Obama Reaches Out to Latinos With One Hand, Gets Tough With the Other

When President Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week at its annual gala, he was applauded 28 times in 17 minutes. The warm reception reflected the success of his outreach to Latinos, even as he has postponed immigration reform to next year and taken tough stands on undocumented immigrants.
The administration's words and actions on immigration have fostered wariness in some quarters, and left many unanswered questions about Obama. At the same time there's no question that Obama has stepped up Latino representation in Washington and outreach to the Latino community at large.
Most significant, of course, was his appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. After noting the presence of a Spanish duchess at the gala, Obama introduced Sotomayor as "our own royalty" and "somebody who I've just come to adore."
Spanish-language TV and radio outlets have risen to new prominence in the Obama era. Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, made the cut last weekend as part of Obama's Sunday-show interview gauntlet, right up there with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.
Obama named two Latino Cabinet members -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis -- before he was inaugurated. The personnel process is ongoing. Just this week, the president named five people to a commission studying the building of a National Museum of the American Latino on the national Mall. On Thursday, as I was writing this column, he nominated three people for administration jobs. One was Marisa Lago, a Latina, as assistant treasury secretary for international markets and development.
All of the attention to Latinos is predictable and smart, given that they are a fast-growing proportion of the country and the electorate. They voted 2-to-1 for Obama last year and could be pivotal in a number of House and Senate races next year.
Republicans are still struggling with fallout from the last round of attempted immigration reform, from 2005 to 2007, when their party cemented an image as hostile toward all immigrants. The health reform debate has reignited the issue. When South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson interrupted Obama to shout "You lie," it was to dispute Obama's statement that the reforms would not apply to undocumented immigrants.
GOP strategist Ed Gillespie, a former national party chairman, pointed out the obvious at a breakfast last week: Republicans will never win the presidency with 4 percent of the black vote and 31 percent of the Hispanic vote (their totals last year). He said the party's image is so bad that "I wouldn't mind a do-over on immigration" in Congress. Republicans, he said, need to make clear they are as welcoming of legal immigrants as they are opposed to illegal ones.
From his appointments to his focus on health and the economy, Obama's actions are helping to consolidate Democratic gains among Latinos since 2006. But in his initial months he has also caused some consternation.
For instance, former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano was the first governor to call for National Guard troops to enforce border control. When she was named secretary of homeland security, "there were huge waves of dissatisfaction from the Latino advocacy groups about her appointment. She's not exactly Ms. Pro-Immigrant," said Matthew Barreto, a pollster and political scientist at the University of Washington.
Barreto also told me that Latino academics and policy experts are "very disturbed" that Obama has continued former president George W. Bush's crackdown on illegal immigrants, even those with long-term employment who might ultimately be protected under a revamped immigration system. A New York Times article on the subject was circulated on a Latino listserv under the headline "Obama Worse than Bush on Immigration Enforcement?"
Post-Wilson, Obama has been explicit and hard-nosed about illegal immigrants and health reform. He says often that they will not benefit in any way from the overhaul. "If someone is here illegally, they won't be covered under this plan. That's a commitment I've made," he told the Hispanic Caucus gala.
But in a speech punctuated with the phrase "todos somos Americanos" (we are all Americans), Obama also reiterated his commitment to fixing what he called a broken immigration system. If anything, he said, the health debate "underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all."
The two commitments amount to a strategy: Prove you're tough on enforcement before asking Congress to approve a path to legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants. There's every probability that most conservatives will resist that idea in 2010 as mightily as they have for the past few years. But if comprehensive immigration reform passes with few or no GOP votes, Obama and his party will have a lock on the Latino vote at least through 2012. If the immigration debate inspires anti-immigrant sentiment or candidates, congressional Democrats could benefit from heightened Latino turnout in 2010.
Latinos still rate Obama very high in polls, suggesting they understand his reasons for delaying action on immigration. But 2010 is their limit. "The disappointment of Latino voters will be profound" if immigration reform doesn't happen next year, NDN president Simon Rosenberg, whose group studies the Latino vote, told me. If Obama and his party delay the bill further, or their efforts look half-hearted, he added, "there will be costs. It will not be pain-free."
For now Obama is getting by with promises, appointments and doing his part to advance a museum to honor the contributions of America's Latinos. That last, launched by Congress and Bush, is more symbol than substance, but respect is what it would symbolize. "There is no national museum where you can capture the 400 years of Latino influence in the United States. This is very important history," financial analyst Cid Wilson, a national Dominican leader newly named to the museum study commission, told me.
By the time the museum is built, if it's built, there will be at least one more chapter of very important history to add -- the suspenseful 2010 chapter of the immigration saga, coming soon to your Capitol.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09/25/obama-reaches-out-to-latinos-with-one-hand-gets-tough-with-the/

Hurt everyone, including themselves. What needs to be done is to clamp down on companies that hire illegals with punitive, heavy fines. At the same time make it easier for immigrants to come over legally, especially migrant workers who perform a vital job. Make sure their rights are protected.