NewsTaco

By Melissa del Bosque, Texas Observer

In early May, Ruben Villarreal, Mayor of Rio Grande City, channeled the frustration of many residents in Starr and Hidalgo counties, where a proposed 14-mile border fence is slated to be built through the middle of his community. “I think it’s going to happen but they have us in limbo,” he said. “The federal government needs to give us the facts so we can be prepared. So if it is coming we can make a plan.”

A fence was first proposed in 2008. As the federal government served condemnations to Rio Grande Valley residents up and down the border, some residents in Rio Grande City, Los Ebanos and Roma were also taken to court but told the fence wouldn’t be built any time soon. U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar told the McAllen Monitor at the time that it was due to “engineering and hydraulic” problems. “Realistically and practically, they’re basically passing this decision to the next administration,” he said. “Certainly, for my constituents, we have a victory.”

The “engineering and hydraulic problems” the Congressman alluded to was the vexing problem of reality – and how to ignore it so that the Department of Homeland Security can sign off on the construction of an 18-foot fence in the middle of a floodplain. Building a fence that costs an estimated $4.5 million a mile in a floodplain sounds like a joke. It would be funny, too, if we weren’t paying for it, and if it wasn’t common practice for DHS to defy common sense and build fences in washes, floodplains and riverbeds just to fulfill its border fence quota with Congress.

As I noted back in 2011, at least 40 feet of steel border fence washed away during a flash flood in the Arizona desert. Arizona park officials warned the Department of Homeland Security that the fence would be washed away during the summer monsoon season. Despite their warnings, Border Patrol issued an environmental assessment saying that the fence “would not impede the natural flow of water or cause flooding.”

Scott Nicol, chair of the Sierra Club Borderlands Team, has been following the issue closely since he saw mention of the fence in a 2010 government report. “I had thought they’d given up,” he told me back in 2011. “But apparently they were really pushing to get it done.”

After filing several FOIA requests, Nicol received several documents showing plans to move businesses and homes in the path of the fence. In Rio Grande City, the government’s proposed route would go right through a nursing home. Mayor Villarreal says there are only two nursing homes in the rural border county so it will be extremely difficult to find another facility for the displaced residents.

In September 2012, a representative from DHS and another from the International Boundary and Water Commission held a community meeting but failed to tell residents anything of substance, said Villarreal. The meeting was barely advertised, but even so, he said, at least 80 people showed up from the various small border towns that will be affected.

But the government meeting only created more confusion and frustration. “I would describe the meeting as the most shoddy, unorganized and insensitive meeting of that type that has ever been organized in my 13 years as a public official,” he said. “They were not forthcoming with information. They talked about hydrology studies in jargon nobody could understand and wouldn’t talk directly to the people about their concerns.”

Villarreal said after five years, city leaders and residents need the federal government to advise them on what they have planned for the communities. The Observer asked for an interview with Congressman Henry Cuellar about plans for the proposed fence. The Congressman sent a written response that he had spoken with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within DHS, and they had “advised that due to the lack of funding in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, there will be no additional construction of a border fence at this time. CBP plans to execute the fencing project should funding become available at a later date.”

Congress has already proposed $1.5 billion for a “Southern Border Fencing Strategy” as part of its immigration reform bill, which is making its way through Congress. Conservatives have demanded more border fence as a contingency for any type of immigration reform. Villarreal is frustrated by how little Washington listens to people who actually live on the border. Increasing the number of Border Patrol agents would be much better than a fence in a floodplain, he said. “When we had a flood in 2010 my resources as a city were strained and Border Patrol helped us. People help solve problems in emergencies. An inanimate object like the fence just sits there.”

This article was first published in The Texas Observer.

Melissa del Bosque joined The Texas Observer staff in 2008. She specializes in reporting on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. Her work has been published in national and international publications including TIME magazine and the Mexico City-basedNexos magazine. She has a master’s in public health from Texas A&M University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

[Photo courtesy Texas Observer]

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

When I think of the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) bill that passed the House Intelligence Committee I think of the scene from the film “Enemy of the State” where Congressman Phillip Hammersley (played by the late Jason Robards) says:

“Telecommunications Security and Privacy Act. Invasion of privacy is more like it. – You read the Post? ‘This bill is not the first step towards the surveillance society. It is the surveillance society.’”

Where the “Telecommunications Security and Privacy Act” is a cinematic construct, CISPA is not. The CISPA bill, which will is expected to be argued in the next couple of days, allows for more collaboration between the Pentagon and private companies who manage tons of customer data. This means that if this bill is signed into law, the federal government can go to a private company like Google and ask them for information over recent cyberattacks that Google may have fended off. This information could help the government shore up its own security and be prepared for future attacks.

Of course, CISPA covers more than just this type of cybersecurity. The government can knock on a private company’s door if it is investigating and prosecuting cybersecurity crimes, protecting others from danger of death or bodily harm, if it is protecting minors from exploitation from child pornography or similar risks such as human trafficking or kidnapping or if there is a threat to national security. You can read the text of the CISPA bill here (PDF).

Yes, this is extremely broad.

Other Issues with CISPA
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also looks at the issue of whether or not personally identifiable information (PII) should be included as part of this cyberattack intelligence. Many securities experts say PII should not need to be transmitted but Congress members are trying to include it. The ACLU is also questioning the attempt to immunize private companies from sharing this data.

The Fight
Anonymous is calling for a one-day Internet blackout on Monday, April 22, 2013 to raise awareness of CISPA and to send a message to private companies that are supporting CISPA.

There is a STOP CISPA petition on Change.org which already has over 160,000 signatures.

Will you be joining the blackout on April 22?

This article was originally published in jesseluna.com.

[Photo by Aquila]

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By Melissa del Bosque, Texas Observer

The so-called “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, released their much-awaited comprehensive immigration reform bill late Tuesday. It’s thrilling to finally see a reform bill which looks like it has some momentum come out of Congress—until you see the first section devoted to border security, which is like a kick in the gut for border communities.

Get ready for more fences, more invasive surveillance and more “boots on the ground.”

The bill appropriates $1.5 billion for the “Southern Border Fencing Strategy” to identify where fencing, including double-layer fencing, infrastructure, and technology would be deployed along the Southern border.

Here we go again. For anyone who has closely followed the building of the border fence in Texas, this is an immediate red flag. Landowners like Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez have been fighting the condemnation of their land since 2008. Much of the unfenced land left along the southern border is in Texas and it is owned by private landowners.

The proposed fencing means another round of land condemnations and costly court battles for landowners and business owners. Since 2007—when the Department of Homeland Security first started land condemnations under the 2006 Secure Fence Act in Texas—the agency has never adequately explained the decision-making process that determines where the fencing is built. And border residents say DHS seldom confers with communities before they start building.

Even worse, the immigration status of millions will hinge on the building of these border fences by the National Guard, as well as adding more drone surveillance to the border. And then finally a determination by a hyper-partisan Congress on whether the border is secure.

The bill creates a new class of immigrant called the “Registered Provisional Immigrant.” The bill says “RPIs” can travel outside of the country for up to 180 days a year and they can work. But it is a provisional status, presumably with even less rights than a Legal Permanent Resident status. According to the bill, immigrants cannot begin the process of becoming Legal Permanent Residents, (aka securing a green card) until the Homeland Security secretary submits a notice to Congress and the president that the Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy is “substantially deployed and substantially operational,” and that the Secure Fence Strategy is implemented and “substantially completed.”

This could take years. Government officials have been trying to form a coherent border security strategy ever since 9/11 with little success. The past decade is littered with ideas and technologies that were once touted as the latest and greatest only to be later scrapped because they didn’t work and cost taxpayers too much. For instance, the virtual fence project was canceled in 2011 because of cost overruns and technical glitches. The radar sometimes mistook desert brush for border crossers when it was windy. And when it rained, the radar often didn’t work at all. The whole experiment cost taxpayers $1 billion.

Kathleen Campbell Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney with the law firm Cox Smith, says she was disappointed to see the fence provision in the bill. “A lot of communities—like El Paso where I live—have found the border fence to be a very offensive symbol,” says  “I’m sorry to see the building of a fence used as a prerequisite for immigration reform.”

Rio Grande Valley resident Scott Nicol, chair of the Sierra Club Borderlands Team, has been a steadfast opponent of building more fence, which he sees as environmentally destructive and an ultimately ineffective security tool. “If they’re talking about basing immigrant adjustment on the completion of the wall it’s going to take years because of the condemnations that will have to take place,” says Nicol. “The walls have already been built where it’s easy to condemn properties. They can destroy nature refuges without blinking because they’re on federal lands. But what’s left now is private property and most of it is in Texas.”

Even worse, he says, is that the walls are often ineffective. They clog with debris and flood communities or they fall over in flash floods. People can scale them with relative ease. “When the Gang of Eight was visiting Nogales they watched a woman climb the fence,” says Nicol.

For those already weary from fighting the U.S. government for their land for the past five years, the specter of another round of land condemnations is frightening. “My sense is that the government is plowing ahead on a security plan and the indigenous people in this community are still in the dark,” says Dr. Margo Tamez, daughter of Eloisa Tamez, who are of members of the Lipan Apache tribe.

As we spoke Tuesday, Margo said her mother was in federal court in Brownsville, still fighting to hold onto their property in El Calaboz, a tiny border community outside of Brownsville. The U.S. government is trying to take the land underneath the 18-foot border fence it already built in the middle of her property. They are offering the family $100. “We are subjected to decisions made from far away and not consulted about the things being done to our land,” says Margo, who now works as an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia.

The comprehensive immigration reform bill is a hefty 844 pages. Many border residents are anxious to examine it in greater depth and weigh its impacts on their communities. “I’m still digesting this,” says Campbell Walker of the bill. “It’s going to be controversial and it still has a long way to go before it’s signed by the president.”

This article was first published in The Texas Observer.

By Latinovations

While watching President Obama’s inauguration speech, Andrea Delgado felt a surge of optimism. Paradoxically, it was one of Obama’s more somber statements that gave her hope: his acknowledgement that a failure to address climate change would be “a betrayal to our children and future generations.”

The President’s message of urgency resonated with her. “Latinos get it,” says Ms. Delgado, a Legislative Representative for Earthjustice and former Fellow at the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change. “We feel the effects of dirty air and climate disruption, and know that action must be taken now to keep our communities safe and healthy, and to protect the next generation. “

After 2012 delivered record-breaking heat temperatures in 48 states; the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, and searing droughts and wildfires across the South and Southwest, it appears that Americans are ready to envision and work towards a safer, more sustainable, way of life. With the combination of increased political will in Congress and in the White House, the next four years are ripe to produce a change we can believe in.

Young advocates like Monica Cevallos, Virginia Fellow for Latinos for Obama, has high hopes this change will come.  Cevallos adds, “Latinos came out in droves to support the president in this last election, and we hope he will recognize that we support him taking action to protect the future of our communities.”

The burning of coal, oil and gas–the drivers of climate change–emits dangerous air pollution and environmental toxins, impacting low-income communities where power plants are usually sited. While working as a pediatrician in New Mexico, Dr. Yadira Caraveo witnesses the negative impacts of increased temperatures and bad air days on our children’s health. “I see the effects of dirty air on our children every day. When I drive down the hill into Albuquerque, I can see the blanket of smog; from that I can tell how many asthma attacks there are going to be that day.”

Andrea Delgado maintains that “addressing climate change will help protect the most vulnerable communities from toxic pollution and begin a shift to cleaner, reliable energy sources.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has several key opportunities to fight climate change in Obama’s first few months in office, the most significant being putting forward a limit on carbon pollution from existing power plants. Linda Escalante, a legislative associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council says this action “would be an unprecedented step forward in promoting cleaner energy and protecting public health”.

Through coalitions like Voces Verdes, Latino businesses and community leaders are have recognized the need to act on climate change and further, realize that the promise of clean energy and green jobs will fuel our economy.  In a recent poll by National Council de La Raza and the Sierra Club, 86% of Latino registered voters supported government investment in renewable energy such as solar and wind. Some groups, like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization LVEJO have developed inspiring models for how these innovations could holistically create jobs, increase green space, lower crime, and build community, a plan that Rafael Hurtado of LVEJO describes as, “promoting a green, self-sustaining city within Chicago.”

“The first 100 days of Obama’s second term could be decisive,” says Jorge Madrid, a Policy Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The president has the opportunity to lead a long-overdue conversation around climate change, and he can use his position as orator-in-chief to connect the dots between the environment, public health, and growing the economy.”

Latinos, for one, are counting on the President to lead.

This article was first published in Latinovations.

[Photo by Philippe 2009]

By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated PressAlbuquerque Journal

The House Press Gallery, an administrative office of Congress, counts 33 Hispanic representatives in the 113th Congress. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute puts the number at 31. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials tallies 28.

Click on picture to read story.

[Photo by The White House]

By Silvia Manzano, Latinovations

The 113th Congress includes a record number of thirty-eight Latinos elected officials. These notable numbers have both policy and political implications for the future of Latino politics in the United States.  First though, some demographic facts about the 113th.

Demographic Profile

The House Representatives includes thirty-five Latino members, another three are members of the United States Senate. All three Latino senators share two traits, they are all Cuban American men: Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. By contrast, only eight House members are Latinas. Democrats make up the majority of the Latino delegation, with twenty-seven in the House and one in the Senate. Republican Latinos number eight in the House and two in the Senate.

They hail from ten states and two territories, but California and Texas dominate the Latino congressional delegation (with thirteen and seven members from the respective states), which is not a surprise given the proportion of Latinos in those states as well as the large clusters of majority-minority regions with high concentrations of established Latino political talent.

Policy

In terms of policy representation, it is fair for the Latino electorate to expect co-ethnics in office to champion a specific policy agenda.  Most Latino elected officials represent large Latino constituencies; it is their job to support and advance voter preferences after all.

In the 2012 election over 70% of Latino voters supported Democratic House, Senate and Presidential candidates. Results from the impreMedia/Latino Decisions Election Eve Poll –the only study of the 2012 Latino electorate — demonstrate that Latino voters have a clear policy affinity with the Democratic party. The majority of Latinos side with Democrats on core, party-defining issues including: health care, where over 60% prefer to see Obamacare remain intact; deficit policy solutions, where 77% prefer an approach that includes higher taxes on the wealthy, andimmigration, where the President’s deferred action policy was met with strong enthusiasm from the Latino electorate and the Republican candidate’s self-deportation alternative was roundly rejected.

There remains a smaller but steadfast Republican and conservative policy-leaning share of the Latino electorate, just as there is a smaller GOP Latino delegation. Because Latino voter preferences are so clear, Latinos in Congress can confidently coalesce  around these issues to amplify their collective impact on legislation.

Politics

Latino members of Congress occupy an interesting political position in  this era of growing Latino political empowerment. Both parties have publicly articulated a desire and plan to strategically build their Latino share in the electorate as a means to their long-term viability. In this light, Latino members of Congress represent more than their specific districts on floor votes and constituent services. Rather, Latino members provide a bridge to an electorate that both parties are keen to improve.

For example, Senator Ted Cruz has taken on the role of communicating the value of Latino electorate to a clearly non-Latino targeted audience, going to far as to say the GOP’s future is doomed without increased Latino voter support. Most Latinos did not vote for Senator Cruz, but that is beside the point. His ethnicity affords him a certain credibility and standing to speak on outreach issues that is taken seriously in and outside of his party. Latino Democrats in the 113th are in more high-profile partisan roles than prior Congresses, which suggests the party understands the importance of developing Latino political talent within their ranks given the decisive impact Latino voters had in President Obama’s re-election. Both teams learned that taking Latino voters seriously is not just a novelty of the 2012 Obama win, it is the future of winning.

This article was first published in Latinovations.

Sylvia Manzano is a Senior Analyst at Latino Decisions, a research and consulting firm specializing in Latino politics and policy. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Arizona. Her research and analytical expertise focus on political demography, state politics, representation and immigration policy. She was a core designer and analyst on the 2012 impreMedia/Latino Decisions Latino National Election Eve Poll. She has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including NBC Latino, The New York Times, La Opinion, Fox News Latino, The Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio.

[Photo by Francisco Diez]

By Adranna Quintero, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Much was said this year about how Latinos would cast the deciding vote in this election. So last night I watched closely to see just how much we the Latino electorate, impacted the election. Early results show that Latinos did just that.

Latinos turned out in droves. We voted early and voted our conscience and our experience. Over the next weeks we will pore over these results, but what has been materializing over the past decade is now clear: our time has come.

An impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll released Tuesday estimated that Obama had won 75 percent of Latino voters nationwide, which is very close to the most recent exit polls that find Latino support at around 72 percent — higher than in 2008. In states like Colorado, Nevada and Florida, the results hinged on Latino turnout. Even in states not traditionally thought of as Latino strongholds like Ohio and Pennsylvania, exit polls were crediting Obama’s win thanks in part to Latino voters.

An estimated 24 million Hispanic-Americans were eligible to vote this election (an increase of more than 4 million since 2008), and 11-12 million were expected to actually go to the polls. Turnout was key for all of us working with Latino voters since for our community, this election carried high stakes. Our unemployment rate remains high, health care remains a priority with many Latinos — many of whom are uninsured, education is critical for our youth, our communities are still bearing the brunt of pollution and global warming, and there is of course…

READ MORE HERE

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices

Adrianna Quintero Somaini is a senior attorney and the founder/director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Latino Advocacy program, “La Onda Verde.”

[Phot by Ray_from_LA]

Sylvia Romo should be preparing for retirement, instead, she’s campaigning as the Democratic candidate for the 35th district of Texas. The long-time tax assessor-collector of Bexar County and former state house rep said that the opportunity to run for Congress in this newly created district came about just as she had decided not to seek re-election to her county post. But, she told us, there was something else that pushed her towards a congressional run.

“Sometimes, people don’t want to talk about the elephant in the room. In Texas, of course that means the population is increasing because of the growth of Latinos. We were supposed to get four new minority opportunity districts, [but] that went down to two. District 35 is one of them, and my opponent [Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett], the last time I looked, was not a minority,” she told us.

“That gives me ganas to win, because I feel that it is about time. I believe that we should have diversity and everything — whether it is business, or education, and definitely in government,” Romo continued.

Originally from San Antonio, Romo would be the first Latina elected to Congress from Texas. Despite her many years in politics, Romo says she was shocked to find out that she would be the first Latina Congresswoman from Texas.  “I hope to be a will to break that, so more women will come after me,” she said.

Chatting with her, you get the sense that she’s not only very dedicated, but very focused about everything she does. Nonetheless, she says she never intended to be in politics, but was encouraged to run for county Democratic party chair. Then, she was encouraged to run for state rep, and eventually became the first female tax assessor-collector of Bexar County.

Although she told us she was hoping to go back into the private sector after her current term expired, the creation of what should be a minority district in Texas called her to run. The way Romo tells it, she feels the need to provide the representation the state’s growing Latino population needs.

But Romo believes that she is simply the best candidate for the job for the people from Travis to Hays to Bexar counties. As an accountant, she understands the economics of the area, she lived in Austin, she has family in San Marcos, and feels that she is the best person to represent this new district. She also feels the race is “winnable” for her, since the 68% minority district now also includes part of San Antonio’s District 20, or retiring Congressman Charlie Gonzalez’s current district. These, she says, are her “stomping grounds.”

Romo told us that she believes this new district needs a new voice in Congress; she believes she has a new perspective and different skills that would do the district good. Her experience in the Texas house as a negotiator will enable her to get things done in D.C., specifically, economic development, she said. Creating jobs, bringing new technologies to the district, and generally encouraging economic development along the corridor is also part of her plan. Part of this, and Romo’s view, is rapid transit in the form of a train between Austin and San Antonio. Constituent services is also a big part of what Romo says she will do for the district. And because Romo has made her professional life as an accountant, she sees things in very economic terms.

“We have to rebuild the economy. If you have a strong economy, then you have jobs, if you have jobs you are able to circulate money, you are able to buy things, and you help businesses grow, you’re able to have money to send your kid to college,” She explained. “It’s a multiplier. The economy is the basis of everything.”

Romo is very self-assured, she says that if she had a year to prepare, she would have just as much money as longtime Congressman Doggett. What’s more, she says that because she’s a woman, she knows how to budget; and has a hard worker she says she is traveling up and down the I-35 corridor organizing a coalition of people across the district who support her candidacy. “They tell me Doggett is a relentless campaigner — but he’s met his match,” she told us.

Although Romo just filed for the seat in early December, she’s already played musical chairs with several opponents for the Democratic nomination. After Doggett’s district in Austin was spliced beyond recognition by the redistricting process, he set his sights on the 35th, meaning that congressional newcomer Romo will now face veteran Doggett in a district that has never had a congressional representative before. Crucial to Romo’s win will be convincing people from Central Texas that someone from San Antonio has their best interests at heart, but also mobilizing as many of the 1 million-plus Latinos that reside in the area.  The David and Goliath-like nature of this election is not lost on her, but Romo seems anything but phased.

“I’ve always had this passion for helping people and they still do. Yes, it’s difficult, and yes, you have to have a thick skin, and sometimes politics can be nasty. But I just brush myself off and keep going,” she said.

[Courtesy Photo]

San Antonio, Texas — Outgoing Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair and Texas Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is currently working on a graceful exit, given that he has chosen not to seek reelection, but he is still focused on the things that need to be done in his district, and the country. Gonzalez’s exit represents the first time someone from his family will not represent the 20th district of Texas since his father, Henry B. Gonzalez, first took office in 1961.

“Next year there won’t be a Gonzalez in Congress. It will be the first time since the 1950s that there won’t be a Gonzalez on the ballot,” he said. Looking back on his 14 years of service, Gonzalez had a lot to say on a recent Friday morning about his proudest moments, his regrets, and thoughts for the next person to fill his shoes, likely current state representative and Democratic candidate for the seat, Joaquín Castro.

He told us that he had been considering leaving the office for a while, but there were a few key reasons why he finally decided to retire this year. First, he told us that ensuring that the 20th the district remained as unaffected by the redistricting wars in Texas as possible was important to him for personal reasons, but also because it is the only district entirely based in San Antonio. The fact that he had earned seniority in Congress also pushed him to stay on longer, but at 66, he told us he feels he has another career in him, and would like to pursue life in the private sector.

When it comes to his father’s legacy as compared to his own, Gonzalez told us that he has had plenty of time to think about the differences, and ultimately thinks that —  on the big issues — both Congressmen Gonzalezes were very similar. “My father was very effective for San Antonio and, hopefully, people will view my tenure as being productive for the City of San Antonio,” he told us.  The younger Gonzalez called his father and iconoclast, an individual who love to be in individual, who worked closely with the Democratic leadership. For his part, the current Congressman Gonzalez sees himself as somewhat more bipartisan, but feels that he continued his father’s legacy of strong  constituent services.

Congressman Gonzalez is one of the seven Latino co-chairs of President Obama’s re-election campaign, and as one of the first Latino politicians to come out supporting Obama over then–candidate Hillary Clinton, he says Obama needs a second term. He said the president is the type of man who believes that you can win an argument with facts and figures, and that logical people will outlast politics. “I think the American people should reelect him. Then the Republican Party will see that there are diminishing returns at that point, they cannot appear to be as unreasonable as they are right now since they have to prepare to take back the White House,” he said.

“He needs another term because I think that the opposition will finally accept him as President of the United States. What they have done to frustrate him is beyond anything that has ever been done to any other president,” he told us. “Never in the history the United States has the filibuster been employed to the degree that you have it employed today in the Senate.”

Work that stands out most in his mind during his 14-year tenure is varied, and includes everything from voter ID and suppression, to constituent services, to his “no” vote for the Iraq war, as well as health, education and energy. He was very proud of his work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to make sure more Latinos and minorities were considered for judicial and other appointments during both the Bush and Obama administrations, “It’s so important that all aspects of government look like our country,” he told us. When it came to other specific votes, the aforementioned “no” vote for the Iraq War was powerful, he noted that the problems with Iran are a direct consequence of that war. The Affordable Care Act, work in energy efficiency and  conservation, as well as creating more opportunities for educational student loans were other high points the congressman mentioned.

And when it comes to things that remain to be done, the congressman was especially concerned about education in the Latino community. “We’re just not graduating the young people to the degree that we need to, not preparing them to be relevant in a modern workforce,” he said. “That really does worry me.” Immigration at the national level, in the economic interest of the country, is also something that remains to be done, he said.

For the next congressman of the 20th district, Gonzalez has endorsed Castro, he said it would be important to try to restore the district to its former boundaries. But more importantly, working with local businesses and governments to create a fecund business environment, as well as working towards better education towards the same end, would be of the utmost importance. “On the education front we are truly lagging,” he said. “There is no real future of the 20th congressional district, or the city of San Antonio, if we don’t [address this].”

Next up, Gonzalez said he would like to work either as an attorney, or  dealing with energy, health, or telecommunications issues.

[Photo By Charlie Gonzalez Campaign]

San Antonio, Texas — Ciro Rodriguez spent time during the 1990s and early 2000s serving the people of South Texas in Congress as a Democrat, and most recently lost his seat in 2010 to Republican Francisco “Quico” Canseco (who declined an interview with NewsTaco). Now, Rodriguez is hoping to first beat fellow Democratic candidate for the 23rd district Pete Gallego, and then take on Canseco in November. Although the whispers among the political caste in Texas favor Gallego, Rodriguez is coming at this primary election with everything he’s got.

A recent chat with the seasoned congressional candidate started off with his insistence that the current political districts, including his own, are not beneficial to Latinos in Texas. “We have a very discriminatory map as far as I’m concerned that was done deliberately and maliciously to discriminate and basically cut us out,” he told NewsTaco.  A side effect of the confusion and complicated political districting is that Latino voters may be frustrated when their polling places move, or confused about their district.

Rodriguez says up front that he has already represented 22 of the 29 counties in the district that stretches from far West Texas to South Texas. He told us that, much like his first foray into politics as a school board member, this time around at 65 years old, he is running because he wants to make a difference.

“Now, more than ever, there are two visions for this country. One with access to health care, Medicare, Medicaid, with pensions and Social Security, and one without,” he said at his South San Antonio campaign headquarters.

Rodriguez spoke of his districts with the kind of familiarity and ease that borders on the familial.  when asked what were the most important issues for this district, he had trouble settling on one, but did mention the economy, energy (everything from oil and gas to solar and wind), as well as tourism and trade. He spoke of national parks in the district, the effect of healthcare and prescription costs on  constituents of the district, infrastructure investments, education, and defense and military interests there.

In this case, Rodriguez points to his seniority in Congress as a pivotal reason he should be reelected; that way he can hit the ground running. He wants to characterize himself as a fighter, a someone’s got to stand up against the anti-healthcare, antisocial security crowd, but more importantly, as the only one who can.

“Making changes requires rancorous types of engagement. This is the time to stand up, this is the time for people to come to the plate,” he told NewsTaco. “If you look at the candidates that are out there, I have the best experience.”

[Courtesy Photo]

San Diego, California — Migrant farmworker-turned-astronaut José Hernández is running for Congress as a Democrat in the 10th district of California on a very simple platform: “Jobs, jobs, jobs and education,” he told NewsTaco recently at the California Democratic convention here. The agriculture-fueled district is east of Silicon Valley and Hernández is adamant that he will be able to take his personal and educational experiences combine them with his professional work as an engineer and astronaut to bring development and jobs to this part of California.

Hernández told NewsTaco that, upon leaving NASA, he began visiting to the schools he attended as a child in the district. It was during these visits meeting children and their parents that he says he began to consider congress. “What I saw scared me: I saw that parents were losing faith in the fact that their kids will be able to reach that American Dream,” he told us. “If the parents lose faith, they are not there to motivate their kids, then our community is doomed — and that’s what motivated me.”

As far as running in this particular district, Hernández says “we’ve got our work cut out for us.” The district is slightly more Democratic than Republican, but has a large independent voter base that tends to lean conservative, he said. While 40% of the district is Latino, only 25% of Latinos are of voting age there. Thus, his strategy in the district that includes the city of Modesto and Stanislaus County, is to mobilize voters, work at the grassroots level to register more Democrats and continue to work with the community.

Just last year Hernández left NASA, was working as an executive at an aerospace firm, and admitted to being “comfortable.” So why did he leave his career to pursue politics?

In a sense he told us this congressional bid is the next step in what he feels is his “calling” as someone who was able to work his way from being the child of migrant farmworkers to being selected as a NASA astronaut. It’s feasible to create high tech jobs in the district working with state and local governments, instead of sending them overseas, thus addressing both the jobs and education component, he said.

When it comes to education, Hernández supports the DREAM Act for what he characterizes as very economically sensible reasons. College graduates are likely to earn more than $1 million in salary over their lifetimes; not only does this create an educated workforce, but taxable income that more than compensates for any financial aid students may receive, he said. Plus, helping those who want to help themselves makes sense generally, he added.

But perhaps one of the biggest motivators for Hernández is the fact that he feels Congress should be a place for normal people, that it shouldn’t be a “millionaires’ club.” For example, as a father of five, Hernández can tell you the mental calculus involved in figuring out how to make the co-pay on three sets of braces at $4,000 a pop; he sees himself as someone from this district who made it and wants to work for others like him.

“We need to get citizens out there to go and represent us in Congress — folks that know what the cost of a gallon of milk is,” he told NewsTaco.

We asked Hernández what it felt like to be one of several young Latino candidates with quintessentially American success stories currently running for office (Dr. Raúl Ruiz and Joaquín Castro for example), and he said it was exciting to be on the cusp of change that would make Congress more representative of America.

“It’s the beginning of change and we’re very happy, very blessed to be the catalysts of that change,” he said. “You do a cross-section of Congress and you say, ‘Does that represent America?’ Now, I’d have to argue it’s ‘No.’ If you do that after we start getting into office, then we start getting closer to that goal.”

Check out these videos of Herández talking about his family:

[Video By NewsTaco and NewsTaco; Photo By NASA]

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu resigned his post as co-chair of the Mitt Romney campaign in Arizona after Phoenix New Times reported that he threatened a former lover with deportation if the man (“Jose”) ever told anyone of their relationship.

Babeu has denied this particular allegation, but told reporters at a press conference over the weekend that he was relieved his sexual orientation was out in the open, and was set to continue his run as a Republican candidate for Arizona’s 4th congressional district.

According to the New Times’ original report, Babeu tried to force his former lover — a Mexican national from Central Mexico — to sign an agreement not to tell anyone about their relationship. When he refused, Babeu:

threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship…The 34-year-old from central Mexico charges that the sheriff’s lawyer warned against mentioning the affair with Babeu. DeRose (the lawyer) said gossip about Babeu would focus attention on Jose, attention that could result in his deportation, Jose says.

Jose told the publication the pair met at a website, gay.com, and that he began to update Babeu’s Twitter, Facebook and campaign websites. As their relationship soured, Jose got a lawyer and eventually went to the press.

There are several hypocrisies in this story, but the most obvious is that Babeu was threatening Jose with deportation only if his personal issues weren’t resolved. All the while, he was appearing in national media and politics as another tough on immigration local law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, Pinal County Board of Supervisors Chairman Pete Rios called for Babeu to resign immediately.

Read the original story here, what do you think?

[Photo By pinalcountyaz.gov]

Economic development, border security, education, healthcare, and protecting America’s history as a diverse and immigrant friendly nation are all part of U.S. Congressmen Silvestre Reyes’ re-election platform this year. We spoke to Congressman Reyes recently, and he explained a little bit about the work that he has completed thus far, as well as his plans for the future. Most passionate when discussing border security and how it ties into investments in his district, he discussed the harmful ways in which the GOP debate around these issues is affecting not only constituents in his district, but Latinos across the country.

“It’s very frustrating to hear our own governor (Rick Perry) talk about the border communities being ‘war zones.’ It’s totally ludicrous and not even in touch with reality. The whole rhetoric is very anti-minority, very anti-immigrant, and keeps fostering this false impression of our border communities,” he said, noting that El Paso has been the safest city in the country for its size for several years in a row. “It’s a huge disservice to border communities in general, and specifically to places like El Paso because we are trying to work on economic development and attract new investors. They get a totally bogus view fostered by Governor Perry and people running for president who misrepresent what our border communities are like.”

When it comes to border security, Reyes has a unique perspective because of his role as a former border patrolman and as the Border Patrol’s first Latino Sector Chief, he is the only person in Congress with a background in border security. He notes that, while security has been increased between ports of entry, the actual ports where people, as well as goods, enter in great numbers every day, are understaffed. He noted that he has introduced legislation to invest in port infrastructure and hiring along both the southern and northern borders, but that getting it passed has been difficult due to Republican pushback when it comes to finding budgetary offsets.

Reyes alluded to Alabama’s recent anti-immigrant law, and the great economic toll that law has taken on the state, as well as places like Georgia and Arizona, as reasons he wants to keep working in Congress. He said that while visiting Alabama, he remembered again that, without immigrants in this country, entire industries — such as agriculture — shut down.

“We have to tell that story so that Americans in 2012 can evaluate: do we want to be aggressive and anti-diversity, anti-minority, on the one hand, or do we want to keep faith with our Constitution and our legacy that we’re a nation of immigrants?” he said.

Because El Paso is a military city, Reyes highlighted the work he had done to help bring more military investment to the area since he first took office in 1997. To that end, as well as to serve the needs of the residents of his district, Reyes has been working to create a medical center that incorporates civilian and military resources — such as a veteran’s hospital, medical school, research facilities and children’s hospital — in the city.

The congressman has also found a way to combine his work the intelligence committee with the great need for education opportunities in his district. By helping usher in two federal Centers of Excellence at the University of Texas at El Paso, one for intelligence and another for border security and immigration, Reyes told us that students at the institution now have many more opportunities. Everything from funding, resources, jobs, travel, security clearance, and access to government employment is now within reach for students at these institutions, with the secondary benefit of helping the country’s intelligence community become more diverse. Reyes proudly told us that, in 10 years on the intelligence committee, that diversity within the 16 agencies went from 4% to 30%.

All told, looking forward to 2012, Reyes noted that he believes the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino rhetoric is beginning to wear on the consciousness of voters. to that and, he hopes to continue to do good work for his district, and work on the issues that are important to them.

[Photo By U.S. Congress]

Dr. Raul Ruiz says that he is an emergency room physician first, and his foray into politics as  the Democratic candidate for the 36th Congressional District is but another way he can serve his patients. Ruiz’s allegorical American Dream story — the son of farmworkers who became the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard and then an emergency room physician in his hometown — is paired with changes in redistricting that make it a possibility that the hometown hero could oust Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono-Mack, who will be seeking her eighth term.

The district changed in the most recent round of redistricting, is now 47% Latino, and runs from Hemet to Blythe, including Palm Springs and Ruiz’s Coachella Valley home. Before redistricting Republicans had a 6% registration advantage over Democrats, he told NewsTaco; now it’s just 1.7%. And while only 27% of registered voters in the district are Latino, there are 40,000 eligible Latinos and a large bloc of independent voters that Ruiz’s campaign is eyeing. That’s not even to mention that President Barack Obama won the district in 2008 by 3%, before the current more Democrat-friendly redistricting.

When Ruiz was considering a run, he took into account not only this Latino voting bloc, but also the LGBT-friendly community of Palm Springs, and the professional community he has inhabited since he returned from Harvard with an M.D., Master’s in Public Health and Master’s in Public Policy. He may be the first Latino congressional candidate in the district, but whether it’s the migrant community or the affluent class of the district, Ruiz told NewsTaco that his dream is to help the people from his home live in a better world.

“I am not a career politician, I love medicine. Congress will give me the toolbox to problem solve and create solutions within the district,” he told us, likening his work as a physician to helping on a micro scale, while from Congress he could work on a macro scale.

Ruiz says his platform “consists of the pillars of the American Dream,” more specifically that means economic development/jobs, education and healthcare. All three are interrelated, he told us, and particularly salient in a district that — at once — has a 50-60% high school dropout rate and where half of the population is 55 and older. Ruiz notes by way of what he would do differently if elected, that Bono-Mack’s vote for the Paul Ryan budget that would’ve eliminated Medicare came at a time when a local study found that 3,000 seniors went without food to pay for medicine.

Ultimately, Ruiz told us he wants to make the biggest difference possible for his community. As a Latino who understands the value of healthcare and education, who values the LGBT community and strives for excellence, he’s hoping to take the American Dream to the next level.

“My American Dream is not only to achieve for myself, but for the entire community,” he told us. ”In that sense, Latino politics are mainstream politics”