Immigration08 Blog

Posted 02/02/09 at 07:27pm by Paco Fabian

New Face, Same Ignorance from GOP on Immigration, Latino Issues

Michael SteeleThings were looking up. Last week "Star-Spanglish Saltsman" withdrew from the race for RNC Chairman, and for the first time ever, the GOP appointed an African American, Michael Steele, to be the face of the Republican Party.  

Saltsman had withdrawn amid a storm of controversy over his holiday CD, which included the hit tunes: "Barack the Magic Negro" and "Star Spanglish Banner." Huffington Post's, Sam Stein reported:

Chip Saltsman, a former chief aide to GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has withdrawn from the race to be chairman of the Republican National Committee just a day before the vote takes place.[...] Today, immigration groups hammered on Saltsman again, drawing attention to the fact that the CD also includes a song titled "The Star Spanglish Banner."

Stein continued by explaining why this sort of "ill-conceived" (that's one way of saying it) prank is a strong reason why the GOP should reign in the rhetoric, and fast:

Saltsman has contended that the whole thing was meant as a good-humored, albeit ill-conceived, joke. But it hits at the core of what observers inside and out of the GOP see as a major party problem: their incredible failure to win Hispanic votes in the 2008 election.

Hispanics, of course, are the fastest growing constituency in the United States and a cold shoulder to them -- whether in the form of a musical parody or through immigration reform policy -- is not something the Republican Party can afford at this or any juncture.

As Stein argued, and we've been saying for some time, the future of the Republican party depends, in large part, on getting the issues of immigration and minority inclusion right.

Well, New RNC Chairman Steele started things off on a good enough note:

"I think it's an opportunity for us now to move this party forward on the ideas that matter to the voters, and so I'm not in the mood to have people stand in the way and say, "We can't. We've always done it this way. It's impossible to do."

Unfortunately, his desire to "move the party forward" was quickly derailed a moment later, as you can see in this interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: Does the GOP need to change its position on immigration reform, guest workers, path to citizenship, to reach out and say to Hispanics, "You have a home in the Republican Party?."

STEELE: No. Well, I think the GOP's position on immigration is very much the position of many, many Hispanics who are in this country.

WALLACE: Well, wait a minute.

Yes, please wait a minute. In what alternate universe did Hispanic voters agree with the GOP's position on immigration in 2008?

WALLACE: Wait. Is the GOP position the position of George Bush and John McCain, which is for immigration reform, or...

STEELE: The GOP...

WALLACE: ... or is it the position that was build the fence?

STEELE: The GOP's position is secure our borders first. Let us know and let us make sure the American people know that we've taken care of the important business of dealing with illegal immigration into this country. You cannot begin to address the concerns of the people who are already here unless and until you have made certain that no more are coming in behind them.

WALLACE: So no change in the position of the party.

STEELE: No change in the position on the party on that.

WALLACE: You are one of the...

STEELE: How we messaged that is where we messed up the last time. We were pegged as being insensitive, anti-immigrant, and nothing could be further from the truth, because you talk to those leaders in the Hispanic community, they will tell you the same thing.

So, according to Steele, the problem isn't the GOP's position on immigration reform, it's their messaging?  Republicans in Congress worked to pass the infamous "Sensenbrenner bill" in 2005 that would have turned 12 million undocumented immigrants into hardcore felons, blocked bipartisan attempts at passing comprehensive reform in 2006 and 2007, and drove millions of Latinos and other Americans to protest in the streets (and ultimately the voting booth) -- and Steele still thinks the GOP is in line with what Hispanic voters want?     

Look, the Republican Party is not going to stop bleeding Latino voters until it makes a simple decision:  

Option 1) Right the ship and change tactics- as well as just tone- on immigration.

Option 2) Continue to scapegoat immigrants and become a regional party for decades to come.

We hope that the new RNC Chairman changes his tune and becomes a catalyst for real change. The GOP just can't afford another mouthpiece for the Party's status quo as it navigates this colossal identity crisis.

