Miguel Perez from Creators Syndicate

Romney: The DREAM Latino Unifier for 02/07/2012

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In our public schools, we taught them to be civic minded and to exercise their rights as Americans. There were no separate courses where young undocumented immigrants could learn how to be submissive second-class citizens. When they learned about Martin Luther King's dream, they felt they had the right to dream that way, too.

So let's not be surprised when we see them getting involved in ...

Updated: Tue Feb 07, 2012

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Snake Oil Peddlers for 01/31/2012

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

It takes a lot of gall to defend either Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney in the Hispanic community nowadays. And yet, we see them out there, the Latino GOP surrogates — selling snake oil to their own people.

The Republican candidates have spent months scapegoating undocumented immigrants and sending dog-whistle, anti-Latino messages to right-wing extremists, but their surrogates appare ...

Updated: Tue Jan 31, 2012

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My Mother Wouldn't Let Me Vote for Gingrich for 01/24/2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, back in the mid-'90s, Newt Gingrich was trying to take away her healthcare benefits.

She had been a legal U.S. resident for many years, but Gingrich's "Contract with America" was bent on denying Medicare benefits to all legal immigrants who had not become U.S. citizens.

I think about my mother often nowadays, especially when ...

Updated: Tue Jan 24, 2012

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Romney's Bilingual Hypocrisy for 01/17/2012

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In the past, Republican presidential candidates would only have to be a little hypocritical as they came back from extremist right-wing views driven by the GOP primaries and then tried to appeal to moderates — just in time for the general election.

But this time, after the radical, over-the-cliff positions all the candidates have taken, unprecedented, industrial quantities of hypoc ...

Updated: Tue Jan 17, 2012

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Long-Overdue Action, Even If It's Just Politics for 01/10/2012

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In yet another welcomed administrative move to ease the hardships of undocumented immigrants, the Obama administration, last week, proposed new rules that will allow some immigrants to remain in the country while they apply for legal residency.

It applies only to the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who already qualify for legal status. All it does is shorten the time they would have ...

Updated: Tue Jan 10, 2012

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America's First Christmas for 12/27/2011

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Editor's Note: This is the 25th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com.

Now that we have welcomed Santa, some of us are getting ready to receive the three wise men on Jan. 6. In our annual Latino struggle to preserve our own Hispanic holiday traditions, a little history is ...

Updated: Tue Dec 27, 2011

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If They Sought Arpaio's Support, How Can They be Our Amigos? for 12/20/2011

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The U.S. Justice Department says Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio ran the nation's "most egregious system" of racial profiling, presided over a "chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations" and engaged in a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos.

Yet while all this was happening, even as Latinos cried out for justice, most of the G ...

Updated: Tue Dec 20, 2011

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Debates Define Their Demagoguery for 12/13/2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

It's not that the question hasn't been asked. In fact, in this presidential campaign season, we hear it more than ever. Yet until now, the leading Republican candidates had refused to answer it.

In countless GOP presidential debates, where the issue of immigration has been discussed this year, most of the candidates had managed to avoid explaining precisely what they would do with the 11 ...

Updated: Tue Dec 13, 2011

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Beyond the Point of No Return for 12/06/2011

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Only a few months ago, the questions would have been easy to answer, before the GOP presidential candidates began to campaign. Yet they caused me a momentary brain freeze as I was sitting in front of a TV camera Monday morning in Manhattan.

"What do they have to do ... to win the Hispanic vote? What do they have to say about immigration so that the Hispanic community can consider th ...

Updated: Tue Dec 06, 2011

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With Amigos Like Gingrich, Who Needs Enemigos? for 11/29/2011

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The TV pundits said it was "a huge gamble" and a "very courageous move." But those comments on Newt Gingrich's "legalization without citizenship" proposal showed how distant most of them are from the heart of the U.S. Hispanic community.

The only thing that seemed to worry the talking heads was the backlash Gingrich was likely to encounter from conservatives ...

