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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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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Look Out for Latino Astronauts

Sacramento Bee (Opinion by Ruben Navarrette): Who's afraid of a Mexican- American astronaut? When that astronaut is also a Democrat running for Congress, apparently, the answer is: a Republican-leaning law firm.

According to an article by Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers' Washington, D.C., bureau, the Sacramento-based law firm of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk has actually gone to the lengths of filing a lawsuit to prevent Jose Hernandez — a Democratic congressional candidate who, besides being an engineer and scientist, was also a crew member on the space shuttle Discovery in 2009 — from using the title "astronaut" to identify himself on the June primary ballot.

Really? How petty and childish can you get? The firm — which, Doyle reported, has strong ties to Republican candidates and the California GOP — seems determined to show us. Lawyers there have asked a judge in Sacramento County Superior Court to block Hernandez from using the job title on the ballot because, they claim, the descriptor is not a title that "one carries for life."

That's an interesting argument, but not a very strong one. I grew up in the Central Valley, where this story is unfolding and where agriculture is king. And many times, when I went to vote, I saw candidates on the ballot identifying themselves as a "farmer" — when it was public knowledge that the individual had been a farmer years earlier but wasn't anymore. Apparently, that's one of those special titles one does carry through life. As I recall, no one ever raised a fuss over something like that.

This fuss is really about partisan politics and the recognition that Hernandez's greatest strength is his amazing life story. Given that this astronaut — oops, I said it again — is Mexican-American, it's a story that inspires many. But given that Latinos represent more than 40 percent of the residents in the Central Valley, and an ever-increasing percentage of voters, it is also one that frightens others.

As the son of Mexican immigrants, Hernandez, born in French Camp, spent part of his youth picking fruits and vegetables alongside his parents in the fields of the Central Valley. In school, he took a liking to math and science, and did well enough eventually to earn a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of the Pacific and go on to graduate school. Later, he went to work for NASA and fulfilled his childhood dream of going into space.

Nothing special here.

Now, Hernandez — a vocal supporter of comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act, which would give undocumented students legal status if they went to college or joined the military — has resigned from NASA and wants to go to Congress. Should he win his primary, he'll run against Republican Rep. Jeff Denham in the newly drawn 10th Congressional District.

Republicans, feeling threatened, are going after Hernandez by way of one of his most valuable assets: his history as an astronaut.

This man worked hard for that title. He earned it against pretty steep odds. Do you suppose Republicans would object if this Latino candidate were identified on the ballot as a "farm worker" or a "gardener"? I don't think so.

I hope a judge throws this case out. I also hope the Republicans at that law firm come to their senses — or at least that other Republicans decide they want no part of a stunt like this.

At the national level, the GOP is facing a demographic tsunami. By 2040, Latinos will represent a quarter of the U.S. population. And, at the same time, the Republican Party is about as popular among this group of voters as death and taxes.

It's a contempt that is well-deserved. This group's action against Hernandez explains why.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a CNN.com contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist. Mr. Navarrette is a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union-Tribune, is a fresh and increasingly important voice in the national political debate. His twice-weekly column offers new thinking on many of the major issues of the day, especially on thorny questions involving ethnicity and national origin. His column is syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group. After graduating from Harvard in 1990, Navarrette returned to his native Fresno, Calif., where he began a free-lance writing career that produced more than 200 articles in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Fresno Bee, the Chicago Tribune and The Arizona Republic.

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