Texas Republicans’ immigration reform stance may alienate Hispanics voters
June 11th, 2010 . by TexasFredAUSTIN – The Texas Republican Party, on the topic of immigration reform, already eschews any shade of gray in its red, white and blue platform: It begins: “No amnesty! No how. No way.”But this week, conservative stalwarts, pushed by passage of Arizona’s tough new law and angered by Washington inertia, are meeting in Dallas to demand that Texas act on a topic that could help define the party for this election and potentially hobble it in future ones.
About 12,000 Republican delegates are coming to Dallas for the state GOP convention Friday and Saturday. And between the long hours of rallying, listening to state leaders and preparing for the November election, delegates will determine their policy goals and how to hold their elected officials accountable for accomplishing them.
And while there is much to unify the Republican Party – holding every statewide office and record-breaking turnout in the March primary – a long-term worry lingers for the GOP: that its strident language on immigration will alienate Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing part of the electorate.
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Texas Republicans’ immigration reform stance may alienate Hispanics voters
Immigration reform is a dirty word here in Texas. In most circles, those words, immigration reform, almost immediately conjure up mental images that make Conservatives think amnesty.
What’s to reform? Enforcement, that’s the ticket. Maybe pass something even more stringent than we already have. Maybe something similar to Arizona immigration law SB1070.
Oh, but wait, Gov. Goodhair, uh, Rick Perry for you folks not from Texas, has already made this statement: Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement he released late Thursday that portions of Arizona’s tough immigration law concern him and that “it would not be the right direction for Texas.�? Perry against Arizona law for Texas
Gov. Goodhair doesn’t want to offend any potential Hispanic voters I think.
“Democrats fall on their knees every night and pray the Dallas convention brings these issues to the forefront,” said Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at the University of Texas-Pan American. “It’s a scenario that could have been written by Democratic strategists.”
Perhaps Polinard is correct. I do know this, the BIG TENT politics people in the GOP are willing to do, try and accept anything that will keep them in the mainstream. It sure makes it hard for a former Dixiecrat turned Reagan Conservative turned Conservative libertarian to support the GOP though.
Personally, I don’t care who gets alienated, the law is very clear regarding illegal immigrants and the definition of the word ILLEGAL is NOT open to interpretation. ILLEGAL, against the law. How can it be made any more simple?
In the last 15 years, Republicans have pushed two major immigration initiatives – a crackdown on services for illegal immigrants in California under Gov. Pete Wilson and an effort to offer them a path to citizenship during George W. Bush’s presidency. The anger surrounding those debates eroded GOP inroads among Hispanic voters, and many Republican strategists are concerned about new fallout from the Arizona law.The Texas Republican delegates appear ready to stir the volatile brew.
If you want to see Texas Conservatives in open rebellion, try and push an amnesty policy off on us, hell hath NO fury. Trust me!
Delegates will debate whether to add a demand for an Arizona-type law, under which police could question the legal status of those stopped for other infractions. They will also push to rescind the Texas law that allows the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition. Others, though, will try to persuade the party to take a gentler stance.“It will be one of the big topics,” said delegate Leo Berman, a House member from Tyler who said he will introduce Arizona-style legislation when the Legislature convenes in January.
The need is all the more pressing, he said, because Arizona, Minnesota and other states already “are passing good illegal alien bills. As a result, they’re migrating to Texas.”
Texas is inundated with ILLEGALS. Not just Mexicans, not just Hispanics or Latinos, but we see Hispanics as the primary infestation, and Mexicans make up the majority.
There is no other way to describe what we face her in Texas. Inundated may not even be strong enough to describe the situation here.
Leo Berman is a good, solid Conservative man, and he tells the truth. Gov. Perry would do well to listen to him!
The debate should in no way alienate Hispanics, Berman said.“There are millions of Hispanics in Texas that want us to deal with illegal aliens,” he said. “There are others who don’t want us to deal with illegal aliens because they might be related to them in some way.”
Or, they may be ILLEGALS. It seems the loudest protests come from those that have relatives that are ILLEGAL, or are themselves illegal.
State Republican Executive Committee member Norma Tovar of Brownsville combines a conservative view with firsthand experience on the issue. Her father came to Texas legally from Mexico about 50 years ago and served in the U.S. Air Force on his way to citizenship.Tovar said she believes a strong immigration stance is timely, but if Texas is to copy Arizona, the state should have stronger protections against racial profiling.
The path to citizenship in America doesn’t need to be an easy one. If you are born here, to U.S. citizens, then that’s as easy as it gets. If you come here from another nation it would be terribly improper to just hand you a Social Security card, an amnesty card, and make you a citizen of the USA right there on the spot.
Some of the most wonderful Americans I have ever known are naturalized U.S. citizens. They earned the right to be Americans! They weren’t born to it, and in many, probably most cases, they loved this nation, and showed their love, more than many Americans born here do.
I have NO issue with IMMIGRATION, legal immigration.
I have no issue with naturalized citizens. I do however, feel a very intense animosity towards those that come here to take away from our nation, to enjoy all this nation offers, yet give nothing in return, and always consider themselves to be anything other than an American!
She conceded that the debate could make it harder to attract Hispanics – now 35 percent of the state’s population – to the Republican camp.
Perhaps Tovar is too polite to say it, but I’m not. The Democrats pander to Hispanics and Blacks, they promise them the moon and then further hold them down with all of the government programs, welfare and the like. Or, as my friend Bloviating Zeppelin is so fond of saying, “The FREE CHEESE“.
