President Obama’s visit to Southern California is an acknowledgment of the region’s importance to the White House. It would be an opportune moment for the new president to make a much needed statement on the value of immigrants and to condemn intolerant attitudes.

The locations selected for the president’s presentations lend themselves to precisely such statements.

For example, today’s first public event will be held in Costa Mesa, the city that has become a symbol of the region’s anti-immigrant attitudes, and the following day, another town hall meeting will be held at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, named after the Latino union leader who defended immigrant workers’ rights.

We believe now is the time to send a clear message against anti-immigrant sentiment and the distortion of the meaning of Latino and Hispanic across the United States.

For example, we are very concerned by the lies spread by CNN’s Lou Dobbs who has said that the mission of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was “Mexico’s export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States.” The maliciousness of this statment drives him to ignore the millions of small business members of the organization that create jobs and are an integral part of the economy.

We are also concerned by the political environment that triggered the withdrawal of attorney Thomas Saenz’s nomination to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Anti-immigration groups torpedoed this brilliant attorney’s appointment because of his work with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). Critics reduced the importance of MALDEF to a caricature and Saenz to a simple defender of “illegals.” Given this situation, the White House apparently preferred to replace Saenz than hear —and refute—the misstatements made against the organization during his confirmation hearing.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Thomas Perez’s selection for a Justice Department post concerns some civil rights advocates, who believe Villaraigosa aide Thomas Saenz was passed over to avoid sparking an immigration battle.

By Paul West and Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington — Thomas Perez is Maryland’s highest-ranking Latino, but his selection as the nation’s leading civil rights enforcer has provoked sharp criticism from some Latino civil rights advocates.

The criticism isn’t directed at Perez, the state’s secretary of labor and a first-generation Dominican American, or his qualifications.

Instead, it revolves around a belief that the administration passed over another Latino attorney for the position as head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, possibly out of a desire to avoid a fight over immigration.

A statement by the National Council of La Raza, which calls itself the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, expressed “profound disappointment” that Thomas Saenz, an advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, wasn’t chosen for job.

“This action may lead some to question whether the White House is ready to fulfill its promise on immigration reform,” said Janet Murguia, the group’s president. Through a spokeswoman, she refused a request for further comment.

Saenz was reported last month to be the leading contender for the position. A close associate, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, was quoted late last week as saying that he had been offered the appointment and accepted it.

Saenz refused to comment, as did Villaraigosa’s office.

Administration officials won’t discuss the selection and vetting processes. But a White House spokeswoman, speaking on the condition that she not be identified, said Saenz remained under consideration for another, unspecified post.

Saenz’s defenders link his failure to secure the civil rights job to his advocacy for immigration rights. That, in turn, has fed nervousness among some Latinos that Obama wanted to duck a Senate confirmation fight that would highlight the divisive issue.

Obama, during the first two months of his presidency, has left immigration in the background as he has dealt with the economic crisis and promoted energy, healthcare and education initiatives. But immigration was a central topic Wednesday, when the president met with members of the all-Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Caucus members had met the day before to discuss whether to bring up the civil rights appointment with Obama and decided against it because, according to a member, they didn’t want to take time away from their top priority — immigration legislation.

“Why wouldn’t you want to have someone who has a committed, dedicated, unblemished commitment to civil rights and to immigrants,” Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) asked in an interview outside the House chamber.

He said Obama would convene a White House meeting in the coming weeks to further discuss immigration legislation. “Patience is waning,” Gutierrez said. But he added: “We have to give him an opportunity. . . . This is going to be hard.”

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) said Obama made a commitment to “work with us to get a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed this year. . . . That would be the goal.”

Saenz, a former vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), has pushed for anti-discrimination protection from Border Patrol sweeps.

Reports that he would be chosen for the job prompted opposition from anti-illegal-immigration forces. An editorial in Investor’s Business Daily called him “a man who has dedicated his life to promoting illegal immigrant ‘rights.’ ”

MALDEF said that “the same rhetoric from the same extremists that kept the Congress from enacting responsible immigration reform has been unleashed unfairly and inaccurately” against Saenz.

