Immigration

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

You may have noticed in recent days an "It's all about Marco" meme emerge from the Beltway media villagers. Apparently we are to believe that comprehensive immigration reform rests solely in the the hands of this freshman Tea Party prima donna, Sen. Marco "Big Gulp" Rubio (R-FL), who already harbors fantasies about running for president (even after his universally panned response to the State of The Union Address).

So where did this sudden "It's all about Marco" meme come from? I bet you can guess, but Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog explains in All About Marco:

One of today’s more interesting items of Beltway gabbery comes from deep within the relentlessly beating heart of Tiger Beat on the Potomac (as Charles Pierce has unforgettably dubbed Politico). Yes, it’s an installment
of Mike Allen and Jim VanderHei’s ultra-insidery column “Behind the
Curtain,” and the subject du jour is Marco Rubio’s role in the
development of immigration legislation.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The gated country club communities of old white people occurs on a larger scale as well, the gerrymandered "GOP ghettos" of old white people in congressional districts. The New York Times' Charles Blow has an interesting commentary on this demographic problem. The G.O.P.’s Diversity Deserts:

Just a week ago, the Republicans issued their much-ballyhooed “autopsy”
on why they lost the presidential election last year and how they might
remedy their problems.

They concluded that their principles were fine; the problem was how they
presented communicated those principles. Their witless wisdom is simply to tone down
their rhetoric. They want to turn Teddy Roosevelt’s famous saying on
its side: Talk softly but carry a big stigma.

The establishment Republicans’ push for a softer tone, however, is pure
political scheming and has nothing to do with what most Republicans seem
to fundamentally believe.

And many rank-and-file Republicans are adopting this two-faced tactic. A Pew Research Center report
issued Thursday found that although most Republicans say that “illegal
immigrants” should be allowed to stay in this country legally, most also
believe that immigrants are a burden because they take jobs and health
care, and they threaten American values.

by David Safier

I'm visiting DC as a tourist, and I stumbled, almost literally, onto a press conference for the National Council of La Raza's "National Latino Advocacy Days." Over 400 Latinos from 31 states came to DC to advocate for a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. Though the conference room in the House of Representatives' Rayburn Building was packed and overflowing into the hall, most of the advocates were visiting the offices of Representatives and Senators talking about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of NCLR, spoke about the urgent need for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. "The Latino community will not accept second class status," she said.

(From left to right: Janet Murguia, Esther Reyes, Elizabeth Perez, Mauricio Calvo)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I keep seeing reports that the GOP has learned its lesson from the 2012 election, and that it is now prepared to abandon its nativist/racist anti-immigrant bashing ways to appeal to the growing Latino electorate for future elections, or face extinction as a viable political party.

I guess these guys didn't get the memo. Willard "Mittens" Romney aka "Mr. Self-Deport," the GOP nominee for president in 2012, has not changed his position. Mitt Romney: No path to citizenship for illegal immigrants:

Mitt Romney, who blamed much of his loss in the 2012 presidential
campaign on his and his party’s failure to connect with Latino voters,
said Sunday that he remains opposed to providing a path to citizenship
or even permanent residency to illegal immigrants.

“People who have come here illegally should not be given a special
pathway to permanent residency or citizenship in this country merely
because they’ve come here illegally,” Romney said in an interview with
“Fox News Sunday” in his first public comments since the 2012 election.