Hispanic Activist Threatens GOP over DREAM Act - - - - - - -
An official with the nation’s leading Hispanic civil rights organization has issued a warning to Republicans who helped defeat the DREAM Act in the Senate, suggesting Latinos could retaliate in future elections.
Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and national campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, said: "The most immediate repercussions are that, particularly those members in states where the Latino population has political influence, they’d better watch out."
She went on to specify Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas, George LeMieux in Florida, and Mark Kirk in Illinois.
The DREAM Act would provide legal residency to young people who arrived in the United States illegally if they graduate from high school, complete two years of college or military service, and have no criminal record.
The House approved the bill on Dec. 8, but Senate Republicans blocked the legislation on Dec. 18.
Speaking in Spanish on Univision, Martinez said the defeat of the DREAM Act "will live in the memory of the Latino community for generations." She described the vote with a word that can be translated as "vile," according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Noting that Republicans are set to take over the House in January, former La Raza official Cecilia Munoz, now director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, complained that they "want more than anything to enforce the law and try to deport all of the 10 million people who are here without papers."