2012-3 Creators columns with links no longer working
Latinos Are Moving Counterclockwise
For Latinos in this country, the clock is spinning backward. Both Democrats and Republicans rapidly are diluting the civil rights we have gained over the years.
The Republicans do it overtly, by conducting campaigns and introducing measures to harass immigrants, militarize (only) our border with Mexico, restrict the use of the Spanish language and keep us from voting and by behaving in other draconian ways that clearly illustrate their war against Latinos.
The Democrats do it covertly, by pretending to be our defenders while sitting back and doing absolutely nada. Apparently, they don't feel they have to. As long as the Republicans keep scaring Latinos, Democrats feel they can win our vote by default, as they have in recent elections.
In fact, Republican extremism has made Democrats so confident that they feel they can get away with doing even less for Latinos than other Democrats have in the past. You see this in the way many Democrats in Congress are willing to accept border militarization and huge hurdles on the path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. You see it in a White House where Latinos are inexcusably underrepresented — almost invisible ... Read more ...
Latino Community Leader - Not!
There are community leaders and there are party leaders, and usually there is a huge difference between those two particular species of human beings.
And yet in the American news media, discerning one from the other seems to be very difficult. Some analysts apparently can't tell them apart.
It's very simple: Party leaders tend to put the interests of their party over those of their own people, and community leaders have principles that won't allow them to sell out.
Nevertheless, if you are a party politician who happens to be Hispanic, many in the media automatically assume that you must be a Latino community leader and that you speak for Latinos.
It's crazy! Just because of your ethnicity, some people assume that others in your ethnic group would automatically follow you — even when you normally stand against their best interests.
This is why is it still so hard for some media commentators to accept the fact that Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida doesn't speak for Latinos, and that most Latinos don't see him as their leader ... Read more ...
Mummified Like a Pharaoh?
When I predicted two months ago that Hugo Chavez would get a pharaoh's funeral, believe me, I was being sarcastic. Nowhere in my wildest imagination did I conceive that the Socialist Venezuelan president would actually be mummified.
When I foretold a pharaoh's funeral, I was referring to the pompous ceremonies that indeed we saw in Caracas last week. It was a convention of the most cynical and shameless people on earth, led by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proclaimed that Chavez would be resurrected along with Jesus Christ.
Yet two months ago, had I predicted that Chavez would literally be turned into a mummy and put on display in a museum, I would have probably lost some credibility for taking my sarcasm a little too far.
Nevertheless, here we are: facing the potential that now we will have Chavez for eternity — just like King Tut, Vladimir Lenin and Chiang Kai-sheik ... Read more
A Pharaoh's Funeral and a Grave To Dance On
His followers will make him a socialist martyr and give him a pharaoh's funeral. His opponents will dance on his grave and try to stomp his ideology into oblivion.
That's the way it is with Hugo Chavez. Even though he is apparently on his deathbed in a Cuban hospital, there is no middle ground for the cancer-stricken Venezuelan president. You either love him or hate him.
When he dies soon, there will be a huge fight over whether Venezuelans should honor or dissolve his legacy. In elections that would have to be held within 30 days of the president's death, Venezuelans would get another chance to proceed with or reverse the course of Chavez's Bolivarian (and distinctly anti-American) Revolution.
And for the sake of democracy, let's hope they seize this opportunity to stop their country's march toward Cuban-style totalitarianism. Read more ...
Unlearned Immigration Lessons
Just when we think Republicans finally have learned their immigration lesson, when a landslide of Latino voters kept them out of the White House and threated to wipe the GOP out of contention in future presidential elections, out they come with proposals so ridiculously short of expectations that you feel they are insulting your intelligence — once again!
Now they are acting as if they are forced to give alms, not because of newfound compassion for immigrants but because they lost the election and they are worried about saving their own hide.
Take the new ACHIEVE Act, the first Republican bill proposed in the Senate following the elections. It's the DREAM Act that Democrats have been proposing for years but without a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who came here as children.
Introduced by Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas — two politicians who always have catered to anti-immigrant, xenophobic extremists — the ACHIEVE Act would clearly limit their potential achievements. Although it would offer visas to undocumented immigrants who came here before they turned 14 and are either in the military or pursuing a college degree, it gives them no opportunity to become legal permanent residents and eventually citizens.
They would be relegated to a new status of second-class of citizens, forever unable to fully realize the American dream.
Read more ...
Romney's Problema 06/12/2012
If he wasn't already trying to overcome the image of the politician who would say anything to get elected, if he wasn't already known as the champion of flip-floppers, perhaps Mitt Romney still could Etch A Sketch a new image of himself for the ...
Long-Overdue Action, Even If It's Just Politics 01/10/2012
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. ...
Latinos Are Moving Counterclockwise
For Latinos in this country, the clock is spinning backward. Both Democrats and Republicans rapidly are diluting the civil rights we have gained over the years.
The Republicans do it overtly, by conducting campaigns and introducing measures to harass immigrants, militarize (only) our border with Mexico, restrict the use of the Spanish language and keep us from voting and by behaving in other draconian ways that clearly illustrate their war against Latinos.
The Democrats do it covertly, by pretending to be our defenders while sitting back and doing absolutely nada. Apparently, they don't feel they have to. As long as the Republicans keep scaring Latinos, Democrats feel they can win our vote by default, as they have in recent elections.
In fact, Republican extremism has made Democrats so confident that they feel they can get away with doing even less for Latinos than other Democrats have in the past. You see this in the way many Democrats in Congress are willing to accept border militarization and huge hurdles on the path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. You see it in a White House where Latinos are inexcusably underrepresented — almost invisible ... Read more ...
Latino Community Leader - Not!
There are community leaders and there are party leaders, and usually there is a huge difference between those two particular species of human beings.
And yet in the American news media, discerning one from the other seems to be very difficult. Some analysts apparently can't tell them apart.
It's very simple: Party leaders tend to put the interests of their party over those of their own people, and community leaders have principles that won't allow them to sell out.
Nevertheless, if you are a party politician who happens to be Hispanic, many in the media automatically assume that you must be a Latino community leader and that you speak for Latinos.
It's crazy! Just because of your ethnicity, some people assume that others in your ethnic group would automatically follow you — even when you normally stand against their best interests.
This is why is it still so hard for some media commentators to accept the fact that Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida doesn't speak for Latinos, and that most Latinos don't see him as their leader ... Read more ...
Mummified Like a Pharaoh?
When I predicted two months ago that Hugo Chavez would get a pharaoh's funeral, believe me, I was being sarcastic. Nowhere in my wildest imagination did I conceive that the Socialist Venezuelan president would actually be mummified.
When I foretold a pharaoh's funeral, I was referring to the pompous ceremonies that indeed we saw in Caracas last week. It was a convention of the most cynical and shameless people on earth, led by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proclaimed that Chavez would be resurrected along with Jesus Christ.
Yet two months ago, had I predicted that Chavez would literally be turned into a mummy and put on display in a museum, I would have probably lost some credibility for taking my sarcasm a little too far.
Nevertheless, here we are: facing the potential that now we will have Chavez for eternity — just like King Tut, Vladimir Lenin and Chiang Kai-sheik ... Read more
A Pharaoh's Funeral and a Grave To Dance On
His followers will make him a socialist martyr and give him a pharaoh's funeral. His opponents will dance on his grave and try to stomp his ideology into oblivion.
That's the way it is with Hugo Chavez. Even though he is apparently on his deathbed in a Cuban hospital, there is no middle ground for the cancer-stricken Venezuelan president. You either love him or hate him.
When he dies soon, there will be a huge fight over whether Venezuelans should honor or dissolve his legacy. In elections that would have to be held within 30 days of the president's death, Venezuelans would get another chance to proceed with or reverse the course of Chavez's Bolivarian (and distinctly anti-American) Revolution.
And for the sake of democracy, let's hope they seize this opportunity to stop their country's march toward Cuban-style totalitarianism. Read more ...
Unlearned Immigration Lessons
Just when we think Republicans finally have learned their immigration lesson, when a landslide of Latino voters kept them out of the White House and threated to wipe the GOP out of contention in future presidential elections, out they come with proposals so ridiculously short of expectations that you feel they are insulting your intelligence — once again!
Now they are acting as if they are forced to give alms, not because of newfound compassion for immigrants but because they lost the election and they are worried about saving their own hide.
Take the new ACHIEVE Act, the first Republican bill proposed in the Senate following the elections. It's the DREAM Act that Democrats have been proposing for years but without a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who came here as children.
Introduced by Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas — two politicians who always have catered to anti-immigrant, xenophobic extremists — the ACHIEVE Act would clearly limit their potential achievements. Although it would offer visas to undocumented immigrants who came here before they turned 14 and are either in the military or pursuing a college degree, it gives them no opportunity to become legal permanent residents and eventually citizens.
They would be relegated to a new status of second-class of citizens, forever unable to fully realize the American dream.
Read more ...
Romney's Problema 06/12/2012
If he wasn't already trying to overcome the image of the politician who would say anything to get elected, if he wasn't already known as the champion of flip-floppers, perhaps Mitt Romney still could Etch A Sketch a new image of himself for the ...
Long-Overdue Action, Even If It's Just Politics 01/10/2012
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. ...
2011 Creators columns with links no longer working
If They Sought Arpaio's Support, How Can They be Our Amigos? 12/20/2011
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 ...
Debates Define Their Demagoguery 12/13/2011
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 ...
Beyond the Point of No Return 12/06/2011
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. ...
With Amigos Like Gingrich, Who Needs Enemigos? 11/29/2011
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. ...
Changing the Faces of Hatred 11/22/2011
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 ...
Why Vote for Obama? Let's Go to the Video Tape 11/15/2011
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 ...
Death of Democracy in Nicaragua 11/08/2011
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 "...
Beware of the GOP's Latino Spinners 11/01/2011
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 ...
Are Some Latinos in the Wrong Party? 10/25/2011
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 ...
The American Dream Lives in Dayton 10/18/2011
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 ...
Alabama's Ethnic Cleansing 10/11/2011
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 ...
Running to The Right, and Falling off A Cliff 10/04/2011
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 ...
From Cuba With Nada 09/27/2011
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 ...
Undermining Democracy 09/13/2011
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 ...
Obama Snaffles the Hispanic Vote 08/23/2011
Without having to attend a big banquet or host another White House summit to deliver pandering rhetoric, President Barack Obama finally addressed the Hispanic community last week — with action instead of words. When his administration ...
Perry at the Immigration Crossroads 08/16/2011
Because he has an immigrant-friendly past, you would think that Texas Gov. Rick Perry could easily challenge President Barack Obama for the Hispanic vote in the 2012 presidential election. After all, while Obama has failed to keep his promise ...
Wooing the Latino Vote: A Lesson in GOP Hypocrisy 08/09/2011
Their TV commercials will undoubtedly insult our intelligence. The issues they will try to sell us are not really our issues. The topics we want to discuss will mostly be ignored, but Republican politicians still will try to woo ...
The Great Minority Depression 08/02/2011
Some of my friends are unemployed. Some are making less money than they used to. Some full-timers are now part-timers. Some are having to lay off their employees. Some have lost their homes to foreclosure. Some have seen their nest eggs vanish. I didn'...
Say Adios to Free Speech in Ecuador 07/26/2011
Imagine a legal system that would reward President Barack Obama $40 million every time a pundit questions his sincerity, honesty or place of birth or cites any of the many outrageous allegations and disrespectful statements that constantly are made ...
