Has the GOP lost Latino voters?

The title is an article from CNN.com posted on Feb. 15, 2008 and the like is: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/15/latinos.gop/ .

It talks about how Senator McCain may be losing votes because he is part of the Republican party even though the Latino people have trust in him. They just do not trust his party and the rhetoric they use. McCain is a moderate republican who wants to secure the border first before letting people become citizens. The Latino voters do not like that but their main worry is how the economy has fallen.

"Connie Morales is a U.S. citizen from Colombia who was raised in New York. Morales has always voted Republican, but not this time. She says the economy, not immigration, turned her away. In fact, she doesn't have much sympathy for illegal immigrants.'We don't that much because we had a hard time getting here. We have to get in lines. We have to get papers. We have to get visas,' she said. The message from Latino voters to McCain seems to be: We are like other Americans -- one size does not fit all."

The thing that a lot of the government is forgetting that just because Latinos are catergorized as such does not mean they do not belong to other groups. The book, Fluid Borders, talks about how different people have different goals and views. Like Montebello and East Los Angeles who have a majority of Latinos do not always see eye to eye. The upcoming election is very relevant to many Latinos as it is every year, so there is going to be sparked interest on the debate over immigration and jobs. The candidates need to realize that the Latino bloc is not truely one yet, and that they are just as complex as the majority of the United States.

Money well Spent???

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/immigration/

This is a look at the politics of the U.S. government with regards to immigration. The two paragraphs under here are from the webpage. There are more things it highlights if you want to take a look at the link.

The Administration has effectively ended the policy of "catch and release" and now detains all removable aliens caught trying to cross the border until they can be removed. For years, limited detention space forced the release of many illegal border crossers from nations other than Mexico with nothing more than a Notice to Appear for a hearing before an immigration judge. Many aliens ignored these notices and instead blended into U.S. society. The Administration has effectively ended this policy of "catch and release" and replaced it with a policy of "catch and return," ensuring that all removable aliens caught trying to cross the border illegally are held until they can be removed.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is on track to complete 370 miles of pedestrian fencing along the southwest border by the end of calendar year 2008. As of this month, we have completed a total of 165 miles of pedestrian fence along the southwest border, giving us a total of 290 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fence already in place at the border. We expect to have 670 total miles of pedestrian and vehicle fence by the end of 2008, and have begun obtaining land to make this a reality.

The thing that I do not get is we (the U.S.) are trying to get illegal immigrants out of the country. The reasons that mass media give for why we should kick them out are all economic, but in reality, we are wasting just as much money trying to stop it. It costs money to be able to detain people and to put up fences (which seems like a waste of time to me). I did not post it but they also said that the INS is being doubled in work force which equals more money. We keep putting our economic troubles on these immigrants when I feel as if we waste more money trying to stop this "problem". The immigrants usually pay taxes and do not receive any of it back due to fake social security numbers, so its not like Americans are the only ones who pay taxes. The funny thing is that when it says now they can contain illegals instead of letting them go, because they blend into society to much to catch again. Is not that what we want? For assimilation? Well, I do not have any answers, but I know that everything the government puts out there for ideas seems to fail. These people (illegals) risk their lives crossing hot, cold, and dry areas to reach the United States. What the hell is a fence going to do?

Latino Vote

This video is some news special about how most elections are won by a narrow vote. Which in turn makes minority voting become more important. It goes through facts and numbers about how Latinos are the fastest growing minority in the United States, but there is a divide between the Lationo community. The most difficult part of the Latino Bloc is that they are divided among there vote. Some are republicans and others are democrats. Another thing is that they have a huge amount of people who are eligible to vote which do not. Latinos may not know it, but they could have a huge say in politics if they were to vote as one and have everyone turn out. The main thing to get from this video post is that minorities do have a say in political outcomes if they chose to participate. They just need to voice their opinions and know that every vote counts.

Being a minority (half Caucasian half African American) myself I still do not feel as if my vote counts. But for real, I do not know how the whole voting thing works. I have taken classes on it. I think that when we vote we elect people from the electoral college to vote for us. That seems shady to me, but that would have to be a different post. I guess I will just have to vote sometime.

Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary

At class today, we watched a documentary about proposition 187. The proposition opposed many illegal students being able to take part in public schools. The children are the ones who where harmed by the proposition. It did not do much for the helping with so called "problem." The problem is that people want to put the blame for unemployment and economic hardships on Latinos. No one ever wants to look at the government or businesses. The proposition took those kids self esteem.

The part of the movie that struck me as some crazy shit was when the super old white librarian guy was arguing with the little kids. The point that he was trying to make was that the neighborhood was going to downhill because of the immigrants. He pointed out that the streets were dirty with litter. The little kids took offensive to that (they should have). It was like some name calling things you did when you were a child. The librarian should be embarrassed.

One of the teachers they interviewed, Diane, spoke about how she thought that the shool was getting worse. When looking at her teaching ability, she just talked about cirriculum this and cirriculum that. She never once thought that those kids might have needed some compassion.

During a teacher meeting, someone was pointing out how they have the most unexcused absences in the district. One of the teachers pointed out that it could be because when the parents get vacation they do not know way before hand due to their low paying jobs. They almost have to pick up and just go.

Carmen, a mother who helped organize a protest against the proposition, voted for it. She began to see walls after she was involved in a hit and run. The driver just drove off and she assumed they had no insurance and no papers. She feels like that if the immigrants go it will solve all her problems. The funny thing is she is an immigrant herself.

There is no easy solution for immigration. The immigrants themselves take basically all the blame instead of a contradicting government. If there is one thing I know about America, its that education is a means of gaining equality and being taken seriously. When that law passed, it took away the kids dreams of ever being accepted and ability to move up in a nation (that decides to point fingers at everyone but themselves).