Is the GOP an anti-immigrant Party?

By Weekly Archive

By Max J. Castro
majcastro@gmail.com

That’s the question posed in a May 14, 2010, Washington Post column by Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. Gerson has been a persistent voice within the Republican Party warning of impending doom if the GOP continues to systematically alienate Latinos. He fears that the Republicans may be committing political suicide.

According to Gerson, however, the accusation that the Republican Party is anti-immigrants is “overbroad,” but he concedes that the Republicans have committed a number of major hostile acts toward Latinos.

According to Gerson, “Republicans have now sent three clear signals to Hispanic voters:

“California’s Proposition 187, which was passed in 1994 and attempted to deny illegal immigrants health care and public education before being struck down in court; the immigration debate of 2006, dominated by strident Republican opponents of reform; and now the Arizona Immigration law.

Gerson drastically underestimates the number of hostile signals that Republicans have sent and continue to send to Hispanic voters. In the last few years, in towns, cities and counties across the nation, hundreds of measures hostile to Hispanics have been proposed or enacted; these almost invariably have been promoted by Republicans.

In Arizona itself, there have been several laws enacted that are hostile to Latinos. Most recently, the state banned public schools from teaching ethnic studies’ courses. The law was aimed specifically at Tucson’s extremely successful Mexican American studies program. For good measure, the state also banned teachers with an accent from teaching in the state. Previously an Arizona state law made it illegal for employers to hire undocumented immigrants. And that is just one state. Other states are planning to follow suit.

Republicans have also been at the forefront of the movement for “English Only” and against bilingualism. This is a movement aimed squarely at the Spanish language and the Latino population of the United States. The movement has been most successful in states dominated by the Republican Party.

Surveys show that while the majority of Americans support the Arizona law, there is a clear breakdown by party. Support is much stronger among Republicans.

There is no end in sight to Republican hostility toward the issues that matter to Latinos. Expect Republicans in Congress to fight any immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship. Also expect Republicans to use anti-immigration rhetoric in the 2010 election against Republicans and Democrats judged “soft on immigration.”

Already, in Florida, GOP Senatorial candidate Marco Rubio and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum have switched from an initial position of opposition to the Arizona law to support for the recently enacted statute.

If there needed to be any further proof, one can cite the sad case of John McCain, who not too long ago was a moderate GOP voice on immigration and now has been reduced to adopting anti-immigrant rhetoric to ward off a primary challenge from a rabidly anti-immigrant fellow Republican. Whereas not long ago McCain was proclaiming that we are not going to build any walls or fences, he recently cut a commercial showing him walking along the border and saying “finish that danged fence.”

Thus the answer to Gerson’s query is an emphatic yes. The GOP is the anti-immigrant party. If any further proof were needed, the membership of the anti-immigration caucus in the House of Representatives (ironically called the “Immigration Reform Caucus) is overwhelmingly Republican. The number speaks for itself. Below is the entire list of members by state and party affiliation. The reader can judge for him or her self.

Immigration Reform Caucus

Membership

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