The Real Reason Republicans Don’t Want Immigration Reform

60%

Of House GOP members (143 of 232) represent congressional districts where Latinos make up less than 10% of the population, and that’s the reason they are balking at reform — not because they don’t trust President Obama on immigration reform, NBC News says. “In addition, Republicans don’t really face serious Democratic opposition in 80% of the districts (71 of 89) with more than 10% of Latinos, meaning their biggest threat to re-election comes from an intra-party primary. As a result, more than nine in 10 of House Republicans will be nearly unfazed by any possible pro-immigration-reform backlash heading into the November election.”

Despite Rules at Univision Forum, Romney Packed Audience with Political Operatives and Supporters

Buzzfeed:

[Maria Elena Salinas, one of the Univision anchors who moderated the forums] told BuzzFeed that tickets for each forum were divided between the network, the respective campaigns, and the University of Miami (which hosted the events) — and she said both campaigns initially agreed to keep the audience comprised mostly of students, in keeping with the events’ education theme.

But after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus, the Romney camp realized there weren’t enough sympathetic students to fill the stands on their night — so they told the network and university that if they weren’t given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to “reschedule.”

The organizers relented. One Democrat with ties to the Obama campaign noted that Rudy Fernandez, the university official charged with coordinating the forums, is a member of Romney’s Hispanic steering committee…

Romney’s team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.

[…]

Union Plans to Turn Out Latin Vote

Despite being urged not to vote by a group with ties to the Bush White House and financing from GOP and pro-life leaders, Latinos will vote this year. So says Hector Figueroa, an officer with the Service Employees International Union-32BJ (SEIU), who claims most American Latinos are eager to cast their ballots.

Figueroa…says that almost 60 percent of Latino voters now say they are “very enthusiastic” about voting, up from 41 percent on September 6, according to the latest Latino Decisions tracking poll.

“There is a strong sentiment that those behind the Arizona law have been able to place candidates in strategic elections, and their election would be quite detrimental to our community. So in some ways it has galvanized attention. And Latinos want to be there at the polls and be counted.”

They want to be counted in spite of shameful ads like this one, run by the shadowy Latinos 4 Reform:

And if watching the ad itself doesn’t inspire Latino outrage at those who would cynically keep them out of the democratic process, SEIU volunteers will be working the phones on election day to turn out the Latino vote.

Sotomayor Was Only the Beginning: Obama Appoints Historic Numbers of Latinos

LatinoObamaThat Pres. Obama has nominated more Hispanic or Latino appointees than any of his predecessors might indicate more about how well and broadly this group has assimilated in American society than about his commitment to diversity. Not that he’s not committed to diversity, mind you, just that it might be an easy thing to be committed to.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is by far Obama’s most famous Hispanic appointee. In less than a year in office, the president has also tapped at least 48 other Hispanics to positions senior enough to require Senate confirmation. So far, 35 have been approved.

That compares with a total of 30 approved under Bill Clinton and 34 under George W. Bush during their first 20 months in office, according to U.S. Office of Personnel Management data…

The officials cover a wide swath of policy areas and include:

— [Labor Secretary Hilda] Solis, [first female Latina cabinet member], a California native and former congresswoman whose parents hail from Mexico and Nicaragua.

— Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, an Ivy Leauger from New York whose parents fled the Dominican Republic dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.

— Jose Riojas, assistant secretary for veterans affairs, a retired brigadier general and Mexican-American from Missouri.

George Bush, whose sister-in-law, Columba (wife of Jeb), is Mexican, and whose father, Bush 41, famously referred to his “little brown” grandchildren, was seen as friendlier to Hispanics than any other president.

But in one way, Obama’s picks are the opposite of diverse and reveal something else about the president’s comfort level.

More than half of the appointees hold an Ivy League degree, and more than a quarter, like the president, have a diploma from Harvard, an Associated Press review found.