A Long-Overdue Museum 07/19/2011
Editor's Note: This is the 24th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. Imagine a place where you could retrace 500 years of ...
The Impossible DREAM Act 07/12/2011
They know that for now, they are selling an impossible dream. Yet some Democrats in Congress keep promoting the DREAM Act, the elusive legislation that would create a path to legalization for some 2 million young undocumented immigrants who came here ...
Run for President, but Not on the Fence
06/28/2011The so-called "moderate" in the field of Republican presidential contenders apparently can't seem to decide which side of the immigration fence he wants to fall on. If Jon Huntsman jumps to the right, his pro-immigrant record could ...
Deep South Reclaims Bigotry Title
06/14/2011Just when we thought no other state could beat Arizona as the champion of hatred, xenophobia and immigrant-bashing legislation, the Deep South reclaimed its title as the all-time champion of discrimination. Imagine how the bigots in Georgia and ...
When Ignorance Goes On Tour
06/07/2011As part of her "One Nation" bus tour of American landmarks — and an ego trip with even more mileage — quasi-presidential candidate Sarah Palin went to New York City last week and used Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as a ...
The Supreme Court Is Getting Scary
05/31/2011For many years, when they were telling us what they had in mind, the rest of us refused to believe them. It was just too cruel — too inhumane for the American people to allow it. When immigration hawks said they wanted to make living ...
05/24/2011 Immigrant-Bashing States Need Economic Shoving
Nearly all 50 states have tried to crack down on undocumented immigrants, and nearly all of their most Draconian measures have failed. According to a new Associated Press review of the immigration measures considered by state legislatures, only ...
05/17/2011 Seeking a Latino-Friendly Republican
Considering the track record of the most prominent GOP presidential contenders, it's hard to picture the face of the one who could be reasonable about fixing our broken immigration system. But if there were such a person, if one still emerges in the ...
05/03/2011 What's Not To Celebrate?
Whenever I think of that morning — Sept. 11, 2001 — I feel I'm reliving a terrible nightmare. Most Americans probably feel that way when they remember the images they saw on television. But I watched it all from my balcony! My nightmare ...
04/26/2011 Obama's Latino Problem
Say we Latinos decided to tell President Barack Obama that we are not going to take his cheap rhetoric anymore. Say we told him we are fed up with his empty promises to fix our broken immigration system while his administration breaks deportation ...
04/12/2011 My Own Mold
If I write a column criticizing Republicans, some people assume that I must be a Democrat. If Democrats are my target one week, others conclude I must be a Republican. But if I blast both parties in alternating columns, as has happened coincidentally ...
04/05/2011 Our Man in Havana
Just as the winds of freedom were blowing all over the planet and as the world's oldest dictatorship needed to find a way to divert those winds, Jimmy Carter went to Cuba — ready to build political shelter for the Castro brothers. To have ...
03/29/2011 The Latino Backlash Is Coming Sooner Than Republicans Expected
Now that we know the U.S. Hispanic population has grown even faster than the U.S. Census Bureau projected — already surpassing the 50 million threshold — some Republican politicians are beginning to worry that the GOP could be in trouble.
03/22/2011 For Cuba, a Democratic Presidente
It took more than 50 years to find an opposition leader who could unite the Cuban people and lead a movement that could drive the Fidel/Raul Castro communist dictatorship out of power. But now a person finally has emerged who, many believe, could be ...
03/08/2011 The (Buried) Story of the Flores Family
The story of the Flores family apparently was too contradictory to the stories American news media like to promote nowadays. It just didn't fit in the current media climate. It wasn't about North Africa and the Middle East or about the Tucson, Ariz., ...
03/01/2011 Gadhafi's Three Amigos
Just when we thought Moammar Gadhafi was totally isolated, when his crimes against humanity became so repulsive that no one would dare still call him a friend, it turns out that the Libyan madman still has at least three amigos in Latin America. <...
02/22/2011 Watching Others Realize My Dream
When we see people protesting all over the Arab world — liberating themselves from oppressive dictators, using social media to come together and taking amazing risks in order to regain their freedom — most of us cringe a little. We admire ...
02/15/2011 'Largest Minority' Still Means 'Nada'
Now that the statisticians have begun to crunch the numbers and interpret the information gathered by the 2010 census, get ready for a new epidemic of xenophobia. It happens every 10 years. As census figures reveal that Latinos are multiplying ...
02/01/2011 Obama's Cheap Immigration Rhetoric
President Obama's recent effort to resuscitate the immigration reform debate in Congress — after he allowed it to die and be buried for at least the next couple of years — shows he has little respect for our intelligence. Apparently,...
01/25/2011 Obama's Senseless Cuba Bailout
Until recently, the Obama administration had been surprisingly firm in its posture toward Cuba, always asking for concessions — in terms of freedom for the Cuban people — before lifting sanctions against the Stalinist Castro dictatorship, ...
01/11/2011 Who's To Blame for the Tucson Massacre?
The left said he had to be a tea party extremist because, police say, he shot a Democrat. The right said he had to be a leftist because he read "The Communist Manifesto." The way we jumped to conclusions about Jared Loughner's political ...
01/04/2011 Happy Three Kings Day!
Editor's Note: This is the 22nd part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. To many U.S. Latinos, they are much more than ...
If They Sought Arpaio's Support, How Can They be Our Amigos? 12/20/2011
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 ...
Debates Define Their Demagoguery 12/13/2011
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 ...
Beyond the Point of No Return 12/06/2011
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. ...
With Amigos Like Gingrich, Who Needs Enemigos? 11/29/2011
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. ...
Changing the Faces of Hatred 11/22/2011
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 ...
Why Vote for Obama? Let's Go to the Video Tape 11/15/2011
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 ...
Death of Democracy in Nicaragua 11/08/2011
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 "...
Beware of the GOP's Latino Spinners 11/01/2011
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 ...
Are Some Latinos in the Wrong Party? 10/25/2011
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 ...
The American Dream Lives in Dayton 10/18/2011
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 ...
Alabama's Ethnic Cleansing 10/11/2011
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 ...
Running to The Right, and Falling off A Cliff 10/04/2011
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 ...
From Cuba With Nada 09/27/2011
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 ...
Undermining Democracy 09/13/2011
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 ...
Obama Snaffles the Hispanic Vote 08/23/2011
Without having to attend a big banquet or host another White House summit to deliver pandering rhetoric, President Barack Obama finally addressed the Hispanic community last week — with action instead of words. When his administration ...
Perry at the Immigration Crossroads 08/16/2011
Because he has an immigrant-friendly past, you would think that Texas Gov. Rick Perry could easily challenge President Barack Obama for the Hispanic vote in the 2012 presidential election. After all, while Obama has failed to keep his promise ...
Wooing the Latino Vote: A Lesson in GOP Hypocrisy 08/09/2011
Their TV commercials will undoubtedly insult our intelligence. The issues they will try to sell us are not really our issues. The topics we want to discuss will mostly be ignored, but Republican politicians still will try to woo ...
The Great Minority Depression 08/02/2011
Some of my friends are unemployed. Some are making less money than they used to. Some full-timers are now part-timers. Some are having to lay off their employees. Some have lost their homes to foreclosure. Some have seen their nest eggs vanish. I didn'...
Say Adios to Free Speech in Ecuador 07/26/2011
Imagine a legal system that would reward President Barack Obama $40 million every time a pundit questions his sincerity, honesty or place of birth or cites any of the many outrageous allegations and disrespectful statements that constantly are made ...
A Long-Overdue Museum 07/19/2011
Editor's Note: This is the 24th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. Imagine a place where you could retrace 500 years of ...
The Impossible DREAM Act 07/12/2011
They know that for now, they are selling an impossible dream. Yet some Democrats in Congress keep promoting the DREAM Act, the elusive legislation that would create a path to legalization for some 2 million young undocumented immigrants who came here ...
Run for President, but Not on the Fence
06/28/2011The so-called "moderate" in the field of Republican presidential contenders apparently can't seem to decide which side of the immigration fence he wants to fall on. If Jon Huntsman jumps to the right, his pro-immigrant record could ...
Deep South Reclaims Bigotry Title
06/14/2011Just when we thought no other state could beat Arizona as the champion of hatred, xenophobia and immigrant-bashing legislation, the Deep South reclaimed its title as the all-time champion of discrimination. Imagine how the bigots in Georgia and ...
When Ignorance Goes On Tour
06/07/2011As part of her "One Nation" bus tour of American landmarks — and an ego trip with even more mileage — quasi-presidential candidate Sarah Palin went to New York City last week and used Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as a ...
The Supreme Court Is Getting Scary
05/31/2011For many years, when they were telling us what they had in mind, the rest of us refused to believe them. It was just too cruel — too inhumane for the American people to allow it. When immigration hawks said they wanted to make living ...
05/24/2011 Immigrant-Bashing States Need Economic Shoving
Nearly all 50 states have tried to crack down on undocumented immigrants, and nearly all of their most Draconian measures have failed. According to a new Associated Press review of the immigration measures considered by state legislatures, only ...
05/17/2011 Seeking a Latino-Friendly Republican
Considering the track record of the most prominent GOP presidential contenders, it's hard to picture the face of the one who could be reasonable about fixing our broken immigration system. But if there were such a person, if one still emerges in the ...
05/03/2011 What's Not To Celebrate?
Whenever I think of that morning — Sept. 11, 2001 — I feel I'm reliving a terrible nightmare. Most Americans probably feel that way when they remember the images they saw on television. But I watched it all from my balcony! My nightmare ...
04/26/2011 Obama's Latino Problem
Say we Latinos decided to tell President Barack Obama that we are not going to take his cheap rhetoric anymore. Say we told him we are fed up with his empty promises to fix our broken immigration system while his administration breaks deportation ...
04/12/2011 My Own Mold
If I write a column criticizing Republicans, some people assume that I must be a Democrat. If Democrats are my target one week, others conclude I must be a Republican. But if I blast both parties in alternating columns, as has happened coincidentally ...
04/05/2011 Our Man in Havana
Just as the winds of freedom were blowing all over the planet and as the world's oldest dictatorship needed to find a way to divert those winds, Jimmy Carter went to Cuba — ready to build political shelter for the Castro brothers. To have ...
03/29/2011 The Latino Backlash Is Coming Sooner Than Republicans Expected
Now that we know the U.S. Hispanic population has grown even faster than the U.S. Census Bureau projected — already surpassing the 50 million threshold — some Republican politicians are beginning to worry that the GOP could be in trouble.
03/22/2011 For Cuba, a Democratic Presidente
It took more than 50 years to find an opposition leader who could unite the Cuban people and lead a movement that could drive the Fidel/Raul Castro communist dictatorship out of power. But now a person finally has emerged who, many believe, could be ...
03/08/2011 The (Buried) Story of the Flores Family
The story of the Flores family apparently was too contradictory to the stories American news media like to promote nowadays. It just didn't fit in the current media climate. It wasn't about North Africa and the Middle East or about the Tucson, Ariz., ...
03/01/2011 Gadhafi's Three Amigos
Just when we thought Moammar Gadhafi was totally isolated, when his crimes against humanity became so repulsive that no one would dare still call him a friend, it turns out that the Libyan madman still has at least three amigos in Latin America. <...
