May, 26 2011, 04:00pm EDT
Anti-Immigration Forces Try to Convince GOP that Latino Voters Don't Care About Immigration
Once Again, Center for Immigration Studies Plays Fast and Loose with the Facts
WASHINGTON
The Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration "think tank" founded by FAIR, just published a new post titled "The Hispanic Vote in 2010: No Discernible Trend." Yes, that's right, the same group that used its vast expertise on issues like climate change and public health to conclude that immigrants cause global warming and teenage obesity is now remaking itself into an "expert" on the Latino vote.
Clearly, CIS' goal is to lull the Republican Party into complacency over the immigration issue. They and their allies in Congress, led by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), have been desperately trying to rewrite the results of the 2010 elections after Latino voters--galvanized by anti-immigrant politicking from Republicans like Sharron Angle and Meg Whitman--saved the Senate for the Democrats.
According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America's Voice, "The Center for Immigration Studies and Rep. Smith are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. And Republican politicians are entitled to ignore demographic realities and follow CIS and Smith's advice on immigration, but I hope they're ready to become a regional party."
Here are the unimpeachable facts about Latino voters and the 2010 elections--drawn from actual polls and real scientific analysis, not conjecture from the Latino voter "experts" over at CIS.
FACT ONE: The national exit polls are seriously flawed when it comes to capturing the voting behavior of Latino voters. The media organizations that paid big money to sponsor the national exit polls may not want to admit it, but those polls are notoriously flawed when it comes to reporting on the behavior of subgroups like Latino voters. Even the head of the 2004 national exit poll, Warren Mitofsky, has admitted as much. In a rigorous post-election analysis using precinct-by-precinct voting data, Dr. Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions proved that the Nevada and Arizona exit polls' Latino results were "mathematically impossible," and that the election eve polls from Latino Decisions were much more accurate in reporting actual voter behavior. According to the Latino Decisions election eve poll of 3,200 Latino voters, only 24% of Latinos supported Republicans in 2010--not the 38% from the exit polls touted by the Center for Immigration Studies.
FACT TWO: Latino voters do care about immigration reform. They are motivated to turn out for candidates who embrace common sense reform, and against candidates who demonize them. Despite CIS' claims to the contrary, polls show immigration to be one of the top issues for Latino voters--and the issue has steadily increased in importance over the years. In both the February 2011 and April 2011 Latino Decisions/impreMedia polls, immigration was the number one issue for Latino voters. In Latino Decisions' 2010 election eve poll, immigration was second in importance after jobs and the economy, but 60% of voters said immigration was either "the most important issue" or "one of the most important issues" in determining their decision to vote and whom to vote for. Latino Decisions' 2010 tracking poll, conducted on a weekly basis prior to the November elections, showed Latino support for the Democrats increased after the initial DREAM Act debate in September.
FACT THREE: Latino voters do have a direct, personal connection to the immigration issue. CIS makes the outrageous claim that Latino voters lack "direct personal experience with immigration" and therefore don't care much about the issue. Again, polls of actual voters show this to be blatantly false. In a December 2009 poll from Bendixen & Amandi, 62% of Latino voters said they have a family member, neighbor, coworker, or friend who is undocumented. To them, deportation is not just an abstract concept, but a real threat to someone they know and love. In 2010, 53% of Latino voters said that anti-immigrant or anti-Latino sentiment was one of the most important factors in their voting decisions, according to the Latino Decisions election eve poll. Anti-immigrant laws like Arizona's S.B. 1070 cast a wide net, turning anyone who "looks" like an immigrant into a suspect. Latino voters feel personally attacked and vilified by these proposals and the politicians behind them. The most strident anti-immigrant campaigner in 2010, Sharron Angle of Nevada, failed even to clear double digits with Latino voters. After a series of ugly, race-baiting ads and public statements, Angle won just 8% of the Latino vote while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won 90%, pushing him over the top.
FACT FOUR: In 2010 Latino voters--and anti-immigrant campaigning from Republicans--kept the Senate in Democratic hands. Perhaps the most inconvenient truth for CIS is this: in 2010, anti-immigrant campaigning and the power of the Latino vote re-elected Senate Democrats in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Washington, ending the Republican wave at the Rockies. This was the first "wave election" in 80 years where the ascendant party failed to capture both chambers of Congress.
