Wall Street Journal
By Beth Reinhard
June 4, 2015
Fifteen
Republican active or likely presidential contenders have been invited
to an event billed as the nation’s largest gathering of Latino policy
makers, but few are
expected to attend.
The
only candidate so far confirmed to attend the National Association of
Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference June 17-19: Democratic
front-runner Hillary
Clinton. More than 1,200 school board members, city and county
commissioners and state lawmakers are slated to participate in the
conference in Las Vegas; a NALEO spokeswoman said most of the GOP
candidates have cited scheduling conflicts.
NALEO
is nonpartisan but has struggled to draw Republican presidential
candidates, in part because it supports a policy opposed by the GOP’s
conservative base: a sweeping
overhaul of immigration law that would allow undocumented workers to
earn citizenship.
In
May, Mrs. Clinton criticized the GOP field for wanting to withhold citizenship from illegal immigrants, and she vowed to expand President
Obama’s executive orders protecting
many of them from deportation. The absence of most of the GOP field
from the conference will give her another opening to cast Republicans as
unfriendly to the rapidly growing Hispanic vote.
Most
of the GOP presidential candidates emphasize tightening border security
and have come out against citizenship or legal status for illegal
immigrants. Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker, for example, once supported a pathway to citizenship but
now says that would amount to rewarding lawbreakers with amnesty. He is
expected to launch his 2016 campaign next month. New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, another presumptive candidate who
also once backed a pathway to citizenship, called that policy “extreme”
and “pandering politics” last month.
“I
think candidates are being careful right now about making statements on
immigration in front of a Latino audience that they would have to
defend for the rest of the
election season,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO.
“Candidates run to the extremes of their party in the primary, and
that’s probably the dynamic happening now, but I hope all candidates
understand that we are not a one-issue constituency.”
Florida
Sen. Marco Rubio, who is already a presidential candidate, and former
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to become an official candidate
on June 15, have addressed
NALEO before, but they are not expected to attend this year’s meeting.
Only
one GOP candidate, Duncan Hunter, attended NALEO’s 2007 forum in
Florida. Mitt Romney addressed the group after he had cinched the 2012
nomination, though he was
criticized for failing to explain earlier remarks recommending
“self-deportation” for the millions of illegal immigrants living in the
U.S. He won only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote in that election.
The
potentially anemic turnout at the NALEO convention comes at a time when
the Republican field is one of the most diverse in history, including
two Cuban-Americans (Mr.
Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz), an African-American (Ben Carson) and a
woman (Carly Fiorina).
More
than a half dozen Republican contenders for the White House attended a
forum in January hosted by Iowa Rep. Steve King, who has taken a hard
line against illegal
immigration. “Any candidate that wants to put together a comprehensive,
national campaign to reach Latino voters should be coming to our
conference,” Mr. Vargas added.
The
group is still waiting to hear from three of Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic
rivals: former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders and former Gov. Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment