NewsTaco

By David Jackson, USA Today

President Obama takes his renewed immigration push to the airwaves Wednesday, speaking with two Spanish language television networks.

Obama will be interviewed by anchors Jose Diaz Balart of Telemundo and Maria Elena Salinas of Univision amid signs of major political movement on immigration.

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[Photo by The White House]

By Andrew Cohen, Latino USA

President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor is Dominican-American Thomas Perez, one of only two Latino cabinet nominees. Maria Hinojosa talks to legal analyst Andrew Cohen Perez and his track record at the Department of Justice, where he is currently Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

This article was first published in Latino USA.

Andrew Cohen is a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. He is also a legal analyst for 60 Minutes, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, and a chief analyst and legal editor for CBS Radio News. He has won a Murrow Award as one of the nation’s leading legal analysts and commentators. He is the winner of the American Bar Association’s 2012 Silver Gavel Award for his Atlantic commentary about the death penalty in America.

[Photo courtesy Latino USA]

By Meghashyam Mali, The Hill

President Obama will host a naturalization ceremony on Monday for 28 new citizens, including 13 service members, at the White House.

The move comes as the president continues to press lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform, one of his second-term priorities.

Obama will be joined by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas in the East Room. The president will deliver remarks at the ceremony, the White House announced.

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[Photo by Grand Canyon NPS]

By Matt Barreto, Latino Decisions

Recently there have been a series of high profile endorsements for comprehensive immigration reform from the Republican Party. Immediately after the November 2012 election Bobby Jindal made a plea for more civility and and less stupidity on the immigration issue. Before too long, it was the Gang of 8 in the U.S. Senate which included four prominent Republican Senators who introduced their framework for an immigration bill.  Then the RNC released a lengthy report calling for stronger outreach to Latinos, starting by passing an immigration reform bill. And now Tea Party favorite, Senator Rand Paul, has changed his own position and is now in favor of comprehensive immigration reform.  Can Republicans really draw more Latino support if they back a path to citizenship? The answer is unequivocally ‘Yes’. Or if they fail to support immigration reform with a path to citizenship, they could do even worse than Mitt Romney’s all-time low among Latino voters in 2012.

Even President Obama acknowledged that the Republican Party can make gains with Latino voters if they support this issue.  Republican Scott Rigell from Virginia told the AP: ”He said that actually implementing immigration reform would actually benefit Republicans more than it would Democrats.”  Looking at the data, Mr. Obama is right.  In a recent poll of Latino registered voters on the topic of immigration reform, we asked a couple of different versions of the question “will Republican support for immigration reform make you more likely to vote Republican.”  In the past weeks we have released the full set of results, and here we focus just on the possible gains (or losses) Republicans can make, by reporting results just among Latinos who said they had voted for Obama in 2012, or just among Latino Republicans.

In a hypothetical election match-up with a Republican candidate who supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, against a Democrat who opposes citizenship and calls it ‘amnesty’ we find that 61% of Obama voters would actually choose the pro-immigration Republican.

When asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for a Republican candidate in the future if the Republicans take a leadership role in passing comprehensive immigration reform including a pathway to citizenship, we find that 43% of Obama voters say more likely to vote Republican.

When we explain the current bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate with four Republicans working alongside four Democrats, and ask if the Republican commitment to the bipartisan plan makes them more or less likely to vote Republican, we find 26% of Obama voters say they are now more inclined to vote GOP.

Finally, when we ask Latinos to consider all elections they have voted in for local, state and federal office, and ask if they have ever voted for a Republican candidate we find that 41% of Obama voters say yes, they have voted Republican at some point.