02/22/2011 Watching Others Realize My Dream
When we see people protesting all over the Arab world — liberating themselves from oppressive dictators, using social media to come together and taking amazing risks in order to regain their freedom — most of us cringe a little. We admire ...
02/15/2011 'Largest Minority' Still Means 'Nada'
Now that the statisticians have begun to crunch the numbers and interpret the information gathered by the 2010 census, get ready for a new epidemic of xenophobia. It happens every 10 years. As census figures reveal that Latinos are multiplying ...
02/01/2011 Obama's Cheap Immigration Rhetoric
President Obama's recent effort to resuscitate the immigration reform debate in Congress — after he allowed it to die and be buried for at least the next couple of years — shows he has little respect for our intelligence. Apparently,...
01/25/2011 Obama's Senseless Cuba Bailout
Until recently, the Obama administration had been surprisingly firm in its posture toward Cuba, always asking for concessions — in terms of freedom for the Cuban people — before lifting sanctions against the Stalinist Castro dictatorship, ...
01/11/2011 Who's To Blame for the Tucson Massacre?
The left said he had to be a tea party extremist because, police say, he shot a Democrat. The right said he had to be a leftist because he read "The Communist Manifesto." The way we jumped to conclusions about Jared Loughner's political ...
01/04/2011 Happy Three Kings Day!
Editor's Note: This is the 22nd part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. To many U.S. Latinos, they are much more than ...
2010 Creators columns with links no longer working
12/28/2010 A Real Socialist Coup
Imagine President Barack Obama trying to override the shift to the right by American voters in the midterm elections by staging an auto-coup. Imagine him getting the Democratic majorities in the lame-duck Congress to grant him the power to pass ...
12/21/2010 A Vote That Will Live in Infamy
As I watched many young undocumented immigrants crying on television Saturday, I tried to put myself in their place. But I just couldn't. How could I possibly feel the impotence and frustration they must have felt as the U.S. Senate rejected their ...
12/14/2010 Speak Any Spanish Lately?
Editor's Note: This is the 21st part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. When we take a lunch break, often we go to a &...
12/07/2010 No Tequila Party, Por Favor!
They claim they want to create a grass-roots movement that will do for Latinos what the tea party has done for conservative Americans, and that makes a lot of sense. They want to empower Latinos within the Democratic Party in the same way that ...
11/23/2010 Children of the American Dream: The Compassion Litmus Test
If it were the other way around — if Republicans instead of Democrats had one last hurrah in a lame-duck session — you know they would have no reservations about ramming bills through Congress. You have to admire that about Republicans; ...
11/16/2010 Racism on Display
In the old days, the bigots would cut out my column, scribble childish and offensive phrases on it, and send it back to me. Or they would send me letters that made no effort to hide their racism. "Hey Perez, You spic, look at your people; dirty, ...
11/09/2010 Latino Leaders -- Not!
They are Hispanic, and they are elected leaders. But seeing as the new crop of Latino Republicans mostly were elected by non-Latinos — because majorities of Hispanics often voted against them — can we call them Latino leaders? If ...
11/03/2010 The Wrath of Latino Voters
You can threaten to deport some of our relatives or to limit our use of the Spanish language or to deny our youths college educations or even to deny citizenship to some of our U.S.-born children, and we might let you get away with it — ...
10/26/2010 Holding Our Noses, Latinos Must Vote
You see them on Spanish television every so often, Latinos who claim to speak for the Republican Party, displaying a degree of shamelessness that is truly incomprehensible. They belong to the party that has vilified and persecuted immigrants, yet they ...
10/20/2010 The GOP's Hispanic Candidates: Perfect for Self-Loathing Latinos
They are the new breed of GOP Latino politicians — more conservative than those already in public office, more Draconian in their approach to illegal immigration, likelier to forsake their own language and culture, and more willing to betray ...
10/05/2010 The Hall of Hypocrites Has a New Member
For the past few months, she has been telling California voters that employers who hire undocumented immigrants should be held accountable and sanctioned. But now that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman admits she had an ...
09/28/2010 Tidal Shift in Venezuela
It took them five years to recover from the grave mistake they made in 2005, but members of the Venezuelan opposition finally began to turn the tide against socialist President Hugo Chavez in national congressional elections Sunday. Hallelujah!<...
09/21/2010 Fake Immigration Fever
With the midterm elections on the horizon and politicians scrambling for votes, Democrats suddenly have developed renewed interest in immigration reform. Unfortunately, it's not because they have any hope of passing significant legislation, but ...
09/14/2010 Fidel's Epiphany
He says he is concerned about nuclear war, yet he is the man who took the world closest to the brink of nuclear annihilation. He claims to be concerned for the human rights of Gypsy refugees in France, yet he has driven millions of refugees out of his ...
08/31/2010 Mexico Doesn't Help
When Mexican officials come to the United States pretending to have the moral authority to preach about compassion and human rights for undocumented immigrants in this country, they personify hypocrisy. Everyone knows that what they preach here ...
08/24/2010 Cuba Visitors Wear Horse Blinders
Whenever fellow Americans tell me, "I just came back from Cuba" or "I'm planning a vacation in Cuba soon," they obviously think they are paying me some kind of compliment. Because I was born on that precious Caribbean island, they ...
08/17/2010 Their Problemas With Latino Voters
He may not be the right person to be saying it, but when Sen. Harry Reid said he can't understand how any Latino could be a Republican, the Senate majority leader was very close to being correcto! In my opinion, if Reid had said he can't ...
08/10/2010 Birthright Citizenship or Opportunistic GOP Demagoguery
Just when you think there is nothing Republican congressional leaders could do to further alienate the GOP from Latinos and immigrant voters, when so many claim faith in Christian values that could not conceivably allow them to be even more vicious to ...
08/03/2010 Indoctrinated Americans: The Worst Kind of Bigots
On the Internet last Wednesday, the bigots were going berserk. A federal judge prevented the most Draconian sections of Arizona's anti-immigrant law from taking effect, and the sore losers were throwing childish tantrums. It was hilarious! ...
07/27/2010 Wake-Up Call for Buried Heads
Whenever I write about Latin America, I'm amazed by the responses I get from some readers, especially those who claim not to care about what's happening in our own backyard. Like ostriches burying their heads in the sand, they don't even want ...
07/20/2010 If They Quack Like Racists, They're Probably Not Ducks
You would have to be blind not to see it, deaf not to hear it. You don't even have to go to a tea party rally to know that there are many racist people in its ranks. All you have to do is turn on your radio or television, and if you are not offended ...
07/07/2010 Obama Insults Our Intelligence
The buildup was huge, but not as big as the letdown. President Barack Obama met with Latino and other pro-immigrant leaders and led them to believe that something different was about to happen. He had scheduled a major speech on immigration, and ...
06/22/2010 The Face of Hatred
It all comes out when Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, gets angry. She becomes the new poster woman for immigrant-bashers, and for Latinos and other immigrants, she shows the new face of hatred. It's not a pretty sight! We saw it last ...
06/15/2010 Immigration Causes Political Impotence
People on both sides of the issue are demonstrating on U.S. streets — perhaps more passionately and riskily than ever before. All over the country, there is growing impatience over illegal immigration. Our ethnic, cultural and racial ...
06/08/2010 Politicizing Education
Editor's Note: This is the 20th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. When I was a boy growing up in my native Cuba, ...
05/25/2010 Colombian Crossroads
They are our strongest allies in Latin America, constantly guarding the front line against the socialist, anti-American movement that has been growing in our own backyard. And yet, many Americans are not even aware that our Colombian allies are facing ...
05/18/2010 Arizona Wants To Fight
Just when we think Arizona should be getting the message, when widespread condemnation for its unconstitutional immigrant-profiling law should be putting its lawmakers on defense, out they come with more Draconian anti-immigrant measures. Just after ...
05/11/2010 What's Good for US Latinos May Not Be Best for Puerto Ricans
For U.S. Latinos, it would be the biggest political boost in history. Imagine suddenly gaining two Hispanic U.S. senators and six additional Latino members of the House of Representatives. Imagine 4 million additional Latinos suddenly eligible to vote ...
05/04/2010 Gracias, Arizona!
For exposing the racial profiling and ethnic discrimination promoted by right-wing extremists, for making comprehensive immigration reform possible much sooner than anyone expected, for uniting the Latino community and other ethnic minorities like ...
04/27/2010 The Reactionary Republic of Arizona (Make Sure To Take Your Passport)
Just when you think the Democrats are in trouble with Latino voters, when their failure to keep their promises to reform our immigration system have them cornered and against the ropes, out come the self-destructive Republicans with new and even more ...
04/27/2010 The Reactionary Republic of Arizona (Make Sure To Take Your Passport)
Just when you think the Democrats are in trouble with Latino voters, when their failure to keep their promises to reform our immigration system have them cornered and against the ropes, out come the self-destructive Republicans with new and even more ...
04/20/2010 Say Adios to Harry
Put Sen. Harry Reid in a baseball uniform, and picture him caught in a rundown between bases, shuffling back and forth between Nevada and Washington, seconds away from being tagged out. That's the image that came to mind as the Senate majority ...
04/20/2010 Say Adios to Harry
Put Sen. Harry Reid in a baseball uniform, and picture him caught in a rundown between bases, shuffling back and forth between Nevada and Washington, seconds away from being tagged out. That's the image that came to mind as the Senate majority ...
04/13/2010 The Lone Republican Ranger
He is doing more for the Republican Party than anyone can imagine, perhaps saving the GOP from complete alienation in Latino and other immigrant communities. And yet, for supporting comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has ...
04/13/2010 The Lone Republican Ranger
He is doing more for the Republican Party than anyone can imagine, perhaps saving the GOP from complete alienation in Latino and other immigrant communities. And yet, for supporting comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has ...
04/06/2010 Hyphenated and Proud!
Editor's Note: This is the 19th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. Every once in a while, a reader writes me a ...
03/30/2010 Cuban Images Speak Louder Than Words
For many years, the government-orchestrated protests were good enough to fool some of the world some of the time. All over the planet, many fools actually believed that the Cuban people loved their government so much that they would run out of their ...
03/23/2010 What Obama Didn't Say
In Spanish, we have a special word to describe nonsensical discourses. Long-winded speeches, especially by demagogic politicians, are called "cantinfladas." The word derives from "Cantinflas," a hilarious character — ...
03/16/2010 To Fight for Immigration Reform, Don't Show Up in the Last Round
They seemed almost embarrassed to acknowledge it. Yet one after another, the same immigrant rights leaders who encouraged us to vote for Barack Obama were telling us that the president had betrayed them — and all of us who believed that he would ...
03/02/2010 His Death Has Many Culprits
A Cuban political prisoner starved himself to death last week to protest against the human rights violations of the Castro communist dictatorship, but don't expect the kind of world outrage and condemnation that would have followed if this tragedy had ...
02/23/2010 Their Venom Is No Longer Hidden
In the old days, when bigots wrote me anonymous letters, it was hard to believe that people could be so ignorant and vicious. The way they described new immigrants as welfare leaches and criminal invaders was a painful lesson in the reality of racism ...
02/02/2010 No Se Puede
He spoke to the nation in a forthright State of the Union, and he confronted Republican lawmakers in an impressively sincere encounter last week. It's time for President Barack Obama to fess up to Latinos. It's time for him to say: No Se Puede.<...
