There was a time when Hispanic political leaders and the Hispanic labor leadership reflected the true sentiment of the Hispanic community in supporting border controls and employer sanctions. Long-time FAIR board member Otis Graham details this history in this fine blog posting. That was before the Hispanic grassroots were displaced by a form of Hispanic Astro Turf. What now passes for Hispanic leadership was actually constructed beginning in the late 1960s by New York City foundation grants creating the best professional political organizers “charity” money can buy.
Today, authentic Hispanic voices are drowned out by this professional class of party operators (you know who they are) who audaciously ignore the devastating impacts of unmanaged immigration on the Hispanic community while insisting all efforts to slow immigration is rooted in anti-Latino bias. Dr. Graham, an expert in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, suggests that newly-emerging figures like Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Susana Martinez may be the harbingers of a new, authentic leadership reflecting the true voice of the Hispanic voting community. Let’s hope so, but if they are to succeed, they’ll first have to overcome the cynical harassment and manipulations of the embedded “ethnics for hire” that seek to divide Hispanic voters on crucial questions of immigration, labor and national unity. (See FAIR Board member Bill Chip’s comments after the article in which he points out that today’s orchestrated refrain that immigration control is somehow “anti-Latino” is a cynical effort to stoke resentment for partisan political gain.)