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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Romney's Embrace of Anti-Immigrant Activist Killing Hopes of Winning Latino Vote

New York Daily News (Opinion by Albor Ruiz): One would think that an aspiring presidential candidate would realize that making a campaign appearance on Martin Luther King Day alongside someone said to have ties to a hate group is not a great idea.

Yet, showing an appalling lack of sensibility and common sense, that's exactly what Mitt Romney did Monday: He campaigned in South Carolina with his new sidekick, rabid anti-immigrant activist Kris Kobach, effectively killing any hopes he may have entertained of winning Latino voters in the general election.

"I look forward... to working with Kobach on stopping illegal immigration," an enthusiastic Romney said.

Kobach, the current Kansas Secretary of State, is the author of draconian immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina aimed at driving undocumented workers and families out of the country. The fact that he once wrote a book opposing the anti-Apartheid boycott of South Africa speaks volumes about the man that Romney has so eagerly embraced.

Before his stint as secretary of state, Kobach worked for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal branch of Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a "nativist hate group."

"Mr. Romney and his consultants forget one of the cardinal rules of campaigning: If you are in a hole, stop digging," said SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina. "And right now, Romney is in a deep hole with Latinos and unless he changes course, he is destined to join Tom Tancredo, Meg Whitman, Sharon Angle, Carly Fiorina and John McCain in the political elephants graveyard."

An uplifting thought, no doubt.

Obviously gratitude is not one of Romney's virtues. He seems to have forgotten that Mexico gave refuge to his ancestors in 1885 when they faced persecution for the Mormon practice of polygamy -- that was later abandoned.

Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled from Utah to Mexico. His grandfather and his father, George Romney, were born in Mexico. Yet, a President Romney would declare open war on immigrants, most of whom come from Mexico.

Not that he cares, but Mitt Romney, or Mexican Mitt, as he has been popularly baptized after his Mexican roots were revealed, has a long list of relatives -- more than 40 -- south of the border. His family's Mexicab history has become so well known that it was even brought up during Monday's GOP presidential debate.

Although they have never met, Romney's Mexican cousins -- most of whom have dual citizenship -- say they support him but not his harsh views on immigration.

Kelly Romney, a second cousin, was asked by CNN what country he would root for in a soccer match between the U.S. and Mexico. "Mexico!" he answered without hesitation. "We have a loyalty to this country. We were born here."

But Mexican Mitt, the son of a Mexican father, has never set foot in Colonia Juárez or Colonia Dublán, 175 miles south of the border where many of his family members live in prosperous Mormon enclaves.

Nevertheless cousin Kelly has a message the GOP frontrunner should pay attention to: "The Hispanic vote is becoming powerful in the U.S., and I don't think Mitt understands the causes of illegal immigration."

Either that or he just doesn't care. Either way, if he becomes the Republican candidate, Mexican Mitt, who would declare open war on immigrants, will never get the 40% of Hispanic votes he needs to get elected.

We have said before: No "El President Mitt" any time soon.

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