01/19/2010 Politicizing Haiti
The U.S. response to the disaster in Haiti made us proud to be Americans. As we watched the pain and suffering of the Haitian people on television, most of us were not only compelled to donate to relief efforts but also happy to see President Barack ...
01/12/2010 Nicaragua at a Crossroads
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega already has learned his lesson. When he played by the rules in 1990, he was booted out of office. And he is not about to do that again! Nowadays, Ortega will break any rule and violate any ...
12/28/2010 A Real Socialist Coup
Imagine President Barack Obama trying to override the shift to the right by American voters in the midterm elections by staging an auto-coup. Imagine him getting the Democratic majorities in the lame-duck Congress to grant him the power to pass ...
12/21/2010 A Vote That Will Live in Infamy
As I watched many young undocumented immigrants crying on television Saturday, I tried to put myself in their place. But I just couldn't. How could I possibly feel the impotence and frustration they must have felt as the U.S. Senate rejected their ...
12/14/2010 Speak Any Spanish Lately?
Editor's Note: This is the 21st part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. When we take a lunch break, often we go to a &...
12/07/2010 No Tequila Party, Por Favor!
They claim they want to create a grass-roots movement that will do for Latinos what the tea party has done for conservative Americans, and that makes a lot of sense. They want to empower Latinos within the Democratic Party in the same way that ...
11/23/2010 Children of the American Dream: The Compassion Litmus Test
If it were the other way around — if Republicans instead of Democrats had one last hurrah in a lame-duck session — you know they would have no reservations about ramming bills through Congress. You have to admire that about Republicans; ...
11/16/2010 Racism on Display
In the old days, the bigots would cut out my column, scribble childish and offensive phrases on it, and send it back to me. Or they would send me letters that made no effort to hide their racism. "Hey Perez, You spic, look at your people; dirty, ...
11/09/2010 Latino Leaders -- Not!
They are Hispanic, and they are elected leaders. But seeing as the new crop of Latino Republicans mostly were elected by non-Latinos — because majorities of Hispanics often voted against them — can we call them Latino leaders? If ...
11/03/2010 The Wrath of Latino Voters
You can threaten to deport some of our relatives or to limit our use of the Spanish language or to deny our youths college educations or even to deny citizenship to some of our U.S.-born children, and we might let you get away with it — ...
10/26/2010 Holding Our Noses, Latinos Must Vote
You see them on Spanish television every so often, Latinos who claim to speak for the Republican Party, displaying a degree of shamelessness that is truly incomprehensible. They belong to the party that has vilified and persecuted immigrants, yet they ...
10/20/2010 The GOP's Hispanic Candidates: Perfect for Self-Loathing Latinos
They are the new breed of GOP Latino politicians — more conservative than those already in public office, more Draconian in their approach to illegal immigration, likelier to forsake their own language and culture, and more willing to betray ...
10/05/2010 The Hall of Hypocrites Has a New Member
For the past few months, she has been telling California voters that employers who hire undocumented immigrants should be held accountable and sanctioned. But now that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman admits she had an ...
09/28/2010 Tidal Shift in Venezuela
It took them five years to recover from the grave mistake they made in 2005, but members of the Venezuelan opposition finally began to turn the tide against socialist President Hugo Chavez in national congressional elections Sunday. Hallelujah!<...
09/21/2010 Fake Immigration Fever
With the midterm elections on the horizon and politicians scrambling for votes, Democrats suddenly have developed renewed interest in immigration reform. Unfortunately, it's not because they have any hope of passing significant legislation, but ...
09/14/2010 Fidel's Epiphany
He says he is concerned about nuclear war, yet he is the man who took the world closest to the brink of nuclear annihilation. He claims to be concerned for the human rights of Gypsy refugees in France, yet he has driven millions of refugees out of his ...
08/31/2010 Mexico Doesn't Help
When Mexican officials come to the United States pretending to have the moral authority to preach about compassion and human rights for undocumented immigrants in this country, they personify hypocrisy. Everyone knows that what they preach here ...
08/24/2010 Cuba Visitors Wear Horse Blinders
Whenever fellow Americans tell me, "I just came back from Cuba" or "I'm planning a vacation in Cuba soon," they obviously think they are paying me some kind of compliment. Because I was born on that precious Caribbean island, they ...
08/17/2010 Their Problemas With Latino Voters
He may not be the right person to be saying it, but when Sen. Harry Reid said he can't understand how any Latino could be a Republican, the Senate majority leader was very close to being correcto! In my opinion, if Reid had said he can't ...
08/10/2010 Birthright Citizenship or Opportunistic GOP Demagoguery
Just when you think there is nothing Republican congressional leaders could do to further alienate the GOP from Latinos and immigrant voters, when so many claim faith in Christian values that could not conceivably allow them to be even more vicious to ...
08/03/2010 Indoctrinated Americans: The Worst Kind of Bigots
On the Internet last Wednesday, the bigots were going berserk. A federal judge prevented the most Draconian sections of Arizona's anti-immigrant law from taking effect, and the sore losers were throwing childish tantrums. It was hilarious! ...
07/27/2010 Wake-Up Call for Buried Heads
Whenever I write about Latin America, I'm amazed by the responses I get from some readers, especially those who claim not to care about what's happening in our own backyard. Like ostriches burying their heads in the sand, they don't even want ...
07/20/2010 If They Quack Like Racists, They're Probably Not Ducks
You would have to be blind not to see it, deaf not to hear it. You don't even have to go to a tea party rally to know that there are many racist people in its ranks. All you have to do is turn on your radio or television, and if you are not offended ...
07/07/2010 Obama Insults Our Intelligence
The buildup was huge, but not as big as the letdown. President Barack Obama met with Latino and other pro-immigrant leaders and led them to believe that something different was about to happen. He had scheduled a major speech on immigration, and ...
06/22/2010 The Face of Hatred
It all comes out when Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, gets angry. She becomes the new poster woman for immigrant-bashers, and for Latinos and other immigrants, she shows the new face of hatred. It's not a pretty sight! We saw it last ...
06/15/2010 Immigration Causes Political Impotence
People on both sides of the issue are demonstrating on U.S. streets — perhaps more passionately and riskily than ever before. All over the country, there is growing impatience over illegal immigration. Our ethnic, cultural and racial ...
06/08/2010 Politicizing Education
Editor's Note: This is the 20th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. When I was a boy growing up in my native Cuba, ...
05/25/2010 Colombian Crossroads
They are our strongest allies in Latin America, constantly guarding the front line against the socialist, anti-American movement that has been growing in our own backyard. And yet, many Americans are not even aware that our Colombian allies are facing ...
05/18/2010 Arizona Wants To Fight
Just when we think Arizona should be getting the message, when widespread condemnation for its unconstitutional immigrant-profiling law should be putting its lawmakers on defense, out they come with more Draconian anti-immigrant measures. Just after ...
05/11/2010 What's Good for US Latinos May Not Be Best for Puerto Ricans
For U.S. Latinos, it would be the biggest political boost in history. Imagine suddenly gaining two Hispanic U.S. senators and six additional Latino members of the House of Representatives. Imagine 4 million additional Latinos suddenly eligible to vote ...
05/04/2010 Gracias, Arizona!
For exposing the racial profiling and ethnic discrimination promoted by right-wing extremists, for making comprehensive immigration reform possible much sooner than anyone expected, for uniting the Latino community and other ethnic minorities like ...
04/27/2010 The Reactionary Republic of Arizona (Make Sure To Take Your Passport)
Just when you think the Democrats are in trouble with Latino voters, when their failure to keep their promises to reform our immigration system have them cornered and against the ropes, out come the self-destructive Republicans with new and even more ...
04/27/2010 The Reactionary Republic of Arizona (Make Sure To Take Your Passport)
Just when you think the Democrats are in trouble with Latino voters, when their failure to keep their promises to reform our immigration system have them cornered and against the ropes, out come the self-destructive Republicans with new and even more ...
04/20/2010 Say Adios to Harry
Put Sen. Harry Reid in a baseball uniform, and picture him caught in a rundown between bases, shuffling back and forth between Nevada and Washington, seconds away from being tagged out. That's the image that came to mind as the Senate majority ...
04/20/2010 Say Adios to Harry
Put Sen. Harry Reid in a baseball uniform, and picture him caught in a rundown between bases, shuffling back and forth between Nevada and Washington, seconds away from being tagged out. That's the image that came to mind as the Senate majority ...
04/13/2010 The Lone Republican Ranger
He is doing more for the Republican Party than anyone can imagine, perhaps saving the GOP from complete alienation in Latino and other immigrant communities. And yet, for supporting comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has ...
04/13/2010 The Lone Republican Ranger
He is doing more for the Republican Party than anyone can imagine, perhaps saving the GOP from complete alienation in Latino and other immigrant communities. And yet, for supporting comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has ...
04/06/2010 Hyphenated and Proud!
Editor's Note: This is the 19th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. Every once in a while, a reader writes me a ...
03/30/2010 Cuban Images Speak Louder Than Words
For many years, the government-orchestrated protests were good enough to fool some of the world some of the time. All over the planet, many fools actually believed that the Cuban people loved their government so much that they would run out of their ...
03/23/2010 What Obama Didn't Say
In Spanish, we have a special word to describe nonsensical discourses. Long-winded speeches, especially by demagogic politicians, are called "cantinfladas." The word derives from "Cantinflas," a hilarious character — ...
03/16/2010 To Fight for Immigration Reform, Don't Show Up in the Last Round
They seemed almost embarrassed to acknowledge it. Yet one after another, the same immigrant rights leaders who encouraged us to vote for Barack Obama were telling us that the president had betrayed them — and all of us who believed that he would ...
03/02/2010 His Death Has Many Culprits
A Cuban political prisoner starved himself to death last week to protest against the human rights violations of the Castro communist dictatorship, but don't expect the kind of world outrage and condemnation that would have followed if this tragedy had ...
02/23/2010 Their Venom Is No Longer Hidden
In the old days, when bigots wrote me anonymous letters, it was hard to believe that people could be so ignorant and vicious. The way they described new immigrants as welfare leaches and criminal invaders was a painful lesson in the reality of racism ...
02/02/2010 No Se Puede
He spoke to the nation in a forthright State of the Union, and he confronted Republican lawmakers in an impressively sincere encounter last week. It's time for President Barack Obama to fess up to Latinos. It's time for him to say: No Se Puede.<...
01/19/2010 Politicizing Haiti
The U.S. response to the disaster in Haiti made us proud to be Americans. As we watched the pain and suffering of the Haitian people on television, most of us were not only compelled to donate to relief efforts but also happy to see President Barack ...
01/12/2010 Nicaragua at a Crossroads
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega already has learned his lesson. When he played by the rules in 1990, he was booted out of office. And he is not about to do that again! Nowadays, Ortega will break any rule and violate any ...
2009 Creators columns with links no longer working
12/29/2009 A Hispanic Christmas
Editor's Note: This column, originally published in December 2004, is the 17th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. We call ...
12/22/2009 The Amnesty To End All Amnesties
No one expects it to pass in its present form. Legislation on controversial matters inevitably is subject to a series of amendments. But the current bill, introduced in the House of Representatives last week, aiming to repair our broken immigration ...
12/15/2009 The New Don Quixote
If I were a cartoonist, I would draw a picture of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., as Don Quixote of la Mancha — riding on a horse, charging against windmills that represent the obstacles to immigration reform — and in the cutline, I would ...