Updated: Tue Nov 29, 2011

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Changing the Faces of Hatred for 11/22/2011

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

After getting thrown out of office in a recall election, you would think some politicians finally would realize that scapegoating and bashing illegal immigrants is not really a good idea, right?

Nah! Not if you are the face of hatred, the poster boy of xenophobes — not if you are Russell Pearce. You have an image to maintain.

Even after voters sent the Republican Arizona Sen ...

Updated: Tue Nov 22, 2011

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Why Vote for Obama? Let's Go to the Video Tape for 11/15/2011

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Imagine a Spanish-language TV commercial featuring Mitt Romney and Rick Perry accusing each other of being too weak on immigration or a radio spot featuring Herman Cain "joking" about building an electrified border fence that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. Envision a video clip of Newt Gingrich answering every immigration question by vowing to make English th ...

Updated: Tue Nov 15, 2011

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Death of Democracy in Nicaragua for 11/08/2011

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

International observers say they were denied access to many voting stations, hundreds of voting irregularities were reported, election officials and "paramilitary mobs" were accused of obstructing opposition party observers and the "winner" of the Nicaraguan presidential election was not even eligible to run, according to their constitution.

Nevertheless, Daniel Orteg ...

Updated: Tue Nov 08, 2011

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Beware of the GOP's Latino Spinners for 11/01/2011

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Look for them on your television, hear them on your radio, read them in the blogs — and beware of the phony indignation they will try to sell you. In English or Spanish, their cheap act will be easily detectable.

When Latinos who claim to speak for the Republican Party pretend to be angry because the Democrats didn't get amnesty for undocumented immigrants, remember that they belon ...

Updated: Tue Nov 01, 2011

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Are Some Latinos in the Wrong Party? for 10/25/2011

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

You would have to go back several decades to encounter the kind of outright racism and xenophobia-based politics that unfortunately, in recent years, have enjoyed a revival in the United States. You would also have to be living in a complete vacuum to fail to see how detrimentally these politics affect U.S. Latinos, as well as how most of it has been driven by Republicans!

Still, we see ...

Updated: Tue Oct 25, 2011

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The American Dream Lives in Dayton for 10/18/2011

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Amid all the recent efforts to subjugate undocumented immigrants -- the Obama administration breaking deportation records, the states passing draconian and unconstitutional laws and the Republican presidential candidates using immigrants as guinea pigs to score cheap political points -- the light at the end of the tunnel is coming from Dayton, Ohio.

While other cities and states are d ...

Updated: Tue Oct 18, 2011

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Alabama's Ethnic Cleansing for 10/11/2011

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Almost 50 years after the federal government forced former Alabama Gov. George Wallace to swallow his bigotry and allow African-Americans to attend state universities, a new Alabama governor is turning back the clock to a time when human and civil rights were routinely violated.

And again, the federal government is having to intervene — this time stop Alabama Republican Gov. Robert ...

Updated: Tue Oct 11, 2011

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Running to The Right, and Falling off A Cliff for 10/04/2011

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, we all expected a sprint to right, but we didn't expect the candidates to fall over a cliff with Latino voters — at least not so soon.

We still are months away from the first primaries and already most GOP contenders have totally alienated the segment of the voting population that could swing the 2012 general election.

...

Updated: Tue Oct 04, 2011

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From Cuba With Nada for 09/27/2011

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Every once in a while, we send a useful fool to Havana. They go bearing gifts from the U.S. government; concessions we are willing to make to the world's oldest dictatorship — and one of the most repressive regimes on the planet — without getting anything in return.

Sometimes we think we actually are making progress. Yet when Fidel and Raul Castro's Communist dictatorship mak ...

Updated: Tue Sep 27, 2011

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Undermining Democracy for 09/13/2011

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

It is the dirtiest form of politics, the kind usually practiced by unscrupulous political operatives who seek advantage, even at the risk of eroding and undermining our precious democracy. It goes against everything we stand for, and yet we've seen it practiced throughout our history. When some people feel they can't win an election fairly, they turn to voter suppression.

If you can keep ...

Updated: Tue Sep 13, 2011

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