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 News from Around the Americas | September 2007 
US Activists, Candidates Aim to Get Latinos to Polls
 Jason Clayworth - Des Moines Register
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| | Bernard Ortiz, a union worker, hangs a sign Friday at a grocery store in Des Moines urging customers to register to vote in the Iowa caucuses. “We're very decent, hard-working people and once we establish ourselves here, we love the United States just like the next guy,” he said about Latino immigrants. Since June, Ortiz has helped register more than 300 Latino residents. (Christopher Gannon/The Register) |
The heated debate over immigration has spurred Bernard Ortiz - and a handful of presidential candidates - to help mobilize Iowa's Latinos in an effort to shape the outcome of the state's upcoming caucuses and the 2008 presidential election.
Ortiz, as a union worker, has helped hundreds of Latinos register to vote, while some presidential candidates have reached out beyond traditional mailings and phone calls to seek their support. For example, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, both Democrats, have introduced Latino outreach programs.
Some Republicans have also made efforts to draw Latino voters, at least in other states. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, for example, ran Spanish-language campaign ads earlier this year in Florida to court Cuban-Americans.
Numbers, they say, underscore the growing importance of the Latino vote.
The latest U.S. census estimates last year showed there are almost 115,000 Hispanics in Iowa, an increase of 39 percent since 2000. That number represents the state's largest minority and is one that Latino advocates and population experts generally agree is undercounted.
And while many of Iowa's Latino residents can't vote because of age or citizenship requirements, thousands can, and that presents an opportunity for political organizers.
The state has roughly 2.2 million residents who are of voting age, but few typically take part in the presidential caucuses.
In 2004, for example, roughly 124,000 Iowans participated in the Democratic caucuses.
A Republican Party official estimates about 100,000 Iowans will caucus for the party, and some Democrats are predicting a larger turnout than in 2004.
Latino advocates, however, generally agree that if even a fraction of Latino residents vote, they can greatly influence the outcome of the caucuses and possibly deflect support away from the campaigns of candidates they feel have unfairly targeted immigrants.
"The Latino community is finally beginning to understand the importance of getting involved in the political arena," said Ortiz, an Altoona resident who is leading a Latino voter registration outreach for Service Employees International Union. "Especially since the last midterm election, when politicians began using immigrants as a scare tactic to motivate their base."
One of the biggest issues is an idea to build a 2,000-mile fence along the northern Mexican border. Advocates of the project say it would protect the United States from illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorists.
But the biggest issue came in June when the U.S. Senate failed to approve a proposal that would have tightened the borders while also giving up to 12 million immigrants a route to legal status, provided they pay thousands of dollars in fees and penalties.
Some residents were outraged that the bill would allow those in the country illegally to eventually become citizens. They bombarded Congress with phone calls, saying it was "amnesty." Eventually, both liberals and conservatives backed away from the plan.
Those disputes helped ignite the immigration debate and become platform issues for some presidential candidates. Republican candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, for example, advocates reducing legal immigration and stepping up criminal prosecutions against employers who hire undocumented workers.
"Friends, we are losing our country," Tancredo said in a recent television ad. "More than 15 million illegal aliens have invaded our land."
Tancredo spokesman Bill Salier emphasized that the focus is upon illegal immigration and the problems it causes, such as compromising national security. Tancredo has respect for people who have gone through legal channels to become U.S. citizens, Salier said.
"This is a key issue of our time, and if we nominate an individual who is not serious, and who has not had a background in aggressively trying to secure our nation's borders and enforce the existing laws we have, then it could be bad for the party," Salier said.
Alex Orozco, an organizer for United for the Dignity and Safety of Immigrants, organized a two-day vigil at downtown Des Moines' Nollen Plaza in June advocating for improvements to the immigration system. People at the vigil advocated for fair and dignified ways to become citizens and have said phrases such as those used by Tancredo elicit rage against immigrants.
Orozco said that both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have failed to adequately voice support for Latino residents and that the debate has been harmful to both parties.
"It's because of their lack of action and honesty in immigration policy," Orozco said about Democrats.
"While Republicans have been the ones actively proposing legislation that's more punitive, Democrats have not stood up anywhere close enough to ask for the fair policy that we feel needs to be considered."
Nonetheless, Orozco said he believes the immigration debate has likely harmed Republicans more than Democrats.
President Bush in 2004 received 44 percent of the Latino vote, according to the National Elections Pool exit poll. In his 2000 race, Bush had 31 percent of the Latino vote, and in 1996 Bob Dole won 21 percent.
The Latino vote is significant. In 2000, for example, the popular vote separated Bush and Al Gore by 0.51 percent.
On Sunday in Miami, Democratic presidential candidates took part in the first-ever Spanish-language presidential debate, which involved instant translation. A similar Republican debate was indefinitely postponed after Arizona Sen. John McCain was the only candidate who accepted the invitation.
"Almost without question, the most important swing constituency nationwide is Latino voters," said Gordon Fischer, former Iowa Democratic Party chairman. "That certainly applies to Iowa as well."
Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa Republican Party, said he believes that many Latino voters agree that immigration reforms are necessary.
"You look at the polling amongst the Hispanic population here in Iowa, and they're not for mass illegal immigration, they're for official English language, they're for a lot of those things. The polling is in our favor," Laudner said.
From 1990 to 2000, the Latino population in the United States grew from 22.4 million to 35.3 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the past 30 years the number of Latino residents registered to vote increased from 2.5 million to more than 10.5 million, according to information from the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute.
While some presidential candidates are making attempts to reach out, Latino voters are looking more closely at records on immigration and other issues that are critical to their community, said Armando Villareal, administrator for the Iowa Division of Latino Affairs. Even New Mexico's Richardson, who is Latino himself, is getting highly scrutinized, he said.
Latino voters share many of the same concerns and hopes as the majority of Americans, according to some polls. A survey of 1,026 Latino voters that was taken in July, for example, found that almost 90 percent said improving public education was their top priority, according to the advocacy group "Strong American Schools."
In the past three months, Ortiz has helped register more than 300 Latino residents, mostly in the Des Moines area.
"We're very decent, hard-working people and once we establish ourselves here, we love the United States just like the next guy," Ortiz said.
Ignacio Ramirez, owner of La Favorita grocery store at 1700 E. Grand Ave. in Des Moines, allows Ortiz to frequently set up voter registration booths in his store. His daughter, Gricelda, 20, was one of the first who registered.
"To get people to register to vote is very important," Ignacio Ramirez said.
"Us Latinos have got to get together," Gricelda added.
Reporter Jason Clayworth can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or jclayworth@dmreg.com |
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