Sunday, June 12, 2011

Will Sanctuary City Bill Mobilize Hispanics Next Year?

Probably the single most divisive issue in the Republican Party in Texas right now is the fact that Rick Perry has made it a priority that the legislature passes a Sanctuary City bill.

Norman Adams who heads up Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy finds that he and his group must oppose the Governor’s wish for passage of this anti-Hispanic bill, and for good reason. The number one demographic increase in Texas that is responsible for Texas acquiring 4 additional seats in Congress is the Hispanic population.

If they are to stay in power, Republicans must curry favor with this population, not something that is going to happen anytime soon if as Adams says since “Hispanic voters will not support a party that wants to deport their mother and father.”

Yeah, I guess I would be a little averse to cast a vote for a Republican given that kind of result.

But it goes even further. It goes to the economy. Witness what SB 1070 did to Arizona’s economy. Arizona lost business through both active and passive boycotting.
“If you want to find out if we can actually survive deporting these people, go look at what has happened in Arizona. They are in the biggest economic collapse of history,” he said. “Apartments are empty, houses are being repossessed and strip centers are half empty. It’s terrible.”
Yeah, I had to find a way to incorporate that quote somehow.

Now the only question I have goes back to the title of this post. Hispanics are notorious for not showing up on Election Day. The phenomenom is unexplainable. But I have to ask will passage of a Sanctuary City bill in the legislature be of sufficient motivation for Hispanics to get out and vote this time?

If so, the Texas GOP may just shoot itself in the foot with this bill.

A notion I relish.

2 comments:

Greg said...

I'm curious what other laws you believe should go unenforced in order to aid the political fortunes of one party or another. Maybe we should quit enforcing drug laws due to the number of minority dealers and users -- especially those narco-terrorist gangs (not to mention the human traffickers). Norman Adams is flat out wrong on the matter; let the Democrats remain the party of lawlessness and the GOP be the law-and-order party, because in the end there are more folks of every ethnic background (including Hispanics) who believe that a society founded on respect for law is better than the sort of anarchy you and Adams propose.

The one point I agree with Adams on is that we do need to fix our immigration system, making it more rational and allowing in more immigrants. But when you consider that each year we LEGALLY admit twice as many Mexicans as we do Chinese, no one can argue that Mexicans face an undue burden -- after all, we legally admit them at 25 times the rate per capita that we do Chinese, despite the fact that those Chinese immigrants tend to be better educated and have more desirable skill sets for the American economy.

Hal said...

You go Greg. My oh my do you even realize what it is you just wrote?