Posted 01/30/09 at 07:48pm by Web Team

Chip Saltsman Withdraws after Drawing Fire for Incendiary Song

Yesterday we blogged about Chip Saltsman, then in the running for RNC Chairman, and his crude sense of humor. Well, it turns out we there were a great number us who found his holiday CD, including the songs "Barack the Magic Negro" and "Star Spanglish Banner," highly offensive - not to mention politically stupid. Huffington Post writer, Sam Stein reports:

UPDATE: Chip Saltsman, a former chief aide to GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has withdrawn from the race to be chairman of the Republican National Committee just a day before the vote takes place.

Saltsman's bid was dealt a major blow several weeks ago when he was found to have distributed copies of a CD with the racially-inflammatory song "Barack the Magic Negro."

Today, immigration groups hammered on Saltsman again, drawing attention to the fact that the CD also includes a song titled "The Star Spanglish Banner."

Stein continues by explaining how this sort of "ill-conceived" (that's one way of saying it) prank is indicative of a larger GOP dillemma:

Saltsman has contended that the whole thing was meant as a good-humored, albeit ill-conceived, joke. But it hits at the core of what observers inside and out of the GOP see as a major party problem: their incredible failure to win Hispanic votes in the 2008 election.

Hispanics, of course, are the fastest growing constituency in the United States and a cold shoulder to them -- whether in the form of a musical parody or through immigration reform policy -- is not something the Republican Party can afford at this or any juncture.

As he argues, and as we've been saying for some time, the future of the party depends on not completely alienating Latino and minority voters.

Now there's an idea.

Posted 01/30/09 at 06:47pm by Paco Fabian

Breaking Down the Kids Health Bill (SCHIP) Vote

schipAs we reported last night, the SCHIP kids health bill passed out of the Senate with provisions for legal immigrant children intact, despite heated opposition from Republican Senators. Here's what DemFromCT of Daily Kos had to say:

Bickering over legal immigrants marred the bipartisan support for the bill. Both Republican and Democratic parties are awkwardly feeling their way toward the new political reality in DC, which includes the desire for compromise, the fear of failure, the need to occasionally posture, and the need to pass effective legislation (and sometimes those realities will clash.)

Bickering is a nice way of putting it.

In reality, Republican Senators and Representatives filed amendment after amendment to gut provisions that would allow lawfully present immigrant kids to see a doctor. In effect, denying hundreds of thousands of eligible Latino and immigrant children access to health care in order to sound "tough on immigrants."

Thankfully they failed.

Thank you to everyone who sent a fax through our website - your voice made a huge difference. In the end, the bill was approved by all Senate Democrats and seven Republicans.  In the House, all but two Democrats voted for the bill, as did forty Republicans. The bill now moves forward without the hard-line amendments.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker Nancy Pelsoi (D-CA) should be praised for their leadership on on this. Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) fought to move the bill forward with provisions for lawfully-present immigrant children intact.

As we discussed last night, the SCHIP amendment process should be a strong wake-up call for the new Congress:

It now serves as an illustration of how our Congressional Representatives will be forced to fight a succession of painful proxy-battles over immigration in the absence of a clear leadership strategy to get comprehensive immigration reform done early and well.

Posted 01/30/09 at 12:53am by Jackie Mahendra

Victory: Immigrant Kids Included in SCHIP

Happy SCHIP BabyBREAKING: SCHIP just passed out of the U.S. Senate. Thanks to all of your faxes and phone calls, the kids health bill now moves on to be signed into law with the provisions for lawfully-present immigrant children firmly intact. All four hard-line immigration amendments were voted down by a voice vote this week.

The New York Times reports:

One of the most significant sections of the child health bill would allow states to use federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. Under existing law, legal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program for five years after they enter the United States.

"The bill would end an inequity that we have been trying to eradicate for more than a decade," said Jennifer M. Ng'andu, a health policy specialist at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic rights group.

As we reported in, "GOP Hispanic Outreach Team Locked in Closet During SCHIP Debate," many Republican Senators put forward amendments this week to try to poison the bill's passage by forcing a lengthy and heated debate about immigration:

As reported by National Public Radio today,  Sen. Ensign and other Republicans are voicing strong opposition to provisions in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill that would allow legal immigrant children to access health care without a five year waiting period.  His colleagues, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), have already filed amendments to gut the provisions. 