12/08/2009 The Real Godfather
Unlike any other godfather I ever have seen — except in the movies — this man took that responsibility very seriously. He was an amazing father to his two daughters, and he treated his godson like the son he never had. He is the one ...
12/01/2009 They Voted for Democracy!
Unlike the case with any other presidential election I can remember, in Sunday's election in Honduras, voter turnout was more important than the actual winner. If the turnout had been low, the winner would have been a man who was not even in ...
11/17/2009 Say Adios to Zelaya
After getting most world leaders reluctantly to demand his reinstatement as president of Honduras — even though they know he doesn't deserve it — Jose Manuel Zelaya now says he will not accept it. The ousted leftist president, ...
11/10/2009 The Lesser of Two Evils
Just when we think going further to the right would drive conservative Republicans over a cliff, they go ahead and take another giant step into an abyss. Oops, adios! At least that's the way they are seen by many U.S. Latinos — ...
11/03/2009 The Closing Immigration Window
Even those idealists who still believe it is possible for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation within the next year, even those dreamers who persist that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to Hispanic voters by ...
10/27/2009 A Time To Welcome the Spirits
Editor's Note: This column, originally published in October 2005, is the 16th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. During ...
10/13/2009 Bad Idea Turns Even Worse
All along, it was obvious that deputizing local cops to do the job of federal immigration agents would be a bad idea. It was clear that such a policy would make undocumented immigrants reluctant to report real crimes and would drive them further ...
10/06/2009 Knock, Knock: Census Workers or Immigration Raid?
Just when we thought things would be a little different under the Obama administration — because we were promised so much "change" — we realize that we are getting more of the same. On some issues with which we expected clear ...
09/29/2009 In Cuba Concert, Even the Audience Was Staged
They were told that the Cuban government couldn't be trusted — warned by thousands that there was no way that outside promoters could stage and control a massive music concert under a very repressive communist dictatorship. But Juanes and ...
09/22/2009 Health Care Sends Immigration Into Coma
They have been washing our cars and our dishes, caring for our children and elderly, picking our crops and mowing our lawns. They work in construction, restaurant kitchens and sweatshops, and those are some of the less hazardous jobs they do. And yet ...
08/25/2009 Peace Without Freedom?
When the Colombian pop singer known as Juanes announced that he would take his music to Havana's Plaza of the Revolution soon to perform in a "Peace Without Borders" concert, I had some soul-searching to do. Surely it happened to most of my ...
07/28/2009 The Giant Still Is Sleeping
For U.S. politicians who may be weighing the significance of the Hispanic vote in future elections, the writing is on the wall: Although Latinos clearly swung several key states for Barack Obama in 2008, you haven't seen nada yet. ...
07/21/2009 The Solution for Honduras
Granted: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was a democratically elected leader who was on a mission to crown himself as dictator. He had joined the axis of evil of leftist Latin American presidents, and he was following their playbook on ...
07/14/2009 In Sotomayor Hearings, Republicans Are On Trial
Shortly after the Judge Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings began Monday, Sen. Jeff Sessions let it be known that he and other Republicans intend to play hardball. And in the Latino community, where almost everyone enjoys a good ballgame, ...
07/07/2009 If It Smells Like a Coup ...
The military raided the president's home, forcibly put him on an airplane and sent him out of the country, yet we are told that what happened in Honduras June 28 was not a coup d'etat. Of course, "if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck ...
06/23/2009 On Immigration, Bush and Obama Are No Different
In one extreme corner, we have the immigrant haters, with their never-ending list of excuses for denying some form of amnesty to foreigners living in this country without proper documents. And in the other corner, just as extreme, we have the ...
06/16/2009 The Counterrevolutionary Perspective
A long time ago, when I was too young to be interested in politics, the Cuban government labeled me as a "counterrevolutionary." I had nothing to do with it. It was my parents' decision to take me off the communist island to become a refugee ...
06/09/2009 Let's Give Clinton Some 'Credito'
MIAMI — In Havana, the government-controlled press claimed the communist dictatorship had scored a "historic victory" at the Organization of American States meeting in Honduras last week. But here in Little Havana, USA, from the Cuban-...
06/02/2009 Who's on Trial, Sotomayor or Republicans?
When I dared to suggest that Sonia Sotomayor could be a shoo-in for a Supreme Court nomination — three weeks before President Barack Obama actually picked her — some people told me I had gone too far out on a limb. "Está...
05/19/2009 Hugo Being Hugo
Say you saw Hugo Chavez shaking Barack Obama's hand and you thought the Venezuelan president was a different person. Say you no longer saw him as an arrogant, anti-American socialist dictator but as someone who could be swayed to rule by democratic ...
05/12/2009 Southern Hostility
Remember the days when people, especially in the South, felt they had a perfect right to discriminate? Remember the time when skin color determined whether you would be treated like a human being? Well, that litmus test has changed! Now humane ...
05/05/2009 Supreme Court Shoo-In?
She meets all the politically correct qualifications the Obama administration is seeking in its first Supreme Court nominee. As a woman, Sonia Sotomayor would help balance the court's lopsided 8-1 gender scale. As a Latina, she would give Hispanics ...
04/21/2009 Castro's Trojan Horse
Cuban dictator Raul Castro says he is willing to talk to the United States about "human rights, press freedom, political prisoners — everything" — and everyone is biting, hook, line and sinker! We are so eager to see ...
04/14/2009 Obama Could Disarm Them
He rules a country from the left, yet he doesn't have any need to be totalitarian. He has been called a socialist, yet he doesn't jail his political opponents, censor critical media, or try to amend the Constitution to prolong his time in power. <...
04/07/2009 Americans Surrender in Havana
We don't hear them calling for Cuba's freedom or for at least a little less repression. We don't see them trying to meet with Cuban dissidents or making an effort to visit political prisoners. We don't see them seeking free elections. They are ...
03/10/2009 When the Truth Becomes an Obstacle
In Congress and in the media, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was being treated as an obstacle last week. He was telling the truth about Cuba, the land of his ancestors, but sometimes, for some people, the truth becomes an obstacle. One news ...
03/03/2009 Our Leaders Have No Shame
Just when we thought congressional earmarks were becoming an abomination, after a presidential campaign that led us to believe that pork spending would be abolished soon, at a time when Americans are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great ...
02/24/2009 An Elitist Shortcut to Citizenship
Say you had to make a choice between a young immigrant who is here temporarily (and still holds allegiance to a foreign country) and one who has been here most of his life and considers himself an American. Which one would you trust to defend the ...
02/10/2009 Running for Dictator
Imagine what would happen if President Barack Obama started campaigning to end presidential term limits and if he told us we should amend the Constitution so he could run for re-election indefinitely. We would think he went crazy, right? ...
02/03/2009 Real Change or GOP Cosmetology?
They keep claiming that their party needs to change, yet Republicans keep making only cosmetic changes. Some predict that the GOP is on the verge of becoming only a regional party instead of staying a national one, yet all they give us is cheap talk ...
01/27/2009 Presidents Are Elected
In this country, the media are rightfully diligent in the way they scrutinize politicians. We go into their personal lives, their tax records and their questionable associations. We even question the "vetting process" by which politicians ...
01/20/2009 Just How Important Is 'Inmigración'?
As if politicians needed any more excuses for ignoring one of the country's most pressing issues, a new poll says immigration reform "appears to have receded in importance among Latinos." Immigrant rights advocates are building a new, ...
01/13/2009 Adios, Amigo?
President George W. Bush is going out the same way he came in: pretending to be compassionate with illegal immigrants while running an immigrant-bashing administration. With "amigos" such as Bush, immigrants don't need "enemigos&...
01/06/2009 Avoid Piecemeal Immigration Reform
When anti-immigrant zealots were on a roll the past couple of years, introducing various "enforcement-only" measures to fix the nation's broken immigration system, they were wrong. The fix has to be comprehensive. And when they tried ...
12/29/2009 A Hispanic Christmas
Editor's Note: This column, originally published in December 2004, is the 17th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. We call ...
12/22/2009 The Amnesty To End All Amnesties
No one expects it to pass in its present form. Legislation on controversial matters inevitably is subject to a series of amendments. But the current bill, introduced in the House of Representatives last week, aiming to repair our broken immigration ...
12/15/2009 The New Don Quixote
If I were a cartoonist, I would draw a picture of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., as Don Quixote of la Mancha — riding on a horse, charging against windmills that represent the obstacles to immigration reform — and in the cutline, I would ...
12/08/2009 The Real Godfather
Unlike any other godfather I ever have seen — except in the movies — this man took that responsibility very seriously. He was an amazing father to his two daughters, and he treated his godson like the son he never had. He is the one ...
12/01/2009 They Voted for Democracy!
Unlike the case with any other presidential election I can remember, in Sunday's election in Honduras, voter turnout was more important than the actual winner. If the turnout had been low, the winner would have been a man who was not even in ...
11/17/2009 Say Adios to Zelaya
After getting most world leaders reluctantly to demand his reinstatement as president of Honduras — even though they know he doesn't deserve it — Jose Manuel Zelaya now says he will not accept it. The ousted leftist president, ...
11/10/2009 The Lesser of Two Evils
Just when we think going further to the right would drive conservative Republicans over a cliff, they go ahead and take another giant step into an abyss. Oops, adios! At least that's the way they are seen by many U.S. Latinos — ...
11/03/2009 The Closing Immigration Window
Even those idealists who still believe it is possible for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation within the next year, even those dreamers who persist that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to Hispanic voters by ...
10/27/2009 A Time To Welcome the Spirits
Editor's Note: This column, originally published in October 2005, is the 16th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com. During ...
10/13/2009 Bad Idea Turns Even Worse
All along, it was obvious that deputizing local cops to do the job of federal immigration agents would be a bad idea. It was clear that such a policy would make undocumented immigrants reluctant to report real crimes and would drive them further ...
10/06/2009 Knock, Knock: Census Workers or Immigration Raid?
Just when we thought things would be a little different under the Obama administration — because we were promised so much "change" — we realize that we are getting more of the same. On some issues with which we expected clear ...
09/29/2009 In Cuba Concert, Even the Audience Was Staged
They were told that the Cuban government couldn't be trusted — warned by thousands that there was no way that outside promoters could stage and control a massive music concert under a very repressive communist dictatorship. But Juanes and ...
09/22/2009 Health Care Sends Immigration Into Coma
They have been washing our cars and our dishes, caring for our children and elderly, picking our crops and mowing our lawns. They work in construction, restaurant kitchens and sweatshops, and those are some of the less hazardous jobs they do. And yet ...
08/25/2009 Peace Without Freedom?
When the Colombian pop singer known as Juanes announced that he would take his music to Havana's Plaza of the Revolution soon to perform in a "Peace Without Borders" concert, I had some soul-searching to do. Surely it happened to most of my ...
07/28/2009 The Giant Still Is Sleeping
For U.S. politicians who may be weighing the significance of the Hispanic vote in future elections, the writing is on the wall: Although Latinos clearly swung several key states for Barack Obama in 2008, you haven't seen nada yet. ...
07/21/2009 The Solution for Honduras
Granted: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was a democratically elected leader who was on a mission to crown himself as dictator. He had joined the axis of evil of leftist Latin American presidents, and he was following their playbook on ...