“But when you’re right and you know you’re protecting the rights of the people, just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it,” Tovar said.Especially in Democrat-dominated South Texas, she said, “it’s not easy being a Republican sometimes.”
She’s right, it’s NOT easy being a Republican. There’s too many damned RINOs ruining what once was the last best hope this nation had…
Democrats pray? To what?
@Kate… The Obamessiah I suppose…
Ooooooh. Reckon you’re right. As usual.
Illegal mexicans vote here???? Not supposed to, but with most of THEM carrying phony documents, false social security cards, false driver’s licenses, and with our voting stations not having foolproof document checking machines,,,,well, I am sure their votes do get counted!
Now is the time for our Governor Perry to stop this onslaught of illegals in Texas.
Any fool would know illegals will not vote Republican. All of these vermin’s will vote democratic socialist!!!
Perry, you better be reading this blog!!!
Perry, you better be supporting to build the fence immediately, arm the border watchers, and STOP this flow of illegal vermin crossing into TEXAS.
If you do not do this, then the Texas voters will oust you for someone else who will protect Texans.
Believe it, it will happen.
I am in a constant state of nausea right now. I’m sick of this phony bologna POTUS and all his nut bag friends, and I’m sick of far left wing losers promoting lies to vicariously destroy our country through this “do nothing but promote a Marxist/Globalist BS Agenda Usurper!!! I am also sick that America has effectively, in the last 30 years, managed to produce enough Morons to vote this faker, know nothing, teleprompter addicted, narcissistic POS into the Presidency.
I feel a little bit better! Hold Firm Texas! Amnesty must NOT be allowed at all costs. Thanks Fred, great post.
Now, if you want to see the opposite of a mamby pamby RINO, make his point, check out my Congressman whom I applaud!!! I love a man with enough backbone to speak up to the creeps.
Go Mike!!! This man Represents Me!!!!
HAM, I understand the need to rant on occasion, but what does this one have to do with the TX GOP convention and amnesty?? Just wondering…
Oh, Amnesty is something being pushed from the top down, it really doesn’t have much to do with the TX Amnesty issue, but it has to do with Obama’s policies and agenda pushing that trickles down to to all of us. I certainly hope Gov. Perry grows some and stands for Texas as Gov. Brewer has done in AZ.
I think I’m having a frustration attack…
Or something…
“Demography is prophecy,” and Mexicans know this.
Which is why MECHA and LA RAZA openly advocate “reconquista.”
With the Demorats, it really IS about the votes, and a naked attempt to ensure NO OTHER PARTY will EVER have another chance for a majority again.
With Mexicans, it IS about “reconquista.” And power. And annexing portions of the United States into Mexico.
BZ
I think that the sheriffs should deputize a few thousand stand up former military, the smugglers are armed , leave them laying on the trail to rot.
Its going to come to that anyway, why wait until more innocents are kidnapped, tortured and killed?
The talking heads that have the power to stop this invasion want votes,stand up or perish.
Fred,
The platform committee met today (and for the past two days before that), but the whole convention will not vote on the platform until tomorrow AM.
The platform will be just as tough and maybe tougher on Immigration Reform and I & R as it always has been, but those two issues were apparently the big “hot buttons” in the platform committee.
Here’s an exclusive for you Fred. Tomorrow at some time after nine o’clock there will be a motion from the floor to take away the job of house speaker from RINO Joe Straus. The motion will not fail so much as it will be ruled out of order from the chair (and it will be out of order according to Roberts’ Rules). However, what will happen is a huge demonstration against Straus BEFORE the motion can be ruled out of order. May not succeed in the sense of passing, but it may put the fear in some RINOs and produce a definite “Come to Jesus” moment for some of them. Be watching some of your favorite twitters from the floor of the convention.
I recommend a guy who calls himself balloonjuice.
Exactly.
Why the hell should any American give a damn what these illegal invaders and their moanin’-an-’groanin’ relatives say?
Now, I know that “the Hispanic vote” is a voting block that both political parties want and possibly need to get elected. (Note that I said “possibly”) But I’ve also heard that most legal immigrants (no matter their nationality), those who have come here and worked their way up the ladder, vote conservatively. These legals are not going to take kindly to the pandering to illegal invaders.
As for “immigration reform,” it’s exactly as you said, Fred. A damned euphemism for amnesty. We’ve been down that road before? Remember? Under Reagan. It was supposed to be a one-time deal, with Congress promising to enforce the border. Well, Congress welched on the deal. As usual. The only time that Congress sticks by the laws they pass is when those laws undermine America.
RPT platform was strengthened on 6/12. There were some on the committee, including SD-2 representative Benjamin Collins, who seemed concerned about something they called “mass deportation.” A majority of the platform committee and a majority of the RPT convention seemed willing to settle for individual deportation or mass deportation either one.
Importantly, a stupid sentence was stripped from the platform committee’s report. “We support legislative action to allow illegal immigrants who have matriculated through the U.S. school system, terminating in high school graduation, to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.” No … we DON’T
First, some of us remember the first day of the Iraq war when an illegal alien (not immigrant — that is a person who has come here legally — an illegal immigrant is somewhat like dry water) serving in the US Army fragged an entire officer’s tent. Some of us are willing to say NEVER AGAIN to such actions.
But second, why on earth would we want illegal aliens to beome privy to US plans and tactics or have access to our explosive devices and other arms?
Here’s the key sentence to come out of the RPT platform: “We oppose … amnesty in any form leading to citizenship or legal status for illegal immigrants [sic].”
TX GOP convention adds immigration plank