Tramonte continued: "Politicians who want to understand Latino voters should look to the real experts, not anti-immigrant groups--and by real experts, I mean Latino voters themselves. Poll after poll shows that Latino voters care about immigration reform, support candidates who embrace common sense solutions, and reject candidates who demonize them and their loved ones. It's time for Republicans in Congress to do the right thing on immigration--not only for the good of the country, but for their own political futures."
America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform. The mission of America's Voice is to realize the promise of workable and humane comprehensive immigration reform. Our goal is to build the public support and create the political momentum for reforms that will transform a dysfunctional immigration system that does not work into a regulatory system that does.
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US Healthcare Workers Back From Gaza Tell Harris and Biden: 'End This Madness'
"Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets."
Jul 26, 2024
As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, dozens of American healthcare workers who recently volunteered in the Gaza Strip urged the U.S. leaders to do everything in their power to end Israel's assault on the enclave, citing the horrors they witnessed firsthand.
In an open letter addressed to Biden, Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden, 45 physicians, surgeons, and nurses wrote that "we wish you could see the nightmares that plague so many of us since we have returned: dreams of children maimed and mutilated by our weapons, and their inconsolable mothers begging us to save them."
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The healthcare workers called on the Biden administration to "withhold military, economic, and diplomatic support from the state of Israel and to participate in an international arms embargo of both Israel and all Palestinian armed groups until a permanent cease-fire is established, and until good-faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict."
"We are not politicians. We do not claim to have all the answers," they continued. "We are simply physicians and nurses who cannot remain silent about what we saw in Gaza. Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets. President Biden and Vice President Harris, we urge you: End this madness now!"
This is an open letter addressed to @POTUS, @VP , and @FLOTUS signed by 45 American physicians and nurses, about what we saw while working in Gaza. Please feel free to distribute. A PDF can be downloaded from the link and/or QR code on page 1. pic.twitter.com/LHVvmeAFad
— Feroze Sidhwa (@FerozeSidhwa) July 25, 2024
The letter was released as Netanyahu, fresh off his widely condemned address to the U.S. Congress, met separately on Thursday with Biden and Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In remarks following her meeting with Netanyahu, Harris said that "what has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating," pointing to "the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time."
"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies," the vice president added. "We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent."
Harris said she told Netanyahu directly to "get this deal done"—referring to a cease-fire agreement with Hamas—but, as expected, she did not break with the administration on supplying arms to the Israeli military.
While there has been no obvious policy change from the administration now that Harris has taken over for Biden at the top of the Democratic Party's presidential ticket, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft argued that the vice president "clearly broke with Biden on Israel in terms of rhetoric and tone."
Parsi also contended that there was "a substance shift."
"Biden has disingenuously claimed that Hamas blocked a cease-fire deal," Parsi wrote on social media. "By saying that she urged Netanyahu 'to clinch the deal,' Kamala pointed to the real obstacle."
BREAKING: VP Harris speaks after meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu
Harris calling for an immediate cease-fire deal to free the hostages.
The VP saying she “will not be silent" about the suffering in Gaza, the "devastating" loss of life and the "dire" humanitarian crisis. pic.twitter.com/Fe5QPoOuFh
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 25, 2024
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The healthcare workers expressed the view that—based on available evidence and their experiences—"the death toll from this conflictis many times higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health," which currently stands at over 39,100.
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Labor advocates on Thursday decried a ruling by the California Supreme Court upholding a lower court's affirmation of a state ballot measure allowing app-based ride and delivery companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors, limiting their worker rights.
The court's seven justices ruled unanimously in Castellanos v. State of California that Proposition 22, which was approved by 58% of California voters in 2020, complies with the state constitution. Prop 22—which was overturned in 2021 by an Alameda County Superior Court judge in 2021—was upheld in March 2023 by the state's 1st District Court of Appeals.
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There are approximately 1.4 million app-based gig workers in California, according to industry estimates.
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"Over the last three years, gig workers across California have experienced firsthand that Prop 22 is nothing more than a bait-and-switch meant to enrich global corporations at the expense of the Black, brown, and immigrant workers who power their earnings," plaintiff Hector Castellanos, who drives for Uber and Lyft, said in a statement.
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Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, said that "we are deeply disappointed that the state Supreme Court has allowed tech corporations to buy their way out of basic labor laws despite Proposition 22's inconsistencies with our state constitution."
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