This is all sort of like that episode of Star Trek where Spock tries to outwit identical fembots by telling one that he "loves her" and the other that he "hates her."

Unfortunately, the modern GOP is neither logical nor  "fascinating."

How many people protested the House bill?  How many millions of people protested the Republican Party's immigration policy?

The Hispanic community seems, from an outsider's viewpoint, to be starting to make good on hopes and ambitions from the marches. I love the series of rallying ads during World Cup on Spanish stations, trying to get people naturalized and registered. I was shocked at the HUGE number of people eligible to naturalize.

There are also 2 major Hispanic radio DJs who are signing on to the ongoing effort, using their shows to promote the idea. Again, I am an outsider to the community, but if I understand correctly Spanish-language radio is by far the fastest growing sector in the US, and is a major cultural tie for Latinos living in the US and Mexico.

The GOP made headway last time with traditional values--most Latinos are strong Catholics, so anti- abortion and gay marriage opinions play well to Hispanics. The GOP's wedge issue is now...immigration. Not only does it not draw, it repels.

It shouldn't all be on the Latino community to kick these bums out, though. Anglos should recognize their coded language of bigotry and vote to stamp it out and replace it with pragmatic solutions that reduce the appeal and capitalize on the energy of those already living here.  

Bottom line, there is a major opportunity that we can't afford to blow this fall. Get to work.

North Carolina has a large illegal immigrant population for a non-border state.  Many rural Democrats are strongly against an amnesty program.  A big problem for the eastern part of the state is that seasonal jobs that used to be taken by high school students are now filled by the immigrant population.  Most people I speak with here, though seem to overwhelmingly support border security as a first step.  

My fear is that this is an issue that could be divisive for both parties - at least in some states.  I haven't checked recently, but a few years ago the percentage of registered Latinos who actually voted in Charlotte was negligible.  While the Latino community is vocal here, it doesn't translate into votes...at least not yet.

Democrats should be the one calling GOP hypocrisy on immigration.  

Why dont the Minuteman rally around meat poulty processing plants, large southern rural farms, etc where republican employers openly employ illegal aliens.

Why dont they question GOP about enforcing the law.
Illegal Immigration is a GOP problem, not Democrats.  Facts are illegal immigration is a failure of the GOP.

Immigration is a GOP problem.
Statistics show that the numbers of fines and convictions dropped sharply after 1999, with fines all but phased out except for occasional small cases. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a 2003 memorandum issued by ICE required field offices to request approval before opening work-site cases not related to protecting "critical infrastructure," such as nuclear plants. Agents focused on removing unauthorized workers, not punishing employers.

ICE also faced a $500 million budget shortfall, and resources were shifted from traditional enforcement to investigations related to national security. Farms, restaurants and the nation's food supply chain "did not make the cut," Reed said. "We were pushed away from doing enforcement."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800613_ 3.html

If you don't read Tom Ferrick's blog over at the Phila Inq, he has a great column up which is essentially a short history of immigration and immigrants in America.

Link: http://ferrickspoliblog2006.blogspot.com /2006/07/invasion-of-garlic-eaters.html

It pretty much rebuts all the GOP talking points with historical facts.

The problem is that there are two sides to this equation.  The Republicans are hurting themselves with Latinos on this issue, no doubt.  But the attack puts Democrats in a tough position.  At least here in Colorado, they don't want to be portrayed as too friendly to minorities, so they are jumping on the Republican bandwagon by agreeing to a special session on immigration that has the Democrats pushing bills to bar immigrants from receiving state services and Republicans arguing that the Dems are not tough enough.  Check out this quote from this morning's Denver Post:

Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, read a long list of benefits that House Bill 1023 would ban from illegal immigrants: "Any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, post-secondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit or any other similar payment."

He said the bill would ban any grant, contract, loan, professional license or commercial license provided by an agency of a state or local government.

"The thing that strikes me and frustrates me," Shaffer said, "is that I believe we agree about more than we disagree about, yet we have for one reason or another dug our heels in on this issue along party lines."

The dynamic is that the Democrats are reaching for ever-tougher anti-immigrant measures, only to have the Republicans always want something "tougher."  This is not the way for Democrats to capitalize on Republican missteps.  They are reinforcing the impression in the Latino community that the Democrats will never stand up for us when the chips are down, so why support them.  In that environment, Republican outreach efforts are not necessarily doomed to failure.