07/14/2009 In Sotomayor Hearings, Republicans Are On Trial
Shortly after the Judge Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings began Monday, Sen. Jeff Sessions let it be known that he and other Republicans intend to play hardball. And in the Latino community, where almost everyone enjoys a good ballgame, ...
07/07/2009 If It Smells Like a Coup ...
The military raided the president's home, forcibly put him on an airplane and sent him out of the country, yet we are told that what happened in Honduras June 28 was not a coup d'etat. Of course, "if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck ...
06/23/2009 On Immigration, Bush and Obama Are No Different
In one extreme corner, we have the immigrant haters, with their never-ending list of excuses for denying some form of amnesty to foreigners living in this country without proper documents. And in the other corner, just as extreme, we have the ...
06/16/2009 The Counterrevolutionary Perspective
A long time ago, when I was too young to be interested in politics, the Cuban government labeled me as a "counterrevolutionary." I had nothing to do with it. It was my parents' decision to take me off the communist island to become a refugee ...
06/09/2009 Let's Give Clinton Some 'Credito'
MIAMI — In Havana, the government-controlled press claimed the communist dictatorship had scored a "historic victory" at the Organization of American States meeting in Honduras last week. But here in Little Havana, USA, from the Cuban-...
06/02/2009 Who's on Trial, Sotomayor or Republicans?
When I dared to suggest that Sonia Sotomayor could be a shoo-in for a Supreme Court nomination — three weeks before President Barack Obama actually picked her — some people told me I had gone too far out on a limb. "Está...
05/19/2009 Hugo Being Hugo
Say you saw Hugo Chavez shaking Barack Obama's hand and you thought the Venezuelan president was a different person. Say you no longer saw him as an arrogant, anti-American socialist dictator but as someone who could be swayed to rule by democratic ...
05/12/2009 Southern Hostility
Remember the days when people, especially in the South, felt they had a perfect right to discriminate? Remember the time when skin color determined whether you would be treated like a human being? Well, that litmus test has changed! Now humane ...
05/05/2009 Supreme Court Shoo-In?
She meets all the politically correct qualifications the Obama administration is seeking in its first Supreme Court nominee. As a woman, Sonia Sotomayor would help balance the court's lopsided 8-1 gender scale. As a Latina, she would give Hispanics ...
04/21/2009 Castro's Trojan Horse
Cuban dictator Raul Castro says he is willing to talk to the United States about "human rights, press freedom, political prisoners — everything" — and everyone is biting, hook, line and sinker! We are so eager to see ...
04/14/2009 Obama Could Disarm Them
He rules a country from the left, yet he doesn't have any need to be totalitarian. He has been called a socialist, yet he doesn't jail his political opponents, censor critical media, or try to amend the Constitution to prolong his time in power. <...
04/07/2009 Americans Surrender in Havana
We don't hear them calling for Cuba's freedom or for at least a little less repression. We don't see them trying to meet with Cuban dissidents or making an effort to visit political prisoners. We don't see them seeking free elections. They are ...
03/10/2009 When the Truth Becomes an Obstacle
In Congress and in the media, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was being treated as an obstacle last week. He was telling the truth about Cuba, the land of his ancestors, but sometimes, for some people, the truth becomes an obstacle. One news ...
03/03/2009 Our Leaders Have No Shame
Just when we thought congressional earmarks were becoming an abomination, after a presidential campaign that led us to believe that pork spending would be abolished soon, at a time when Americans are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great ...
02/24/2009 An Elitist Shortcut to Citizenship
Say you had to make a choice between a young immigrant who is here temporarily (and still holds allegiance to a foreign country) and one who has been here most of his life and considers himself an American. Which one would you trust to defend the ...
02/10/2009 Running for Dictator
Imagine what would happen if President Barack Obama started campaigning to end presidential term limits and if he told us we should amend the Constitution so he could run for re-election indefinitely. We would think he went crazy, right? ...
02/03/2009 Real Change or GOP Cosmetology?
They keep claiming that their party needs to change, yet Republicans keep making only cosmetic changes. Some predict that the GOP is on the verge of becoming only a regional party instead of staying a national one, yet all they give us is cheap talk ...
01/27/2009 Presidents Are Elected
In this country, the media are rightfully diligent in the way they scrutinize politicians. We go into their personal lives, their tax records and their questionable associations. We even question the "vetting process" by which politicians ...
01/20/2009 Just How Important Is 'Inmigración'?
As if politicians needed any more excuses for ignoring one of the country's most pressing issues, a new poll says immigration reform "appears to have receded in importance among Latinos." Immigrant rights advocates are building a new, ...
01/13/2009 Adios, Amigo?
President George W. Bush is going out the same way he came in: pretending to be compassionate with illegal immigrants while running an immigrant-bashing administration. With "amigos" such as Bush, immigrants don't need "enemigos&...
01/06/2009 Avoid Piecemeal Immigration Reform
When anti-immigrant zealots were on a roll the past couple of years, introducing various "enforcement-only" measures to fix the nation's broken immigration system, they were wrong. The fix has to be comprehensive. And when they tried ...
2008 Creators columns with links no longer working
12/30/2008 Still Waiting for White Dove's Peace
On the way home from a New Year's Eve party, we saw something that made us stop and reflect. Standing on the sidewalk, daringly blocking our passage, was a white dove. It happened a half-century ago. It must have been 2 a.m., on the morning of ...
12/23/2008 What Are We, 'Amigos' or 'Imperialistas'?
They choose to overlook Cuba's 50 years without free elections, free speech or freedom of the press. They refuse to see the dissidents rotting in jail or drowning while trying to escape from the communist island. They shamelessly align themselves with ...
12/16/2008 'Presidente' by Intimidation
Only one year after the Venezuelan people rejected Hugo Chavez's bid to become their dictator, the socialist/narcissistic "presidente" wants another referendum that would enable him to stay in power indefinitely. Last December, when ...
12/09/2008 Obama's Election Didn't Cure Racism
Remember when, just a few weeks ago, we thought the election of Barack Obama had dealt a major blow against racism in this country, when we temporarily were swept by a tidal wave of interracial harmony? Remember how some people were actually naive ...
12/02/2008 The Jobs That Americans Didn't Want
It was bigger than any border wall, more secure than any sophisticated ID card, and more effective than immigration raids and border vigilantes. It turned out to be the most effective weapon for deterring illegal immigration. Who would have thought of ...
11/25/2008 Looking for Brown Faces
As President-elect Barack Obama takes his time to make his first Hispanic appointment, the Latino leaders who supported him are beginning to squirm — not because they all expect job offers, but because they fear they could end up with egg on ...
11/18/2008 Blacks and Latinos: Natural Allies
When Barack Obama was losing the Hispanic vote to Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, some people automatically assumed that racial discrimination had something to do with it. There was widespread speculation that Hispanics wouldn't vote ...
11/11/2008 The Punching Bag Strikes Back
Latinos flipped the vote in four battleground states and gave Barack Obama free passage to the White House. But did Obama earn the Hispanic vote, or did he win it by default? More importantly, will President-elect Obama repay his debt to ...
10/28/2008 'Locos' About Obama?
He never has traveled to Latin America. He opposes free trade with Colombia, turning his back on one of the only U.S. allies in the region. He wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. He insists on meeting &...
10/21/2008 In an Act of Desperation, McCain Tries To Connect With Latinos
It took him a long time, but Sen. John McCain finally said what he needed to say to score some points with Latino voters. In last Wednesday's presidential debate, McCain brought up immigration, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pending free ...
09/30/2008 Beating Around the Bush Bailout
With leaders such as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, what's there to worry about? Did you see them in their highly anticipated first debate? Didn't you feel reassured that the nation's financial crisis soon will be in good hands? Not!...
09/02/2008 The 'Bola' Is in McCain's Court
When they come to the barrios to seek the Hispanic vote, Democratic Party leaders tell us anything we want to hear, especially about their plans to fix our broken immigration system and to grant some kind of amnesty to the 12 million illegal ...
08/26/2008 Your Party or Your People?
When they begin their journeys, their intentions are usually good and genuine: They seek personal political empowerment so they can help their people. But something happens to many Hispanic community activists on their way to gaining that power....
08/19/2008 Georgia on Her Mind
When she wrote about Tbilisi as part of a class assignment at Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y., this spring, Ekaterine Osepashvili didn't know her hometown soon would become the center of world attention. Her article — published in The ...
08/05/2008 Going Home Is Painful, Even on Video
Think of the house of your childhood, the one that you haven't seen in many years but still brings back very good memories. And then consider that it has been turned into a police station and that the bedroom you once shared with your brother is now ...
07/29/2008 Are Latinos Voting for Obama or Against Republicans?
The dramatic surge in Latino support for Sen. Barack Obama may be the last straw that tips the scale and puts America's first black president in the White House. When many Latinos were voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries,...
07/22/2008 Who Can Fix Immigration: Obama or McCain?
It is a political minefield so dangerous that no one dares to lead us through it. The presidential candidates dance around it as if we don't notice, but both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain clearly are avoiding one of the most important and ...
07/01/2008 Colombians Worship 2 Gods
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Amid all the historical information going back several centuries, the tour guide kept referring to the past six years. It was unusual, given the fact that recent history doesn't normally compare to ancient times, especially ...
06/17/2008 The Most Hated Woman in Colombia
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia — Everywhere you go in this country, the mere mention of her name evokes angry reactions. Cursing is people's preferred method to describe how they feel about Colombian leftist Senator Piedad Cordoba. And it's all ...
06/03/2008 The Clinton Spin Cycle
We have to grant it to them: When it comes to spinning the arguments — bordering on dishonesty — nobody does it better than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her band of professional spinners. For months, they have been telling us the ...
05/27/2008 Driving out of the FARC Tunnel
The death of Colombian rebel leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, following a series of major setbacks to his Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), could mark the beginning of the end of Latin America's longest and bloodiest civil ...
05/20/2008 VP Pick Could Swing the Latino Vote
As the Clinton campaign finally begins to read the writing on the wall — "Get Out" — and the race for president turns to vice presidential picks, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama should try to avoid selecting running mates who ...
04/29/2008 From a Primaries Marathon to a General Election Sprint
The more they try to be different the more they sound the same. Now that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have convinced us that they are almost equal on every issue, now that petty attacks have taken over political discourse in this country, ...
04/22/2008 On Immigration, Some Popes Speak Louder Than Others
The pope calls for compassion for America's "many immigrant children," and some people accuse him of meddling in American politics. My, how things have changed in this country! On immigration, the political pendulum has swung so far to the ...
04/15/2008 On Free Trade, Democrats Are Spineless
Let's face it: There are good trade deals, and there are bad ones. Unfortunately, this country has been engaging in so many bad ones that when a good one comes along, our politicians don't have the courage to separate it. That's the kind of ...
04/08/2008 Cuba's 'Changes' Amount To Nada
Just as America's "useful fools" were beginning to buy the smoke and mirror changes that appear to be taking place in Cuba, out comes a new report condemning the communist island for multiple human rights violations. The changes are ...
03/18/2008 Put Venezuela on the Terror List
After years on the receiving end of insults and unfounded attacks from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush finally is engaging in some tough talk with the firebrand/demagogue who wants to lead a leftist movement against the United States.<...
03/11/2008 'Los Presidentes' Assault Each Other Then Embrace
In the end, they embraced each other, just like many boxers do moments after bloodying each other's faces. But I can't think of a boxing match that was more exciting than the face-to-face, blow-by-blow encounter between several Latin American ...
