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Mark Halperin of Bloomberg interviewed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president of the United States, recently and endeavored to find out how authentically Cuban he is. This line of questioning has not, so far as is known, been directed at any other presidential candidate. Barack Obama’s blackness has not been called into question, nor has Hillary Clinton’s womanhood. Ruben Navarrette, writing on Saturday for the San Jose Mercury News, was appalled, to say the least. Halperin asked Cruz what kind of Cuban food he liked, if he listened to Cuban music and was invited to address Bernie Sanders...

I witnessed a disaster in the desert while working for the Arizona Republic as a reporter and metro columnist. In July 1997, police officers in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, AZ, paired up with Border Patrol agents to round up illegal immigrants. The operation resulted in the apprehension and deportation of more than 400 illegal immigrants. But, the net ensnared anyone who looked Hispanic - i.e. , brown skin, Spanish accents. There was a state investigation into the roundup, and — during that inquiry — one Chandler police officer said that the tell-tale sign for him was a “smell’ common...

For many conservatives, John McCain is not their favorite Republican. They think he's built a career at their expense, painting them as fools and bigots. They resent his holier-than-thou attitude. And they're not inclined to trust anyone who has been so fawned over by the national media. Curiously, a lot of liberal Democrats feel the same way about McCain. He isn't their favorite Republican either - but it's because they know he'll be tough to beat in November. They would have preferred to run against someone more extreme and easier to demonize. That's not John McCain. I first met McCain...

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- For Democrats, this has been an inspiring election -- and a devastating one. They have two strong candidates, who have thus far wrestled to a draw. As of today, according to CNN's calculations, Hillary Clinton has 1,148 delegates; Barack Obama, 1,121. Yet the race has divided the party -- female vs. male, white vs. black, black vs. Latino. The Virginia primary is Tuesday. The Clintons have to get past former Gov. Doug Wilder who thinks Bill Clinton went too far in using race to scare up support from white voters. All the king's horses and...

What's the matter with Iowa? Maybe I'm experiencing a little geographic jealously. When I moved to California, I assumed that San Diego - as a border town - would be ground zero in the immigration debate. So when did Sioux City, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids cut in line? If Iowa is, in fact, the new center of the immigration debate, what sense does that make? If you've been paying attention, you know that despite the lip service given to border security and fighting terrorism, much of the debate is driven by demographics and the concern that the United States...

For Christmas, nearly a dozen readers sent me the same gift, an article about goings on in the Southwest: "Illegal immigrants packing up and leaving Arizona." According to the article, illegal immigrants are fleeing the Grand Canyon State because of an "oppressive environment" and the fear that the undocumented won't be able to find work after this week, when a tough employer-sanctions law takes effect. It's a restrictionist dream come true. Many of those who say they've had a bellyful of illegal immigration claim that, if we dried up the jobs, illegal immigrants would simply "self-deport." I've written that this...

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) gives all Americans the chance to gain insight into the nation's largest minority. Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Hispanics aren't going anywhere. In many cases, we were in the United States first. You might as well give it a try. There are more than 44 million Hispanics in the United States, and the Census Bureau estimates that -- by 2050 --

For an agent of the Mexican government, Johnny Sutton speaks pretty good English. That's the title anti-immigrant zealots hung on the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas after prosecutors in his office convicted ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos of shooting 15 times at an unarmed suspect who was running away. Sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, the former agents are behind bars. Because the defendants were once Border Patrol agents and because the convictions relied on testimony from the victim - a Mexican drug smuggler who got immunity - the prosecutors...

Things are goofy in California. I mean, goofier than usual. Republicans are afraid they've lost influence with the governor, which wouldn't be so strange if the governor wasn't also a Republican. What's even stranger is that -- in a true blue state such as California, where Democrats control the Legislature and most of the top offices in the executive branch -- Republicans haven't figured out most Californians no longer care what they think, and this includes the chief executive from their own party. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in for a second term on Jan. 5 after coasting to re-election....

On the sensitive issue of illegal immigration, Democrats are acting more like demagogues. At various times in this debate, they've been cynical, hypocritical and dishonest. First, 191 House Democrats voted against an amendment to the immigration bill that would have reduced the infraction of being in the country illegally from a felony to a misdemeanor. Next, Democrats held up the Senate's version of immigration reform last spring and then tried to pin the blame on the GOP. Now, a 35-second Internet video ad produced by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and placed on the organization's Web site has spurred an...

"They've said all along that all they care about is that border security be the first priority of any immigration reform plan and that illegal immigrants not be given amnesty. They insisted that they aren't motivated by racism and that they have no problem with immigrants, if they are here legally." "Anti-amnesty Republicans in Congress come in three flavors. There are the opportunists who view the issue as red meat that will inspire GOP voters in November. There are the nativists who are frightened over how Latinos affect the culture and who have taken it on as their crusade to...

We teach our children that, if they tell the truth, they won't get into trouble. It didn't work out that way for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, during a series of town hall meetings last week, put his finger on an unpleasant -- but undeniable -- facet of the immigration debate and got pummeled for it by right-wing talk radio hosts and bloggers who can't accept the truth. Schwarzenegger warns that we are entering "a dangerous area.'' He thinks we shouldn't blame those who want to come to America but rather the federal government, which is "not securing our borders.''...

The debate over whether to reform Social Security is full of idiosyncrasies. Here's a big one: No matter what fix we're talking about - partial privatization, raising the retirement age, means testing so millionaires forfeit benefits, tying benefits to inflation rather than wages, etc. - the most ferocious opposition comes from the demographic that won't be affected either way by any proposal being discussed at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue: Americans already 55 and over. If you can imagine that, you're already two steps ahead of the Bush administration. White House officials seem baffled that their biggest fight has turned...