CPAC Immigration Panelist: ‘Latino Voters Are the Reagan Democrats of Today’

National Review ^ | 3/7/2014

[Altura Ct.]

Two participants in a panel on immigration at CPAC today expressed confidence in their closing statements that Hispanic immigrants will be a source of future votes for the Republican party. “Latino voters are the Reagan Democrats of today,” said Alfonso Aguilar, the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “I believe that the majority of them can actually be members of CPAC in the future,” concurred the Reverend Luis Cortés Jr.​

The panel was supposed to answer the question: “Can there be meaningful immigration reform without citizenship?”

Derrick Morgan, vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, was the only one of four panelists to basically reject the premise of the question, saying that he wasn’t the best person to say whether legalization should include a path to citizenship since he didn’t think that Republicans should be pursuing a policy of comprehensive immigration reform at all right now: “I respectfully disagree with the policy of legalization with or without citizenship,” he said, instead favoring a piecemeal approach, beginning with enforcement. He noted that the current laws are not being enforced so “why would you trust this current administration” to implement a deal?

Aguilar vehemently disagreed: “Conservatives need to address immigration, and they need to do it now,” he said, adding that “our conservative base wants us to lead and legislate” on the issue. Alfonso said that in addition to immigrants doing the “jobs that Americans don’t want,” immigration “creates good-paying jobs for working-class Americans.”

Reverend Cortés declared that “immigration is the only policy matter where God agrees with God,” by which he meant, he explained, that all religious communities supported immigration reform — “even the Baha’i.”

The reverend warned that the Hispanic community is becoming alienated by Republican rhetoric on the issue, much like “African Americans left the party of Lincoln due partly to rhetoric around civil rights.” “The Hispanic community is about less government, it is afraid of big government,” he added.

At one point, Reverend Cortés took issue with Morgan’s use of the word “amnesty.” “If you look it up in the dictionary it means forgiveness at no cost,” he said, and it would not apply “if someone comes forward” and has to “do recompense” as he said Republicans are proposing to require of immigrants currently here illegally.

The fourth panelist, Helen Krieble​ of the Krieble Foundation, advocated for a large guest-worker program, and pushed for her organization’s “Red Card” solution.

[elpadre]

There are millions of Hispanics, citizens and non-citizens, in this country legally. I support them and wish them well. It is the others, the illegal aliens who must not be granted any path to citizenship. There is a great divide between the two groups and we should do what we can do to encourage and help the legal Hispanic community - not the other.

[Mark17]

Two participants in a panel on immigration at CPAC today expressed confidence in their closing statements that Hispanic immigrants will be a source of future votes for the Republican party.

I see no evidence of a cold front approaching Hell, and I do not see any swine growing wings and taking to the air, so I am inclined to believe the Pubbies will get their vote in the year 9595, if man is still alive.

[kabar]

There is no divide between them, legal or illegal. They support the Democrats.

[Monterrosa-24]

The Republican administration of the first Bush pressured the government of El Salvador to abolish this young man's effective anti-communist military organization. In fact the entire Guardia Nacional (fulltime soldiers/police), Policia de Hacienda, and the National Police were all abolished...and later the power of the "Maras" (criminal gangs) rose tremendously and caused problems in El Salvador and in the United States.

[Altura Ct.]

There is a great divide between the two groups and we should do what we can do to encourage and help the legal Hispanic community - not the other.

Legal? Really? Do you mean support LaRaza? Or How about the ‘legal’ members of the the Hispanic Caucus? Perhaps the legal members of MEChA or maybe one of these. They are all legal.

Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA)

Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA)

Center for Multilingual Multicultural Research

Committee for Hispanic Children and Families (CHCF)

Concilio Hispano

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI)

Diversity Pipeline Alliance

El Centro de la Raza

Ethnic Majority

Farm Workers

Hispanic Agenda for Action

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)

Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR)

Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation

Hispanic Business Women’s Alliance

Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce

Hispanic College Fund

Hispanic Council on International Relations

Hispanic CREO

Hispanic Genealogy Center

Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation

Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education Magazine

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Hispanic Society of America

Hispanics Across America

Hispanics in Philantropy

HOPE

Immigrant Worker Resources

Latin American Health Institute

Latino Issues Forum

Latinos for America

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

LLEGO

MANA. A National Latina Organization

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Mexican American Opportunity Foundation

National Alliance for Hispanic Health

National Association for Bilingual Education

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO)

National Conference of Puerto Rican Women (NACOPRW)

National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

National Hispanic Agenda Summit

National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC)

National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCoA)

National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts

National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA)

National Latino Children’s Institute (NLCI)

National Latino Peace Officers Association

National Latino Research Center

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)

National Society for Hispanic Professionals (NSHP)

New American Alliance

New Democrat Network Hispanic Project

Nosotros

Reforma

Republican National Hispanic Assembly

Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund (SALEF)

Scholarships for Hispanics

Self Reliance Foundation

SER-Jobs for Progress National, Inc.

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP)

¡Soy Unica! ¡Soy Latina!

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

The Democratic Party - Hispanic Vote

The Lagrant Foundation

The Latino Coalition

The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute

U.S. Govt. Information in Spanish

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC)

United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce (USMCOC)

USHCC Foundation

[Theoria]

No.

Are Hispanics that socially conservative?

I often hear in the media that Hispanics are “socially conservative.” For that sort of thing you do need “quick & dirty” rules-of-thumb, and the assertion seems broadly plausible. On the other hand, the Hispanic attitude toward gay marriage isn’t really that different from non-Hispanic white (see GSS MARHOMO variable). So I decided to query non-Hispanic white and Hispanic attitudes to a range of “hot-button” social issues in the GSS. I also broke it down by college vs. non-college educated cohorts. All results are from the year 2000 and later.

	White non-Hispanic		Hispanic
	No college	College	No college	College
Abortion on demand, yes	38	53	28	47
Abortion if serious defect, yes	75	70	67	79
Make divorce easier	23	16	44	28
Keep divorce laws same	23	34	17	40
Make divorce more difficult	55	50	38	32
Premarital sex always wrong	26	19	21	16
Premarital sex almost always wrong	8	8	10	7
Premarital sex sometimes wrong	18	23	20	13
Premarital sex not wrong at all	47	50	49	64
Homosexual sex always wrong	58	35	61	33
Homosexual sex almost always wrong	4	5	5	4
Homosexual sex sometimes wrong	6	11	7	9
Homosexual sex not wrong at all	32	48	27	55
Porn should be illegal to all	40	30	36	25
Porn should be illegal to under 18	57	67	60	70
Porn should be legal to all	3	3	4	4
Strongly favor spanking children	28	17	25	19
Favor spanking children	47	44	44	43
Do not favor spanking children	19	28	22	20
Strongly do not favor spanking children	6	11	9	17
Allow incurable patients to die	72	72	58	76
Strongly agree better for man to work, woman to tend home	10	5	14	9
Agree better for man to work, woman to tend home	31	19	32	16
Disagree better for man to work, woman to tend home	43	49	43	48
Strongly disagree better for man to work, woman to tend home	16	28	11	27

These results can be used to support the proposition that Hispanics are socially conservative. But they are not of the magnitude or direction of difference that one finds when comparing evangelical white Protestants to other whites, or even blacks to whites. So though technically defensible, I think the assertion that Hispanics are socially conservative in their attitudes misleads the public somewhat.

(unless the divorce results are mis-coded, they do seem correct)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Despite the fact that 70% of Hispanics vote Rat. Legalizing 11-20 million more of them is a recipe for permanent minorities for decades.

[kabar]

The out of wedlock birth rate for Hispanics is 53%. What’s conservative about that?

[freerepublicchat]

WHICH LATINO VOTERS?

It makes a huge difference which Latino voters one talks about. Latino voters themselves will tell you that there are huge differences among them.

Democrats are trying to roll them all into a single voting block that will vote Democrat. We can't let that happen.

There has to be some precision in separating Latinos that have come to America, are assimilating, and have embraced the American way, and those Latinos that came here for free stuff.

[freerepublicchat]

I beg to differ. We have been told for over thirty years that Latinos were really conservative and just dying to become Republicans. The last few elections have proved that to be false.