While there are clear opportunities for the GOP to make gains among Democratically-leaning Latinos, there are also pitfalls if they fail to support immigration reform from within their own ranks.  When asked how important it is that Congress passes an immigration reform bill in 2013, 64% of Latino Republicans said “very” or “extremely” important. When given the argument that immigration reform should wait until later and Congress should focus only on the economy now, 69% of Latino Republicans disagreed and said Congress should focus on both immigration reform and the economy right now. Finally, when asked which immigration policy they would prefer, 66% of Latino Republicans said they wanted an immigration plan with a clear pathway to citizenship, and only 32% of Republicans said citizenship should wait until after the border is deemed secure.

The data are clear that Latino Republicans expect to see movement on an immigration bill, with a path to citizenship in 2013.  But if the bill stalls, or House Republicans block the effort or prevent a path to citizenship, can the Republican party actually do worse among Latinos than Mitt Romney did in 2012?  Yes.

When asked if they approve or disapprove of the job Congressional Republicans are currently doing handling immigration policy, 40% of Latino Romney voters said they disapproved (only 46% approved).

When asked if they perceived Republican Party as doing a good job reaching out to Latinos, or if the Party was ignoring Latinos or even being hostile to Latinos, 41% of self-described Republicans said the GOP was “ignoring or being hostile” to Latinos.

When asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Republican candidates, if the GOP blocks immigration reform with a path to citizenship, 33% of Latino Republicans said they would be less likely to support their party.

Finally, when asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Democratic candidates, if the Democratic party takes a leadership role in passing comprehensive immigration reform, 32% of Latino Republicans said they would be more likely to vote Democrat.

Reports out of Washington suggest the Gang of 8 may have a compromise bill ready by early April, which will no doubt bring tough questions from both the left and the right.  As the debate unfolds in both chambers of Congress, the latest polling data on Latino voters is clear – Republicans have the most to gain – and lose – among Latino voters on the issue of immigration reform.  Using our online electoral college vote tool developed with America’s Voice Education Fund, we can project presidential outcomes under different scenarios of the Latino vote going more heavily Republican, or staying heavily Democratic as in 2012.

If a Republican presidential candidate can increase their support from Latinos to an average of 42% nationally, six states would flip from Democrat to Republican (NV, CO, NM, FL, IA, VA), and give the Republican 274 total electoral college votes.

However, if the Republicans do not make gains among Latinos, and stay at the same low levels that they received in 2012 they will lose three large states that voted Republican in 2012 (AZ, TX, NC), due to growth in the Latino vote.  In 2012 Latinos accounted for 10% of all voters nationwide, however all projections point to rapid growth in the Latino vote.  If the Latino vote grows to 16% of all voters nationwide and the Republicans do not make gains among Latinos, they will lose Arizona, Texas and North Carolina and the Democratic candidate will capture 396 total electoral college votes.

About the poll

Latino Decisions interviewed 800 Latino registered voters via landline and mobile phone, across all 50 states, from February 15-26, 2013.  Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish, at the preference of the respondent, and all interviewing staff was fully bilingual.  The survey averaged 20 minutes in length and has an overall margin of error or +/- 3.5%.  On split sample questions the margin of error is +/- 4.9%.  Complete poll results are posted here and here and a slide deck summarizing the findings is posted here. For questions about the results, please contact Matt Barreto (matt.barreto@latinodecisions.com); Gary Segura (gary.segura@latinodecisions.com) or Sylvia Manzano (sylvia.manzano@latinodecisions.com). The poll was sponsored by America’s Voice, National Council of La Raza, and SEIU.

This article was first published in Latino Decisions.

Dr. Matt A. Barreto is an Associate Professor in political science at the University of Washington, Seattle and the director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. Barreto is a founding principal of Latino Decisions. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine in 2005. His research has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, and other peer reviewed journals. He is the author of the book, Ethnic Cues: The role of shared ethnicity in Latino political behavior published by the University of Michigan Press in 2010, and has just finished a book manuscript co-authored with Christopher Parker, Change We Can’t Believe In: Exploring the Sources and Consequences of Tea Party Support, under contract with Princeton University Press, to be published in 2012.

