Hispanically Speaking News by Hector Luis Alamo, Jr.: Two weeks ago, in a deft display of political maneuvering, Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio urged his party to tone down its anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In front of a gathering for the Washington Ideas Forum, the 40-year-old Cuban-American senator underscored the need for the GOP to win back Latino and pro-immigrant voters: "The Republican Party should not be labeled as the anti-illegal immigration party. Republicans need to be the pro-legal immigration party."
Coming from Sen. Rubio, it's a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black, since Rubio has been a prominent hardliner on immigration reform. Admittedly, his place at the forefront of the issue has more to do with his ethnicity rather than the uniqueness of his political views. In the GOP's struggle to combat immigration reformers, they've catapulted Sen. Rubio's career because he's a Latino senator who's willing to throw his community under the bus for political gains.
This may seem like harsh criticism, but the junior senator's political career speaks for itself. As a state representative, Rubio twice co-sponsored a bill providing in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants. When he became speaker of the Florida House, he upheld the sole authority of the federal government to regulate immigration.
Yet, as POLITICO's Scott Wong pointed out in May, it was only after Rubio received support from the Tea Party during his senatorial campaign did he begin to shift his views on immigration to the right. Since then, he's voiced his support for Arizona's controversial immigration law -- which, coincidentally, challenges the jurisdiction of the federal government in immigration matters -- and has voted against the DREAM Act, a bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who receive a high school diploma and either attend college or serve in the armed forces.
Predictably, Sen. Rubio's first year in the Senate has not made him popular among Latinos and pro-immigrant advocates who believed they would be gaining an ally on Capitol Hill.
"To be against comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship and against the DREAM Act defines you in the Latino immigrant community as a hard-liner and an enemy of the community," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America's Voice.
The view of Sen. Rubio as an outsider within his own community -- or, as I've described him, "one of us supporting none of us" -- is widely held within the Latino community, especially among its growing progressive majority. For many, Sen. Rubio's conservative stance illustrates how being Latino is both an ethnic background and a collective outlook; that it's not enough to be from Latin America, physically or culturally, but that a Latino also empathizes with his fellow brothers and sisters and supports their common struggle for empowerment.
As Jorge Mursuli, executive director of the Latino civic engagement group Democracia, explained it:
"There's a Benedict Arnold feeling. Having known him, his political career and knowing where he comes from -- a hardworking immigrant family -- one has to wonder what it is that he's thinking or how his political ambitions outweigh his life experiences. ... It's not only disappointing; it's disheartening and, frankly, almost unbelievable."
Some are praising Sen. Rubio's calls to improve the rhetoric surrounding immigration reform, but they're also reminding the young senator that a change in words must be followed by a change in actions. "It's good Rubio is stepping out, but it has to be followed by action," says Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center. "His actions in the Senate haven't matched this new rhetoric."
However, given the rapidly growing aversion to Sen. Rubio and his now iconic brand of Latino conservatism, the senator's current attempts to shift back even toward the center may be too little, too late. Senator Rubio -- like presidential hopeful Mitt Romney -- seems to believe voters have the memory of a goldfish. Only time will tell if the voters are willing, or able, to forget Sen. Rubio's recent hardline stance on immigration.
In fact, it'll be difficult for the Republican Party to redeem itself in the eyes of progressive Latinos and immigration supporters. In a bid to energize its base and capture some of the fiery zeal burning on the far right, the GOP may have inadvertently resigned an entire generation of Latinos to the Democrats. And seeing as Latinos will prove to be increasingly influential in the coming decades, it's no wonder Republicans are already feeling the pressure to woo some of them back.
Whether the party can regain Latino support will depend on how much the Latino community cares about immigration policy. A recent poll conducted by the National Council of La Raza showed that immigration is still the most important political issue among Latinos, with jobs and the economy, education, and health care trailing far behind.
The results seem to support a long and commonly held understanding that, while the Latino community is far from monolithic, a hardline stance on immigration is still viewed as beyond the pale by most Latinos. If the GOP plans to prop up hardline individuals like Sen. Rubio and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez as the party's Latino poster child, Republicans should realize that such individuals don't even represent a significant subset of the Latino community; in the eyes of the Latino people, they represent a distressing anomaly.
As for Sen. Rubio, I'm not going to expend one word, one letter, convincing him to do what's right for the Latino community. As a Latino and an elected official, he must do what he feels is right for his people, his constituency, and the nation. And if Latinos don't agree with his views and actions in Congress, they must do what they feel is right -- namely, place their confidence in someone else.
(In 2007, Hector Luis Alamo, Jr., co-founded an online blog, YoungObservers.blogspot.com, and has contributed regularly to the site since then. From December 2010 to May 2011, Hector was Opinions Editor for UIC's Chicago Flame. In April 2011, he became a regular contributor for Hispanically Speaking News. Hector has a B.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where his departmental concentration was on ethnic relations in the United States.)
