On April 17, Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), addressed national press and media leaders at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., addressing the heated debate around immigration reform and its potential to become a wedge issue in the November election.
Ongoing failures to enact immigration reform, including the Senate’s failure last year to bring a compromise bill to a vote, have positioned the immigration issue at the heart of candidate platforms at all levels. According to Murguia, a rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric has made it hard for Congress to reach a consensus, even on enforcement of current immigration laws.
“Voices better left the on the fringe of political discourse have moved front and center to define the debate,” says Murguia. “Their harsh rhetoric has filled the immigration debate with code words that demonize and dehumanize not just immigrants, but all Latinos as a threat to the American way of life.”
In response, NCLR has launched a campaign advocating for fair representation of immigrants and Latinos in the media. The campaign, called “We Can Stop the Hate,” monitors mischaracterizations of immigrants in the media and publishes research about anti-immigrant extremist and vigilante groups who target immigrants.
According to Murguia, representatives from hate groups and vigilantes such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Minuteman Project have appeared at least 120 times on network news programming during the last 3 years.
By identifying the inaccuracies and misrepresentations in anti-immigrant rhetoric, the campaign hopes to ensure a productive political dialogue that will, in turn, lead to sensible policy solutions.
“Fixing a broken immigration system is hard enough without efforts being derailed by unproductive and divisive language that prevents real problem-solving at the outset,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. “NCLR’s campaign to restore a truly democratic dialogue around immigration speaks to the essential role that the media plays in forming public policy.”
But even as unresolved immigration policy has fueled anti-immigrant hate speech and hate crimes, Murguia claims that such rhetoric is a losing strategy for candidates seeking electoral victories.
“Most of those running anti-immigration campaigns lost their elections in 2006 and 2007. The presidential candidates who adopted hard-lined positions on immigration have all been pushed out of the race,” said Murguia.
Indeed, in the close Democratic presidential primary, Latinos played a decisive role toward Senator Hillary Clinton’s key victories in California, Texas, and New Mexico, where Latinos accounted for 30% of Democratic primary voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
In addition, Senator McCain has called for Republicans to “understand the political practicalities” of the immigration issue.
“Our next march is to the voting booth this November,” said Murguia. “When it comes to immigration, conventional wisdom has gotten it wrong. Simply put, as we say in Kansas, ‘That dog won’t hunt.’”