[Photo by The White House]

By Philip Rucker, Washington Post

Miguel Rodriguez is President Obama’s new director of legislative affairs. That makes him the president’s Congress whisperer and arm-twister, tasked with convincing Republican lawmakers of the virtues of Obama’s agenda.

Yet six weeks into the job, many of the Republicans Rodriguez needs to lobby hardly know anything about him. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s aides say they haven’t met him yet. House Speaker John A. Boehner’s aides say they have no basis to judge him by because they’ve talked with him just once. And the word from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office? They don’t know him.

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By Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo

The two biggest political stories of the day — the RNC’s release of its reaction to the party’s 2012 drubbing, and Tom Perez’s nomination to be President Obama’s Labor Secretary — couldn’t be more perfectly suited for each other. Two great tastes that taste great together.

The RNC report is called the Growth and Opportunity Project, and it effectively turns the GOP’s determination to avoid rethinking its economic policies — and to instead focus exclusively on making marginal inroads with minority voters —- into the party’s official strategy.

Enter Tom Perez.

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[Photo by ryanjreilly]

By Peter Baker, New York Times

WASHINGTON – President Obama plans to announce Monday that he will nominate Thomas E. Perez, who heads the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, to be the next secretary of labor, a choice that promises to provoke a debate with Republicans about voting rights and discrimination.

By Dr. Henry Flores, NewsTaco

One thing that has been lacking for many years and from many United States Administrations is a Latin American policy.  We have had policies, don’t get me wrong.  But, we have never had a comprehensive policy since the early nineteenth century and then it was only warning the world that Latin America was our backyard and there was no room for other exploiters.

A review of our policies over the almost last two centuries, going all the way back to the Mexican War of 1848 when the United States acquired half of Mexico as its own indicates nothing but a belligerent and imperialistic attitude toward any and all Latin American countries.  A brief review will suffice here.

The Mexican War, which really began earlier than 1848, expanded US control over half of all of Mexico plus several million dollars.  This war, which saw the desecration of Catholic churches to such an extreme that an entire brigade of Irish Catholic soldiers disserted and joined the Mexican Army, did not leave a good taste in the mouth of our neighbor to the south.

Then we went to war with Spain in the 1890s and received Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and other concessions bolstering our empire.

Don’t you just love this!  While nativists scream about us speaking Spanish, the United States kept adding Spanish Speaking countries to its growing empire!

Anyway, during both World Wars we added a military presence in almost every country in the hemisphere to use as logistic, training, and strategic centers.  So by the time we overthrew the Guatemalan government in the 1950s we were well established militarily in the region.  Beginning with Guatemala we expanded control by backing dictatorships, mostly military, throughout Central America, with the exception of Costa Rica down through Panama and into South America.

The 1960s saw us begin waging war against communism by blockading Cuba and supporting Operation Condor throughout South America.  This last operation was supporting the oppressive military dictatorships in Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.  All these repressive regimes since have fallen, mostly through the anger of the people who have now instituted liberal-type democracies.  But the issue is that these countries have not forgotten that the United States always supported the dictatorships, murder squads, political prisons, torture centers, biased media outlets and anti-democratic movements throughout the hemisphere.  This may be our “backyard” but we have not played well with our neighbors.

Latin Americans, I have found throughout my travels, see a role model for democracy in the United States regardless of our past reputation.  Many see the political actions of our leaders as those of misguided individuals and not a reflection of who Americans are as a people.  I tend to agree with this perspective.

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, just passed away.  He was a vocal and stern critic of American foreign policy.  He even lectured President Obama on the ugly history of America’s track record throughout Latin America.  His passing leaves a great void because Chavez, for all his craziness, did provide other Latin American leaders with a voice of protest and leadership against United States interests in their countries.  These countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, became a union that could stand up to the United States and get some respect.

It is not clear what will happen now that Chavez has gone.  I do know this, however, now that he is gone we have an opportunity to engage Latin America in ways other than we have in the past.  Now is the time for President Obama (I know his plate is full) to step into the breach and extend a hand of friendship and constructivism to the countries of Latin America.  What we need, is friends, true friends in this hemisphere and now that our president can speak Spanish, he needs to go down there and practice.

[Photo by cliff1066™]

By Sari Horwitz and Lena H. Sun, Washington Post

Thomas E. Perez, the likely nominee to be the next secretary of labor, was introduced to organized labor under traumatic circumstances.

Perez was 12 when his father died of a heart attack, and a friend’s father stepped in as a surrogate. The man was a Teamster who’d lost his job, and the union helped support him.

Perez never forgot.

Now, Perez, 51, a first-generation Dominican American, is in line to lead the Department of Labor. President Obama plans to nominate Perez, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, to be labor secretary, according to two people in the administration familiar with the decision.

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[Photo by Center for American Progress]

By Jordan Fabian, ABC/Univision

President Obama on Friday met with over a dozen faith leaders at the White House who urged quick action to pass immigration reform.

After speaking with the president for around one hour, participants came away hopeful that Obama could sign a comprehensive immigration overhaul into law this year.

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[Photo by The White House]

By Ron Fournier, National Journal

Nothing angers President Obama and his allies more than suggesting that he bears even the minutest responsibility for resolving sequestration and the broader budget fights. He claims to be powerless to overcome a stubbornly antitax Republican Party — short of executing a “Jedi mind-meld.”

Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro doesn’t think it takes a Vulcan to deal with Republicans. Clear and strong leadership at the White House would suffice. “I think he needs to be a leader in the negotiation,” said the freshman House member from Texas who, along with his twin brother, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, is a rising political star.

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[Photo screenshot courtesy CSPAN]

By Benjy Sarlin, Talking Points Memo

Led by senators like John McCain (R-AZ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), Republicans are now trying to craft a bipartisan immigration deal that they hope will boost their standing with the community. But they’re starting from an exceptionally weak position: Hispanic respondents told Pew they favor Obama’s approach to immigration over the GOP’s by a whopping 73-15 margin.

Obama’s relative popularity could complicate Rubio’s recent attacks on the administration for drafting its own immigration plan, which he called “dead on arrival” in Congress.

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[Photo by The White House]

By Michael D. Shear, The New York Times

The White House is working on early drafts of a comprehensive bill that would offer 11 million illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship along the lines of the principles that the president laid out in Las Vegas several weeks ago, administration officials said.

White House calls draft immigration plan a backup, Associated Press/ U. S. News & World Report

White House insists it didn’t leak immigration plan, Los Angeles Times

Leaked White House Immigration Bill Puts Pressure on Senate, ABC/Univision

White House Immigration Plan Leaked, The Wall Street Journal

GOP: Leaked WH immigration plan “counterproductive”, CBSNews

Obama immigration bill draft said to emerge, The Hill

Report: White House Immigration Bill Lays Out New Path To Legal Status, Associated Press/NPR

Obama aide defends decision to prepare immigration bill, USA Today

White House immigration plan offers path to residency, USA Today

Obama immigration bill includes 8-year path to residency, report says, Politico

White House says its immigration plan is a sidebar to congressional action, CNN

Marco Rubio Rejects Obama Immigration Reform Plan: ‘Dead On Arrival, Huffington Post

[Photo by The White House]

By Ray Salazar, CNN

During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama spoke about gun violence, and he continues the discussion in Chicago today. He recognized in his speech, “our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country.”

As a high school teacher in Chicago, I want to hear more than an acknowledgment that shootings are happening, that young people are dying violently and unfairly.  I want to hear his determination to push through Second Amendment politics and assure us his leadership will make our streets safer. We might not be able to prevent every senseless act, but we must decrease the desensitization that encourages only one-word reactions to shootings: “Again?”

My first teaching job in 1995 focused on troubled teens at an alternative high school on Chicago’s Southwest side.

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[Photo by The White House]