While all of these, and a host of other, extreme amendments failed, the SCHIP amendment process should be an "aha moment" for the new Congress. It now serves as an illustration of how our Congressional Representatives will be forced to fight a succession of painful proxy-battles over immigration in the absence of a clear leadership strategy to get comprehensive immigration reform done early and well.

 

Posted 01/29/09 at 08:00pm by Frank Sharry

When Will the GOP Ditch the “Scapegoat the Immigrants” Playbook?

Note: Originally posted at Huffington Post.

Ashamed GOPFirst it was SCHIP, now it's the Stimulus.

What we're seeing from Republicans on immigration so far this Congress is kind of like Groundhog Day, Memento, and a Bush State of the Union Address all rolled into one. Call it cyclical delusion.

GOP strategists keep talking about how the Party needs to make nice with Hispanic voters, but Republicans just can't seem to resist reaching for that trusty "Scapegoat the Immigrants" playbook, and thinking that it will work this time. At this rate, Republican lawmakers are set to turn every single piece of legislation into a nasty debate about immigration.

Key Democrats are taking notice, and providing some advice for their friends across the aisle. According to Senator Harry Reid (D - NV), Republicans need to:

"Get off this illegal immigrant stuff."

Earlier this week, Republicans tried to block health care for kids ( on the grounds that legal immigrant children would qualify), and now they are trying to delay passage of the economic stimulus package because of immigration issues. Reid says the bill has nothing to do with anything illegal -- and that it creates jobs for people in this country lawfully.

If this scenario sounds hopelessly familiar, it's because we've been through it before.

Just last January, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner had to issue a joint statement debunking the myth that the 2008 stimulus bill would somehow get funneled to unauthorized immigrants. According to the release:

In fact, the bill includes language similar to the provisions included in the 2001 and 2003 tax relief bills to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving any benefits.

The anti-immigration wing of the GOP, with its single-minded, extreme immigration focus, may block progress on crucial issues in the short term, but it will come at the price of getting bulldozed by a new political reality.

According to Simon Rosenberg of NDN:

The right is using the same old playbook it has been using for decades, but the game has changed. If they continue applying their anachronistic 'Southern Strategy' brand of racial politics in the new much more tolerant age of Obama, they run the risk of being a minority party for decades to come.

The current Republican approach shows clear amnesia about the November 2008 elections, when the GOP got trounced, Latino voters turned in droves, and the anti-immigration wedge strategy failed so spectacularly. But even the current contest for RNC Chairman, with it's "Star Spanglish Banner" nonsense, is indicative of a larger intra-Republican battle for the future of the Party.

On the one hand, you have the GOP equivalent of Groundhog Day. A Party controlled by its hard-line fringe who rewrite election history to fit their anti-immigration worldview. This strategy without a memory prescribes an even harsher immigration platform as the key to Republican electoral success. Let's call this "The Shrinking Party Strategy."

On the other side waits the promise of a more inclusive Party that learns the lessons from 2008. A Party that reaches out to Latino voters and broader swaths of the electorate with a sensible immigration policy. A Party that finally throws that tired, old "Scapegoat the Immigrants" playbook into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Let's call this approach the "Survival Strategy."

---
Update: "Star-Spanglish" Saltsman Drops Out Of RNC Chairman Race.

Posted 01/29/09 at 04:33pm by Paco Fabian

Potential RNC Chairman Saltsman Thinks “The Star Spanglish Banner” is a Hit

Chip Saltsman, one of the leading contenders to fill the RNC Charimanship, brings us yet another anti-people-of-color gem. Yes, the same guy who brought you "Barack the Magic Negro" (remember how well that worked out?) is at it again, as Melissa Merz notes:

Possible RNC Chairman Chip Saltsman has gotten a lot of attention for including "Barack The Magic Negro" (which Simon wrote about here) on a CD he sent to RNC members as a Christmas gift. What has gotten a little less attention is an equally compelling song included on the CD, the "Star Spanglish Banner."

Watch the video (where did Chip's Youtube fan get this imagery?):

Turns out the potential RNC Chairman gets his kicks from making fun of people of color- and demonizing immigrants.

