in awhile.
Well, since the Primary, I have seen Libertarians flowing out of the cracks here like a flooding trailer house getting fumigated... trying to convince us Conservatives that they are more Conservative than we are, and we need to ‘go with the flow’. I say to the Libertarians, go to a Libertarian site and promote your socialist crap.
Well if your fantasy is mass deportation, which even the border hawk Romney wouldnt defend, then you deserve it.
But if they are bringing up mass deportation which no one elected suggests as a straw man for amnesty, that is different and changing the subject.
As I said, kids trafficed to here and raised here with the support of the government as the courts now entitle them to (the kids) public school and then they get that degree, are seen as victims and they will aways be seen as such. Romney learned that the hard way.
Calling those ones trafficed here as kids and raised here criminals is just seen as demanding they where a sign labeled ‘illegal’ on their clothes as a gold star.
Heck, dont the Muslims sentence raped wimmin to beatings for fornication? I bet that lowers the rapes, or reported ones anyway.
Romney used immigration to destroy Perry then they came out to vote to make sure he lost. If Romney won on that stand then it could be a different game.
They don’t call it “the Reconquista” for nuthin’ !!
What bull $h#t! Typical pubbie turncoat....anything for a vote.
The proponents of amnesty are wont to create the false choice between a blanket amnesty and mass deportation of 12 to 20 million illegal aliens. In reality, we have other choices and alternatives that don’t reward people who have broken our laws with the right to stay and work here and an eventual path to citizenship. The 12 to 20 million illegal aliens did not enter this country overnight and they will not leave overnight. Attrition through enforcement works. We have empirical data from Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arizona proving that it does. Romney was right on self-deportation--he just used some in-artful terms.
As I said, kids trafficed to here and raised here with the support of the government as the courts now entitle them to (the kids) public school and then they get that degree, are seen as victims and they will aways be seen as such. Romney learned that the hard way.
Those who buy the leftist framing of the issue, yes. The reality is that they are the lucky ones who had the privilege of having access to our schools and medical facilities. Plyler versus Doe should be revisited. If you read the decision, you will find it was based on costs to the school district, i.e., they were minimal. Things have changed with one out of ten is country being the child of an illegal alien, either brought here or born here. The costs are enormous. Here in Fairfax County, VA, we pay $104 million a year just in ESOL costs for 31,000 foreign language students out of 181,000 students in the system. The number of ESOL students grew by a third in just the past year.
Calling those ones trafficed here as kids and raised here criminals is just seen as demanding they where a sign labeled ‘illegal’ on their clothes as a gold star. Heck, dont the Muslims sentence raped wimmin to beatings for fornication? I bet that lowers the rapes, or reported ones anyway.
The legal term is unauthorized alien. The Left likes to use such terms as undocumented worker rather than illegal alien because that is "demeaning." This PC crap has to stop. When you commit a crime there are consequences. Are we supposed to call them undocumented students? Guest students? Comparing them to Holocaust victims wearing gold stars is beyond the pale.
In Muslim countries, if that is your standard, they usually kill the women thru honor killings. In fact there have been honor killings by Muslims in the US and Germany.
Romney used immigration to destroy Perry then they came out to vote to make sure he lost. If Romney won on that stand then it could be a different game.
Perry deserved to be destroyed over his stand. Romney should have been even tougher on the immigration issue. Unfortunately he toned it down due to pressure from Murdoch. Immigration can be a winning issue for Reps who know how to use it. For example, Romney should have pointed out the insanity of bringing in 1.2 million legal immigrants a year while 23 million Americans were looking for full time employment. Or pointing out the disproportionate and high use of welfare by immigrants? Or the wisdom of adding 130 million to our population over the next 40 years, 80% due to immigration and its impact on infrastructure, the environment, etc.
Well, he's about 30% right. After 50 years or so, we can hope for about 30% of the Latino vote. That's because Latinos are a multi-cultural, multi-racial group....Of which fact very few Americans ... a rapidly dumbing group ... are aware.
Like everything else in Democrat World, it's a question of cultural melanin. Those more European hispanics, whether from México or anywhere else in Mundo Hispano, will of course rapidly integrate into American society. Those who spring from largely indigenous cultures are evidently being completely co-opted into the illegitimate children, food stamp, gangs, drugs, section 8 culture of the African-Americans, unless they kill each other first. See LA.
Our beloved government has candidly recognized this their Affirmative Action Official Melanin-Based Mythology. A white Chilean, Argentine, or Díos forbid, a Spaniard from Spain ... are not even officially "Hispanics." ¡No goodies para tí, amigo! Oddly enough, a white Puerto Rican or Cuban IS an Hispanic. Got that? Penelope Cruz ain't an Hispanic. Marco(s) Rubio is. Go figure.
Once the Democrats get'em on the gravy train, they are never jumping on the GOP trolley. BTW, it is stupid to pretend to offer them more gravy.
¿No es muy interesante vivir en el país mas norte de la América Latina? ¿Sería mas interesante sobrevivir, no?
Being Texan, I know where they’re getting the wrong notion that hispanics are cultural conservatives and natural allies. More on that in a sec, but as an aside, even if that were true, WHY would the GOPE be jettisoning social conservatism as fast as they can while trying to bring in hispanics?? Hmmmmm? Makes no sense.
Where they’re getting this is from an older, more traditional-minded hispanic culture. Many of these hispanics are long-time natives to Texas. I know hispanics who have no record of who among their ancestors first entered Texas. The oldest ancestor they’re aware of was born in Texas. And those who came from Mexico but many years back, or whose recent ancestor came from there, are more traditional in their values. I know these type of hispanics and they are very real, not imaginary.
But they are a distinct minority now within the new cultural norms among much younger and less culturally traditional hispanics.
Rand has stupidly (or with malice) brought into a notion that simply is not true TODAY.
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