Open Letter #71 To President Obama – Immigration Reform Now!

Hispanic Republicans of Texas

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Mar. 28, 2014: Dear Mr. President,

The Republican National Party has some nerve, spending $10 million to ramp up Hispanic field operations in key states and flood Spanish-language news media with advertisements opposing the Affordable Care Act, while at the same time, House Republicans led by its ‘Speaker-In-Chief’ John Boehner, keeps immigration reform at a standstill and millions of lives in limbo.

Does the GOP really think Latinos are stupid, especially since it seems top GOP officials want to talk about almost anything but immigration when they make their pitch to Latinos?

While they try to get the Hispanic vote, the House Judiciary Committee voted to eliminate the public advocate for immigrants who face hearings at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and House GOP members overwhelmingly supported the Enforce Act, which would limit your use of “prosecutorial discretion.”

As one brave young woman, who for the second time in five months was among a group who interrupted Boehner’s breakfast again, asked: “Speaker Boehner, I just want to ask you, why you want to break the dream of the Dreamers?”

Boehner’s response: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, that is not very nice,” according to the exchange caught on video by activists from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).

Not a very good response from someone who is supposed to be a leader but then again what did you expect?

This of course comes as the RNC says it has launched “Hispanic engagement field teams” in nine states with 20 paid staff members on the ground. Most interestingly, out of the 53 million Latinos nationally, the RNC says it has “made contact” with 27,000 and for the first time also attended the annual Puerto Rican Day parade in Orlando. Whoop, Whoop! What a major feat RNC!

The reality is while the RNC is touting the victories of Republican David Jolly in a special congressional election in Florida and the GOP’s Gov. Chris Christie’s reelection, the two are a far cry from the national elections that have consistently shown Latinos have turned away en-masse from the GOP mainly because of their rhetoric of immigration and their enforcement only approach.

The facts speak for its self – 70 percent of the Hispanic population has stated that they felt that it is extremely or very important to pass immigration legislation in a February Pew Research Center survey while nine in 10 said that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally.

Boehner and the GOP would be wise to listen and do something now. Mr. President it is important that you keep up the pressure on the House and show the immigrant voting bloc the hypocrisy of the GOP that refuses to pass immigration reform out of hate for you and the black and brown immigrants who they claim are taking over America. Time for a push back from the White House; time for a humane deportation policy and executive action that uses prosecutorial discretion.

Respectfully,

Felicia Persaud.

The writer is CMO of Hard Beat Communications, which owns the brands News Americas Now, CaribPR Wire and Invest Caribbean Now.