 

Posted 01/29/09 at 05:24am by Web Team

Immigration Extremists and the “Incredible Shrinking Party”

V-DARE LogoOn Tuesday we wondered aloud if the new GOP Hispanic Outreach Team had been locked in the closet during the Senate debate over kids health care. Unfortunately, it appears things were much worse than we ever imagined for the Team's brave members. More on that in a moment.

Today, representatives from V-DARE, a dubious website named after the first English baby born on American soil, will present their surprising take on "Immigration and Future of the Republican Party" at the National Press Club.

They will be accompanied by the anti-immigration political commentators Bay Buchanan (former senior Tom Tancredo advisor) and James Pinkerton. Immigration extremists Marcus Epstein and Peter Brimelow (author of the celebrated tome, Alien Nation) will also attend, mostly as eye candy.

But seriously, just take a closer look at these folks and the humor fades. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:

In 1999, Brimelow started the Center for American Unity, where he remains president today. The center's most important project was a Web page called VDARE, named after Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World in 1587.

Brimelow has written that he once planned to bestow Dare's name on "the heroine of a projected fictional concluding chapter in Alien Nation, about the flight of the last white family in Los Angeles." He was, he said, "dissuaded."

What about Pinkerton?

Pinkerton wrote that white Americans today "are lacking a proper sense of national-racial consciousness, the knowledge that one's own is best, the triumphant joy at feeling oneself to be part of humanity's finest."

In a February 2008 CNN interview, Buchanan defended those who lift up Barack Obama's middle name to question his heritage and challenge Obama to repudiate his middle name. Buchanan said that the question of whether Obama "has Muslim in his blood" is a real concern for a lot of Americans. 

Epstein? He writes, in "Tom Tancredo vs. Third World Miami, "Capital Of Latin America"

Most Americans don't mind a little ethnic food, some Asian math whizzes, or a few Mariachi dancers-as long as these trends do not overwhelm the dominant culture." 

Even the Cuban immigrants, still preponderantly white, law-abiding, Republican-voting, affable people are not desirable if they don't assimilate.

BREAKING:  Turns out the entire GOP Hispanic Outreach Team is being held for a ransom of $1 Thousand-er $1Million-US Dollars by the anti-immigrant fringe of the Republican Party, who are drawing straws right now with their friends over at the Center for Immigration Studies and FAIR to see who gets to have Lou Dobbs' anchor baby.

Simon Rosenberg, President and founder of the progressive think tank NDN, summed up the politics of the situation the GOP finds itself in succinctly:

"The right is using the same old playbook it has been using for decades, but the game has changed.  If they continue applying their anachronistic 'Southern Strategy' brand of racial politics in the new much more tolerant age of Obama, they run the risk of being a minority party for decades to come."

Maybe these folks should rename their event, "Welcome to the Incredible Shrinking Party."

Posted 01/27/09 at 10:31pm by Jackie Mahendra

Immigration Policy Center to Gillibrand: Here’s a Snapshot of Your State

Statue Of LibertyEveryone is talking about whether newly-minted Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will be able to reign in her controversional immigration stance.

Well, now the Immigration Policy Center is serving up a snapshot of the new Senator's Empire State. Here's the intro to it:

As Kirsten Gillibrand assumes her new responsibilities representing the people of New York State in the U.S. Senate, she will find her constituents are now a far more diverse group than the residents of the state's 20th congressional district near Albany, whom she previously represented in the House of Representatives. Not only is New York one of the most ethnically diverse states in the nation, but it is also an historic gateway for immigrants from virtually every part of the world.

Just what does Gillibrand's state look like? Here are just a few of the many highlights:

- Latinos and Asians account for nearly one in four residents of New York.

- Latino and Asians make up nearly 13% of all registered voters in New York.

- Nearly 18% of all registered voters in New York are New Americans

But perhaps most importantly right now:

New York’s immigrants are responsible for $229 billion in economic output in New York State, or 22.4% of the total New York State GDP.

With stats like that, it shouldn't be too hard for Gillibrand to switch her immigration brand.

 

Posted 01/27/09 at 07:10pm by Frank Sharry

GOP Hispanic Outreach Team Locked in Closet During SCHIP Debate?