02/26/2008 Obama Is Naive About Havana
Just as the ruthless regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro declared that it was gasping for its last breath of air last week, Sen. Barack Obama shamefully was sending oxygen to Havana. In his most recent debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton, only ...
02/19/2008 Texas Latinos Will Pick the Democratic Nominee
After all the unforeseen twists and turns of the Democratic race for president this year, after all the times we thought one particular primary or interest group would be the one that would prop one candidate above all others, it is Latino voters in ...
02/12/2008 McCain's Delicate Dance
One step to the right and two steps to the left. Two steps to the left and one step to the right. It's not easy doing the McCain Shuffle. It's a very delicate dance. One misstep could decide who the next president will be. Everyone is ...
01/29/2008 Bashers Face Backlash
As candidates keep dropping out, or getting trounced, in the race for president, the walls are caving in for those seeking to elect an anti-immigrant zealot. After all, those candidates who have practiced the politics of xenophobia are not doing too ...
01/22/2008 Watching Hugo Go Crazy
As the world tries to ignore him, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gets increasingly close to doing something crazy — just to get some attention. And when it happens, when Chavez declares war on a neighboring country or wages an oil war ...
12/30/2008 Still Waiting for White Dove's Peace
On the way home from a New Year's Eve party, we saw something that made us stop and reflect. Standing on the sidewalk, daringly blocking our passage, was a white dove. It happened a half-century ago. It must have been 2 a.m., on the morning of ...
12/23/2008 What Are We, 'Amigos' or 'Imperialistas'?
They choose to overlook Cuba's 50 years without free elections, free speech or freedom of the press. They refuse to see the dissidents rotting in jail or drowning while trying to escape from the communist island. They shamelessly align themselves with ...
12/16/2008 'Presidente' by Intimidation
Only one year after the Venezuelan people rejected Hugo Chavez's bid to become their dictator, the socialist/narcissistic "presidente" wants another referendum that would enable him to stay in power indefinitely. Last December, when ...
12/09/2008 Obama's Election Didn't Cure Racism
Remember when, just a few weeks ago, we thought the election of Barack Obama had dealt a major blow against racism in this country, when we temporarily were swept by a tidal wave of interracial harmony? Remember how some people were actually naive ...
12/02/2008 The Jobs That Americans Didn't Want
It was bigger than any border wall, more secure than any sophisticated ID card, and more effective than immigration raids and border vigilantes. It turned out to be the most effective weapon for deterring illegal immigration. Who would have thought of ...
11/25/2008 Looking for Brown Faces
As President-elect Barack Obama takes his time to make his first Hispanic appointment, the Latino leaders who supported him are beginning to squirm — not because they all expect job offers, but because they fear they could end up with egg on ...
11/18/2008 Blacks and Latinos: Natural Allies
When Barack Obama was losing the Hispanic vote to Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, some people automatically assumed that racial discrimination had something to do with it. There was widespread speculation that Hispanics wouldn't vote ...
11/11/2008 The Punching Bag Strikes Back
Latinos flipped the vote in four battleground states and gave Barack Obama free passage to the White House. But did Obama earn the Hispanic vote, or did he win it by default? More importantly, will President-elect Obama repay his debt to ...
10/28/2008 'Locos' About Obama?
He never has traveled to Latin America. He opposes free trade with Colombia, turning his back on one of the only U.S. allies in the region. He wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. He insists on meeting &...
10/21/2008 In an Act of Desperation, McCain Tries To Connect With Latinos
It took him a long time, but Sen. John McCain finally said what he needed to say to score some points with Latino voters. In last Wednesday's presidential debate, McCain brought up immigration, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pending free ...
09/30/2008 Beating Around the Bush Bailout
With leaders such as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, what's there to worry about? Did you see them in their highly anticipated first debate? Didn't you feel reassured that the nation's financial crisis soon will be in good hands? Not!...
09/02/2008 The 'Bola' Is in McCain's Court
When they come to the barrios to seek the Hispanic vote, Democratic Party leaders tell us anything we want to hear, especially about their plans to fix our broken immigration system and to grant some kind of amnesty to the 12 million illegal ...
08/26/2008 Your Party or Your People?
When they begin their journeys, their intentions are usually good and genuine: They seek personal political empowerment so they can help their people. But something happens to many Hispanic community activists on their way to gaining that power....
08/19/2008 Georgia on Her Mind
When she wrote about Tbilisi as part of a class assignment at Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y., this spring, Ekaterine Osepashvili didn't know her hometown soon would become the center of world attention. Her article — published in The ...
08/05/2008 Going Home Is Painful, Even on Video
Think of the house of your childhood, the one that you haven't seen in many years but still brings back very good memories. And then consider that it has been turned into a police station and that the bedroom you once shared with your brother is now ...
07/29/2008 Are Latinos Voting for Obama or Against Republicans?
The dramatic surge in Latino support for Sen. Barack Obama may be the last straw that tips the scale and puts America's first black president in the White House. When many Latinos were voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries,...
07/22/2008 Who Can Fix Immigration: Obama or McCain?
It is a political minefield so dangerous that no one dares to lead us through it. The presidential candidates dance around it as if we don't notice, but both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain clearly are avoiding one of the most important and ...
07/01/2008 Colombians Worship 2 Gods
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Amid all the historical information going back several centuries, the tour guide kept referring to the past six years. It was unusual, given the fact that recent history doesn't normally compare to ancient times, especially ...
06/17/2008 The Most Hated Woman in Colombia
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia — Everywhere you go in this country, the mere mention of her name evokes angry reactions. Cursing is people's preferred method to describe how they feel about Colombian leftist Senator Piedad Cordoba. And it's all ...
06/03/2008 The Clinton Spin Cycle
We have to grant it to them: When it comes to spinning the arguments — bordering on dishonesty — nobody does it better than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her band of professional spinners. For months, they have been telling us the ...
05/27/2008 Driving out of the FARC Tunnel
The death of Colombian rebel leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, following a series of major setbacks to his Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), could mark the beginning of the end of Latin America's longest and bloodiest civil ...
05/20/2008 VP Pick Could Swing the Latino Vote
As the Clinton campaign finally begins to read the writing on the wall — "Get Out" — and the race for president turns to vice presidential picks, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama should try to avoid selecting running mates who ...
04/29/2008 From a Primaries Marathon to a General Election Sprint
The more they try to be different the more they sound the same. Now that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have convinced us that they are almost equal on every issue, now that petty attacks have taken over political discourse in this country, ...
04/22/2008 On Immigration, Some Popes Speak Louder Than Others
The pope calls for compassion for America's "many immigrant children," and some people accuse him of meddling in American politics. My, how things have changed in this country! On immigration, the political pendulum has swung so far to the ...
04/15/2008 On Free Trade, Democrats Are Spineless
Let's face it: There are good trade deals, and there are bad ones. Unfortunately, this country has been engaging in so many bad ones that when a good one comes along, our politicians don't have the courage to separate it. That's the kind of ...
04/08/2008 Cuba's 'Changes' Amount To Nada
Just as America's "useful fools" were beginning to buy the smoke and mirror changes that appear to be taking place in Cuba, out comes a new report condemning the communist island for multiple human rights violations. The changes are ...
03/18/2008 Put Venezuela on the Terror List
After years on the receiving end of insults and unfounded attacks from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush finally is engaging in some tough talk with the firebrand/demagogue who wants to lead a leftist movement against the United States.<...
03/11/2008 'Los Presidentes' Assault Each Other Then Embrace
In the end, they embraced each other, just like many boxers do moments after bloodying each other's faces. But I can't think of a boxing match that was more exciting than the face-to-face, blow-by-blow encounter between several Latin American ...
02/26/2008 Obama Is Naive About Havana
Just as the ruthless regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro declared that it was gasping for its last breath of air last week, Sen. Barack Obama shamefully was sending oxygen to Havana. In his most recent debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton, only ...
02/19/2008 Texas Latinos Will Pick the Democratic Nominee
After all the unforeseen twists and turns of the Democratic race for president this year, after all the times we thought one particular primary or interest group would be the one that would prop one candidate above all others, it is Latino voters in ...
02/12/2008 McCain's Delicate Dance
One step to the right and two steps to the left. Two steps to the left and one step to the right. It's not easy doing the McCain Shuffle. It's a very delicate dance. One misstep could decide who the next president will be. Everyone is ...
01/29/2008 Bashers Face Backlash
As candidates keep dropping out, or getting trounced, in the race for president, the walls are caving in for those seeking to elect an anti-immigrant zealot. After all, those candidates who have practiced the politics of xenophobia are not doing too ...
01/22/2008 Watching Hugo Go Crazy
As the world tries to ignore him, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gets increasingly close to doing something crazy — just to get some attention. And when it happens, when Chavez declares war on a neighboring country or wages an oil war ...
2006-7 Creators columns with links no longer working
12/25/2007 One Down, Many Other Bashers To Go
In a strange way, I was almost sorry to see Rep. Tom Tancredo drop out of the race for president last week. The immigrant-bashing Colorado Republican had proved to be such an extremist that he was hurting his own cause. Even other immigrant ...
------------------
12/04/2007 Venezuelans Reject Chavez Dictatorship
For several years, it seemed as if the Venezuelan people had gone crazy. Over various election cycles, they gradually had given away their freedom and allowed their madcap president to rule like a vociferous tyrant. It seemed as if we were ...
------------------
11/13/2007 Hasta La Vista, Hillary!
Think of it this way: From now on, whenever politicians want to avoid taking a position on illegal immigration, all they have to do is say they agree with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. Whenever they want to appear as if they are saying a lot ...
11/06/2007 A Cuban Movie Proposal
As the world's leftists keep celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's death and keep selling him as the ultimate champion of a people's revolution, I keep thinking about my friend Carlos Barberia. When you talk to ...
--------------------
10/16/2007 An Unspoken Menace Threatens Latinos
It sends Latinos to the hospital and the cemetery at a higher rate than violent criminals, and yet in the Hispanic community, most people don't like to talk about it. It's "el SIDA," the Spanish name for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and it ...
10/09/2007 Bordering on Racism
For years, xenophobic immigrant bashers have used national security as an excuse to go after the Mexican border and Latino immigrants who cross it without proper documents. They kept telling us that after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, we ...
-------------------
09/25/2007 Instilling Fear of Reporting Crimes
For years, there have been numerous warnings of what potentially could happen. If you deputize state and local cops to enforce federal immigration laws, we were told, illegal immigrants would stop reporting crimes. Those warnings came not only ...
09/18/2007 Our Undemocratic Primaries
It's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future because, to many politicians, tradition is more important than logic. But we need a national primary system that levels the playing field for all American voters. How long will we allow the ...
-----------------
08/28/2007 Running for President -- of Flip-Floppers
Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are not only competing to see who takes the hardest line on immigration, but who can be the biggest hypocrite. The two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination are trying so hard to please the ...
08/21/2007 The Making of a Constitutional Dictator
Just when we thought there was nothing more Hugo Chavez could do to legally entrench himself as dictator of Venezuela, out he comes with yet another proposal that we think free and democratic voters will have to reject. But amazingly, they ...
08/14/2007 With Amigos Like Bush, Who Needs Enemigos?