It comes down to which wave they came in on.

Reagan was an inspiration. Immigrants can be inspired by a great leader of their new country just as much as the native people. Those that came in under Reagan are Reagan Latinos. And they do vote Republican.

The next wave came in under Clinton/Bush. What was their inspiration? New Latinos have been cultured into a very different world -- an uninspiring world.

That same thing has happened to millennials. Worse, they're cynical. They don't start families. They're unemployed.

If we can find someone that can inspire millennials, we'll have no trouble inspiring new immigrants. Amnesty wouldn't be a huge problem with such a leader.

But where is that leader today?

[headstamp 2]

The reverend warned that the Hispanic community is becoming alienated by Republican rhetoric on the issue, much like “African Americans left the party of Lincoln due partly to rhetoric around civil rights.” “The Hispanic community is about less government, it is afraid of big government,” he added.”

Sorry Reverend you are delusional. Republicans helped pass civil rights legislation in the early sixties. Hispanic immigrants are overwhelmingly dependent on government assistance.

[ExCTCitizen]

I think if we sit down with Hispanics, I think you’ll see that they are conservative. That said, I think illegals should be sent back and pay fines and then ask to be an American citizen.

[elpadre]

I am an in my eighties and have lived in worked in several locations around the US and some outside the US. In my lifetime I have known quite a few Hispanics. Some were professionals - engineers and medical doctors - some worked in factories, usually as supervisors. And most of them Cuban or the Dominican Republic. They were all patriotic, some were veterans, and conservative. Am I supposed to equate them to the ones being described on this post?

[kabar]

I am an in my eighties and have lived in worked in several locations around the US and some outside the US. In my lifetime I have known quite a few Hispanics. Some were professionals - engineers and medical doctors - some worked in factories, usually as supervisors. And most of them Cuban or the Dominican Republic. They were all patriotic, some were veterans, and conservative. Am I supposed to equate them to the ones being described on this post?

I am in my 70s. In 1970 one in 21 was foreign born in this country; today it is one in 8, the highest it has been in 90 years; and within a decade it will be one in 7, the highest in our history. We have gone from 9.7 million foreign born in 1970 to 45 million today.

Here is a breakdown of the educational levels of immigrants, legal and illegal, compared to the native born. Our immigration policies are importing poverty thru mostly unskilled and uneducated immigrants.

About one quarter of our immigrants come from Mexico. 34.5 percent of Mexican immigrants in 2010 indicated in the survey that they arrived in 2000 or later. For immigrants from countries such as India, Guatemala, Honduras, and Brazil, roughly half arrived during the last decade. In contrast, for countries like Canada and Vietnam, few are recent arrivals.

The demographics of this country are rapidly changing fueled by immigration and minority birthrates. We bring in 1.2 million permanent legal immigrants a year, 87% of whom are minorities as classified by the USG. We will be a majority-minority country for the first time in our history by 2043. Half of the children 18 and under will be minorities by 2019. The children of immigrants account for one-third of all children in poverty.

There are 10.4 million students from immigrant households in public schools, accounting for one in five public school students. Of these students, 78 percent speak a language other than English at home. Overall, one in four public school students now speaks a language other than English at home.

[kabar]

Are blacks conservative?

[kabar]

Amnesty is not the main problem. Our legal immigration policies are far more destructive.

[nomad]

And people still wonder why some of us hate that party!

[TBP]

Supporting any form of amnesty will lose more votes than it will gain.

[ExCTCitizen]

Now, regarding your question, most people on FR if they aren't 100% in agreement, they are not conservatives. Blacks whom I met in business are, so are gays, naturists (nudists), Asians, high school students, etc.

Maybe they have disagreements on some issues, but most people I talk to are fiscal conservatives and most are social conservatives, too.

[rodguy911]

I’ve spoken with “Latinos” in Southern California who are here legally and from my understanding, the bulk of those who actually believe in earning an honest living are not fans of illegals and are disgusted with them.

That's true and we have the same thing here with Miami Cubans but the problem is there are fewer of these guys every year as the huge illegal population overwhelms all else. It may be too late to hope for change.