SCHIP imageRemember that change of heart in Republican leadership following the 2008 elections, when Latino voters turned out in record numbers to vote for Democratic candidates? A number of notable Republican leaders and strategists had taken a stand and declared that the Party's handling of immigration had been deeply flawed and politically costly. 

Well, if the raging debate this week over kids health care is any indication, the GOP's new Hispanic Outreach Team must be locked in the closet, bound, and gagged.

Here's what key Republicans have been saying since the election:

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL)explained, on "Meet the Press:

[T]he very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans...there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric...we're going to be relegated to minority status.

The Florida Senator's words were echoed by many others, from strategist Karl Rove to Senator John Ensign (R-NV), former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who was quoted in The Hill saying:

"We have to reach out to Hispanics." 

Yet in the first test of the Republican Party's new Latino outreach strategy, GOP leaders are reaching... for their old incendiary talking points.

As reported by National Public Radio today,  Sen. Ensign and other Republicans are voicing strong opposition to provisions in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill that would allow legal immigrant children to access health care without a five year waiting period.  His colleagues, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), have already filed amendments to gut the provisions. 

It is deeply troubling that, at a time of great national need, politicians seem to be playing politics with kids' lives. Almost as distressing is how quickly the GOP forgot the lesson they'd supposedly just learned.

Will the GOP take a cue from the Boy Scouts of America and let their Hispanic Outreach Team out of the closet?

Not likely.

This Thursday, an event at the National Press Club will feature luminaries from the anti-immigrant right, making the case for a renewed Republican anti-immigration strategy. Entitled "Immigration and the 2008 Republican Defeat," the event will feature Bay Buchanan, Jim Pinkerton, Peter Brimelow, and Marcus Epstein, and will chart a roadmap to take the GOP even further into the political wilderness. 

 

Posted 01/26/09 at 06:25pm by Frank Sharry

Will Gillibrand Have Sense to Change Her Brand on Immigration?

GillibrandLast week I sent some advice to Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY): it's time to change course on immigration. She will now be representing New York State, after all, and she may want to get re-elected.

Let's back up.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Gillibrand supported extreme policy proposals aimed at driving immigrant workers and their families further underground. The plan, ironically called the "SAVE Act," offered no practical solutions to dealing with the presence of some 12 million immigrant workers without papers in the United States.  It was fully embraced by none other the Tom Tancredo, the Republican Congressman who formerly headed the extremist House Immigration Reform Committee, and Heath Shuler, the North Carolina Democrat who evidently is as adept on the Congressional playing field as he was as the Redskins quarterback.

Unsurprisingly, groups across New York State have been quick to disapprove of her appointment. According to the New York Immigration Coalition, Gillibrand need only check the numbers to shift away from her hard-line immigration stance:

Representative Gillibrand will move from representing the 20th Congressional District to representing, in its entirety, one of the most diverse states in the nation, where more than one in five residents is an immigrant.

According to Saturday's New York Daily News' piece called, "Gillibrand's Latino Problem":

Incoming Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's photo and the blaring headline "ANTI INMIGRANTE" grace the cover of today's El Diario - just one more example of the hurdles facing the upstate Democrat as she tries over the next 19 months to win over downstate voters in advance of the 2010 primary challenge she is almost certain to face.

It's not just the papers flouncing Gillibrand for her record. Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera also described Gillibrand's immigration stance as "borders on xenophobia."

Well, rumor is that Gillibrand is edging away from her previous stance. Hate groups like FAIR and their cheerleaders in the blogosphere are already up in arms over this comment by Rep. Meeks (D-NY):

"She told us that the only topic of immigration in his district had to do with agriculture. She now understands that the issue of immigration is much larger and wants to learn more about it."

And, to do that, she'll also be meeting with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

While learning more about an issue may be treason to the anti-solutions crowd, I'm not sending Gillibrand any Valentine's Day cards just yet.

Those of us who see the urgent need for immigration reform look forward to hearing what Gillibrand has learned from Representative Velazquez. We will be waiting to see if she does, indeed, switch her brand and lean into comprehensive solutions on this crucial issue to Latino and swing voters.

 

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