When he first ran for president, George W. Bush wanted us to think he was a "compassionate conservative," the kind of leader who could be firm yet humane while fixing the nation's broken immigration system. But when members of his ...
-------------------
07/31/2007 Same Question, New Word
"What part of the word 'illegal' don't you understand?" That is by far the most frequently asked question I get from readers who disagree with my columns on illegal immigration. They are so fixated on that word that somehow they think ...
-------------------
07/10/2007 A Narrowing Field of Candidatos
For Latino voters, especially those fed up with the anti-immigrant climate that has created storms of intolerance across the nation, the field of presidential candidates is rapidly shrinking. As they appeal to the worst xenophobic instincts of ...
07/03/2007 Only Elections Will Fix Immigration
When pro-immigrant activists somehow learn to be as driven and aggressive as the anti-immigrant zealots, that's when comprehensive immigration reform will become a reality in this country — and when the broken immigration system will finally be ...
------------------------
06/19/2007 Tactless Governator Does It Again
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Everyone knows California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big guy, and that since he is not a career politician, he is prone to blunder. But not everyone knows he has the tact of an elephant. Last week, the governor ...
06/12/2007 Grave Dancing is Permissible
The immigrant bashers are dancing on the grave of the immigration reform bill, and they write me sarcastic letters because they expect me to be in mourning. "All the Americans united to kill that stupid amnesty bill," one xenophobe ...
---------------
05/22/2007 A Huge Leap Backward
He was a key negotiator in the closed-door Senate meetings that produced an immigration reform agreement with the White House last week. But in the end, in good conscience, he could not go along with it. And that makes me proud to say, I voted ...
05/15/2007 Grand Bargain or Huge Rip-Off?
Betraying America's commitment to a family-based immigration system, a group of key U.S. senators and White House officials are reportedly negotiating a "grand bargain" immigration reform package that would shift the primary basis for legal ...
-----------------
05/01/2007 Strong Ideals, Weak Leaders
The marchers may be fewer, some may even be piggybacking to promote their own wacky agendas, but the cause behind the May 1 "Great American Boycott II" is still a valid one: Comprehensive immigration reform, with a little compassion, is ...
-------------
04/10/2007 A Platform Based on Fear and Hatred
We know they have a constituency, but is it bigger than the voting bloc they are alienating? Can conservative Republicans continue to offend Latinos and not pay a price on Election Day? Apparently, some of them still think so. They believe ...
------------
03/20/2007 Gonzalez Must Tell the Truth or Say Adios
The lynch mob is out to get U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, and his survival may depend on whether he can tell the truth — the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If he had something to do with the politically motivated ...
--------------
02/06/2007 Bush Doesn't Practice What He Preaches
Since President Bush claims he wants to "resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country, without animosity," you would think his administration would be putting the breaks on efforts to arrest and deport them. ...
01/30/2007 On Immigration Reform, There are Few True Leaders
Contrary to the wishful thinking of immigrant rights advocates who applauded President Bush's vague words on immigration reform during his State of the Union speech, I'm not impressed. He said he wants a guest workers' program and comprehensive ...Links to MP columns in creators site - no longer working
01/23/2007 Faked Fear of Persecution is Asylum Fraud
Immigrants who obtained green cards after entering the United States through political asylum now run the risk of losing that privilege if they return to the countries where they claimed they were persecuted, according to a warning posted on a federal ...
01/16/2007 Sheehan Leads Delegation of Hypocrites
As they traveled through Cuba, on their way to protest against the detention of al-Qaida suspects at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo last week, American peace activists displayed the hypocrisy of their cause. To get to Guantanamo, they had to ...
01/09/2007 Say Adios to Venezuelan Democracy
Until now, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been able to claim that he rules over a democracy. But that is about to change. You can't have a democracy if opposing the government becomes a crime, if the media is censored and only one ...
The Year For Immigration Reform
01/02/2007
Thanks to a significant political shift dictated by the November midterm elections, the New Year begins with high hopes for resolving one of the most controversial issues of 2006. Immigration reform — the issue that polarized the country, ...
2006:
Back From Cuba, With Nada
12/26/2006
A U.S. congressional delegation just went to Cuba, got absolutely no concessions from the Castro communist dictatorship, and still they had the gall to come back and tell us that the next move is up to Washington. Excuse me? Why? Did the ...
Romney For President -- Of Hypocrites
12/19/2006
On the list of opportunistic Republican politicians who pick on immigrants just to pander to the conservative extremists in their party, add the name of Mitt Romney. The outgoing governor of Massachusetts, who is thinking of making a bid for ...
12/25/2007 One Down, Many Other Bashers To Go
In a strange way, I was almost sorry to see Rep. Tom Tancredo drop out of the race for president last week. The immigrant-bashing Colorado Republican had proved to be such an extremist that he was hurting his own cause. Even other immigrant ...
------------------
12/04/2007 Venezuelans Reject Chavez Dictatorship
For several years, it seemed as if the Venezuelan people had gone crazy. Over various election cycles, they gradually had given away their freedom and allowed their madcap president to rule like a vociferous tyrant. It seemed as if we were ...
------------------
11/13/2007 Hasta La Vista, Hillary!
Think of it this way: From now on, whenever politicians want to avoid taking a position on illegal immigration, all they have to do is say they agree with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. Whenever they want to appear as if they are saying a lot ...
11/06/2007 A Cuban Movie Proposal
As the world's leftists keep celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's death and keep selling him as the ultimate champion of a people's revolution, I keep thinking about my friend Carlos Barberia. When you talk to ...
--------------------
10/16/2007 An Unspoken Menace Threatens Latinos
It sends Latinos to the hospital and the cemetery at a higher rate than violent criminals, and yet in the Hispanic community, most people don't like to talk about it. It's "el SIDA," the Spanish name for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and it ...
10/09/2007 Bordering on Racism
For years, xenophobic immigrant bashers have used national security as an excuse to go after the Mexican border and Latino immigrants who cross it without proper documents. They kept telling us that after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, we ...
-------------------
09/25/2007 Instilling Fear of Reporting Crimes
For years, there have been numerous warnings of what potentially could happen. If you deputize state and local cops to enforce federal immigration laws, we were told, illegal immigrants would stop reporting crimes. Those warnings came not only ...
09/18/2007 Our Undemocratic Primaries
It's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future because, to many politicians, tradition is more important than logic. But we need a national primary system that levels the playing field for all American voters. How long will we allow the ...
-----------------
08/28/2007 Running for President -- of Flip-Floppers
Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are not only competing to see who takes the hardest line on immigration, but who can be the biggest hypocrite. The two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination are trying so hard to please the ...
08/21/2007 The Making of a Constitutional Dictator
Just when we thought there was nothing more Hugo Chavez could do to legally entrench himself as dictator of Venezuela, out he comes with yet another proposal that we think free and democratic voters will have to reject. But amazingly, they ...
08/14/2007 With Amigos Like Bush, Who Needs Enemigos?
When he first ran for president, George W. Bush wanted us to think he was a "compassionate conservative," the kind of leader who could be firm yet humane while fixing the nation's broken immigration system. But when members of his ...
-------------------
07/31/2007 Same Question, New Word
"What part of the word 'illegal' don't you understand?" That is by far the most frequently asked question I get from readers who disagree with my columns on illegal immigration. They are so fixated on that word that somehow they think ...
-------------------
07/10/2007 A Narrowing Field of Candidatos
For Latino voters, especially those fed up with the anti-immigrant climate that has created storms of intolerance across the nation, the field of presidential candidates is rapidly shrinking. As they appeal to the worst xenophobic instincts of ...
07/03/2007 Only Elections Will Fix Immigration
When pro-immigrant activists somehow learn to be as driven and aggressive as the anti-immigrant zealots, that's when comprehensive immigration reform will become a reality in this country — and when the broken immigration system will finally be ...
------------------------
06/19/2007 Tactless Governator Does It Again
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Everyone knows California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big guy, and that since he is not a career politician, he is prone to blunder. But not everyone knows he has the tact of an elephant. Last week, the governor ...
06/12/2007 Grave Dancing is Permissible
The immigrant bashers are dancing on the grave of the immigration reform bill, and they write me sarcastic letters because they expect me to be in mourning. "All the Americans united to kill that stupid amnesty bill," one xenophobe ...
---------------
05/22/2007 A Huge Leap Backward
He was a key negotiator in the closed-door Senate meetings that produced an immigration reform agreement with the White House last week. But in the end, in good conscience, he could not go along with it. And that makes me proud to say, I voted ...
05/15/2007 Grand Bargain or Huge Rip-Off?
Betraying America's commitment to a family-based immigration system, a group of key U.S. senators and White House officials are reportedly negotiating a "grand bargain" immigration reform package that would shift the primary basis for legal ...
-----------------
05/01/2007 Strong Ideals, Weak Leaders
The marchers may be fewer, some may even be piggybacking to promote their own wacky agendas, but the cause behind the May 1 "Great American Boycott II" is still a valid one: Comprehensive immigration reform, with a little compassion, is ...
-------------
04/10/2007 A Platform Based on Fear and Hatred
We know they have a constituency, but is it bigger than the voting bloc they are alienating? Can conservative Republicans continue to offend Latinos and not pay a price on Election Day? Apparently, some of them still think so. They believe ...
------------
03/20/2007 Gonzalez Must Tell the Truth or Say Adios
The lynch mob is out to get U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, and his survival may depend on whether he can tell the truth — the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If he had something to do with the politically motivated ...
--------------
02/06/2007 Bush Doesn't Practice What He Preaches
Since President Bush claims he wants to "resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country, without animosity," you would think his administration would be putting the breaks on efforts to arrest and deport them. ...
01/30/2007 On Immigration Reform, There are Few True Leaders
Contrary to the wishful thinking of immigrant rights advocates who applauded President Bush's vague words on immigration reform during his State of the Union speech, I'm not impressed. He said he wants a guest workers' program and comprehensive ...Links to MP columns in creators site - no longer working
01/23/2007 Faked Fear of Persecution is Asylum Fraud
Immigrants who obtained green cards after entering the United States through political asylum now run the risk of losing that privilege if they return to the countries where they claimed they were persecuted, according to a warning posted on a federal ...
01/16/2007 Sheehan Leads Delegation of Hypocrites
As they traveled through Cuba, on their way to protest against the detention of al-Qaida suspects at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo last week, American peace activists displayed the hypocrisy of their cause. To get to Guantanamo, they had to ...
01/09/2007 Say Adios to Venezuelan Democracy
Until now, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been able to claim that he rules over a democracy. But that is about to change. You can't have a democracy if opposing the government becomes a crime, if the media is censored and only one ...
The Year For Immigration Reform
01/02/2007
Thanks to a significant political shift dictated by the November midterm elections, the New Year begins with high hopes for resolving one of the most controversial issues of 2006. Immigration reform — the issue that polarized the country, ...
2006:
Back From Cuba, With Nada
12/26/2006
A U.S. congressional delegation just went to Cuba, got absolutely no concessions from the Castro communist dictatorship, and still they had the gall to come back and tell us that the next move is up to Washington. Excuse me? Why? Did the ...
Romney For President -- Of Hypocrites
12/19/2006
On the list of opportunistic Republican politicians who pick on immigrants just to pander to the conservative extremists in their party, add the name of Mitt Romney. The outgoing governor of Massachusetts, who is thinking of making a bid for ...