In front of a gathering for the Washington Ideas Forum, the 40-year-old Cuban-American senator underscored the need for the GOP to win back Latino and pro-immigrant voters: "The Republican Party should not be labeled as the anti-illegal immigration party. Republicans need to be the pro-legal immigration party."
Coming from Sen. Rubio, it's a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black, since Rubio has been a prominent hardliner on immigration reform. Admittedly, his place at the forefront of the issue has more to do with his ethnicity rather than the uniqueness of his political views. In the GOP's struggle to combat immigration reformers, they've catapulted Sen. Rubio's career because he's a Latino senator who's willing to throw his community under the bus for political gains.
This may seem like harsh criticism, but the junior senator's political career speaks for itself. As a state representative, Rubio twice co-sponsored a bill providing in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants. When he became speaker of the Florida House, he upheld the sole authority of the federal government to regulate immigration.
Yet, as POLITICO's Scott Wong pointed out in May, it was only after Rubio received support from the Tea Party during his senatorial campaign did he begin to shift his views on immigration to the right. Since then, he's voiced his support for Arizona's controversial immigration law -- which, coincidentally, challenges the jurisdiction of the federal government in immigration matters -- and has voted against the DREAM Act, a bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who receive a high school diploma and either attend college or serve in the armed forces.
Predictably, Sen. Rubio's first year in the Senate has not made him popular among Latinos and pro-immigrant advocates who believed they would be gaining an ally on Capitol Hill.
"To be against comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship and against the DREAM Act defines you in the Latino immigrant community as a hard-liner and an enemy of the community," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America's Voice.
The view of Sen. Rubio as an outsider within his own community -- or, as I've described him, "one of us supporting none of us" -- is widely held within the Latino community, especially among its growing progressive majority. For many, Sen. Rubio's conservative stance illustrates how being Latino is both an ethnic background and a collective outlook; that it's not enough to be from Latin America, physically or culturally, but that a Latino also empathizes with his fellow brothers and sisters and supports their common struggle for empowerment.
As Jorge Mursuli, executive director of the Latino civic engagement group Democracia, explained it:
"There's a Benedict Arnold feeling. Having known him, his political career and knowing where he comes from -- a hardworking immigrant family -- one has to wonder what it is that he's thinking or how his political ambitions outweigh his life experiences. ... It's not only disappointing; it's disheartening and, frankly, almost unbelievable."
Some are praising Sen. Rubio's calls to improve the rhetoric surrounding immigration reform, but they're also reminding the young senator that a change in words must be followed by a change in actions. "It's good Rubio is stepping out, but it has to be followed by action," says Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center. "His actions in the Senate haven't matched this new rhetoric."
However, given the rapidly growing aversion to Sen. Rubio and his now iconic brand of Latino conservatism, the senator's current attempts to shift back even toward the center may be too little, too late. Senator Rubio -- like presidential hopeful Mitt Romney -- seems to believe voters have the memory of a goldfish. Only time will tell if the voters are willing, or able, to forget Sen. Rubio's recent hardline stance on immigration.
In fact, it'll be difficult for the Republican Party to redeem itself in the eyes of progressive Latinos and immigration supporters. In a bid to energize its base and capture some of the fiery zeal burning on the far right, the GOP may have inadvertently resigned an entire generation of Latinos to the Democrats. And seeing as Latinos will prove to be increasingly influential in the coming decades, it's no wonder Republicans are already feeling the pressure to woo some of them back.
Whether the party can regain Latino support will depend on how much the Latino community cares about immigration policy. A recent poll conducted by the National Council of La Raza showed that immigration is still the most important political issue among Latinos, with jobs and the economy, education, and health care trailing far behind.
The results seem to support a long and commonly held understanding that, while the Latino community is far from monolithic, a hardline stance on immigration is still viewed as beyond the pale by most Latinos. If the GOP plans to prop up hardline individuals like Sen. Rubio and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez as the party's Latino poster child, Republicans should realize that such individuals don't even represent a significant subset of the Latino community; in the eyes of the Latino people, they represent a distressing anomaly.
As for Sen. Rubio, I'm not going to expend one word, one letter, convincing him to do what's right for the Latino community. As a Latino and an elected official, he must do what he feels is right for his people, his constituency, and the nation. And if Latinos don't agree with his views and actions in Congress, they must do what they feel is right -- namely, place their confidence in someone else.
(In 2007, Hector Luis Alamo, Jr., co-founded an online blog, YoungObservers.blogspot.com, and has contributed regularly to the site since then. From December 2010 to May 2011, Hector was Opinions Editor for UIC's Chicago Flame. In April 2011, he became a regular contributor for Hispanically Speaking News. Hector has a B.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where his departmental concentration was on ethnic relations in the United States.)
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