MITT ROMNEY HAS NO SYMPATHY FOR LATINO ECONOMIC IMMIGRANTS

If Mitt Romney wins the election for the U.S. presidency, all immigrants will need to worry.  Romney says that he will make life uncomfortable enough in the United States that immigrants lacking proper documents will "self-deport."

Mitt Romney's great-grandfather fled to Mexico to escape penalties against polygamy in the United States.  Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, came back to the U.S. as a young boy.  Because of this, Mitt Romney says that his family is an immigrant family, as if to imply that he understands what it means to be a Latino immigrant.

But the truth is, Mitt Romney has no understanding or basic sympathy for the plight of Latino economic immigrants.  He treats them as mere gardeners or housekeepers.  He would rather see them all deported.

For their sake, let's hope that Obama wins in November.

LATINOS WILL NOT FORGET OR FORGIVE REPUBLICAN SENATORS WHO VOTED NO ON SOTOMAYOR

Here are the 31 Republican Senators who voted against the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court:

John Barrasso, Bob Bennett, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran, Bob Corker, John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Jim DeMint, John Ensign, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, James Inhofe, Johnny Isakson, Mike Johanns, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, James Risch, Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, John Thune, David Vitter, Roger Wicker.

They all except one are white males who can't stand the thought that a wise Latina female judge might be smarter and more capable than they themselves.

Arguments of Orrin Hatch, Bob Bennett or Chuck Grassley that Sotomayor does not have the correct judicial mind set or uses "empathy" to analyze cases are clearly pretextual. The real reason apparent to many and especially to Latinos is that these Republicans are anti-Hispanic and anti-Puerto Rican and anti-female.

Latinos as a group are not going to forget or forgive the racist Republicans voting no on Sotomayor. Come election time, there will be Latino pay back.

OBAMA'S PRO-IMMIGRATION POLICY IN DANGER

The New York Times runs an important and relevant editorial today, "Obama Flinches on Immigration."

A noted civil rights attorney and immigration advocate from California, Thomas Saenz, was going to be the next Assistant Attorney General for civil rights. However, after Saenz began drawing cries and howls from immigration opponents in Congress, Obama dumped Saenz for a less controversial choice, Thomas Perez, from Maryland. Here's another case where Barack Obama caved to the reactionary and conservative forces opposed to his progressive agenda.

Writes the editorial board of The New York Times:

"Mr. Saenz, the former top litigator in Los Angeles for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or Maldef, was privately offered the job in January. The floating of his name led to fierce outbursts from anti-immigrant groups and blogs, which detest him for being so good at what he does.

"He was a leader of the successful fight to block California’s Proposition 187, an unconstitutional effort to deny social services and schooling to illegal immigrants. He has defended Latino day laborers who were targets of misguided local crackdowns, from illegal police stings to unconstitutional anti-solicitation ordinances. An editorial in Investor’s Business Daily slimed Mr. Saenz by calling him “an open-borders extremist” and said Maldef wanted to give California back to Mexico.

"None of it was true, but it was apparently too much for the White House. Mr. Saenz was ditched in favor of Maryland’s labor secretary, Thomas Perez, who has a solid record but is not as closely tied to immigrant rights."

The history of the United States is one where anti-immigration forces attempt to keep out people with different languages, with different skin colors, from different racial backgrounds. It was not that long ago that the official policy of the U.S. was to ban any and all immigrants from Asia, especially the Chinese and Japanese. Today it is a movement against Latinos in general and Mexicans in particular. Some would deny immigrants health care for their families and education for their children because they are "illegals," as if it were okay to deny basic human rights because the parents lack "papers." Others like the American bigots of yesterday want to see all Mexicans returned to Mexico.

Obama had an excellent pro-immigration candidate in Thomas Saenz. Why he decided to desert him can only be guessed. But for whatever reason, the dumping of Saenz does Obama no credit.