Perez, by contrast, appears to have little if any public record on hot-button immigration issues, despite his involvement with CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, whose board he once headed. He also served briefly on the board of the National Immigration Forum.

He is a former staff attorney in the Justice Department’s civil rights division and was a Clinton administration appointee as head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. He was a special counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the 1990s and has ties to John Podesta, who headed Obama’s transition operation.

Perez, 47, was a leading member of the transition team for the Justice Department.

Cruz Reynoso, the first Latino to serve on the California Supreme Court, said he was “a little bit disappointed, frankly, that if what I hear is true, it may mean that the president is not willing to enter into the fight that I think we have to enter into to do any good on immigration.”

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates tougher immigration enforcement, called Perez another Obama appointee who is “far outside the mainstream of general public thinking on immigration enforcement.”

The civil rights division deals with a wide range of anti-discrimination enforcement, including voting rights violations and police misconduct.

Historically, immigration is “not a major issue” for its lawyers, said Joseph D. Rich, former chief of the voting rights section. He said Perez was “a great choice,” in part because of his previous experience in the office.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Children left behind by deported parents have become the new face of the campaign. Borrowing a page from the civil rights movement, supporters have taken their cause to churches.

By Dahleen Glanton, LA Times

Reporting from Norcross, Ga. — On a recent afternoon, 15-year-old Marlon Parras stood on stage in front of 3,000 people and talked about the hardships he and his 13-year-old sister have faced since their parents were deported to Guatemala.

He wept as he spoke of his parents’ decision to leave them, both American citizens, with relatives and church members so they could continue their education in suburban Atlanta.

“This is not a family,” Marlon told the crowd. “This is not fair.”

Two years after an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws failed in Congress, Latino leaders have revitalized the effort — positioning children who were left behind when their parents were deported as the new face of the movement. The campaign is designed to pressure President Obama to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority.

Borrowing a page from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, supporters of immigration rights have taken their cause to churches, drawing upon the growing population of evangelical Latinos, who are strong advocates of family values. Nearly 1 in 6 Latinos in the U.S. identify themselves as evangelicals, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Only Roman Catholics make up a larger group.

“We want to make sure President Barack Obama understands that while [the economy] . . . needs his attention, we want him to keep his promise to address comprehensive immigration reform during the first year of his first term,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has organized rallies in 17 cities. “Our families are the cornerstone of our society, and we want to protect those families.”

The mostly Latino audience that packed the large evangelical church in Norcross prayed, sang spirituals and heard from families — including the Parrases — that have been torn apart.

Their stories are designed to focus attention on what community leaders said was the most tragic consequence of the crackdown on illegal immigration: the breakup of families. It is a problem that Latino leaders have said affects up to 5 million children, most of whom were born in the U.S. and therefore are citizens.

During tough economic times, it may be difficult to gain public support for legislation that could provide legal citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants.

Still, Gutierrez — who shared the church stage with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon — brought the effort deep into conservative territory, where many support plans to secure the borders rather than grant widespread citizenship. Georgia has one of the fastest-growing illegal immigrant populations in the nation, rising to about 490,000 in 2008 from 228,000 in 2000, according to state estimates.

But Latino leaders are hoping that concern and empathy for broken families will galvanize their community and draw the support of others. Organizers are gathering thousands of petitions and plan a rally in Washington in July.

“When you have a 15-year-old American citizen speak very emotionally and eloquently about his pain, most Americans will say, ‘We didn’t know the system was that broken,’ ” said Gutierrez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ immigration task force. “Americans do support the basic premise that children should not be held accountable for the actions of adults.”

Latinos turned out 2 to 1 for Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential election, and helped him capture key battleground states such as New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Now they want him to honor his campaign promise.

“We understand that Mr. Obama is in a difficult position,” said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, which represents 20,000 churches in 34 states. “Latinos supported him because they were extremely disappointed with Republicans and the ultra-conservative right wing evangelical movement. So it is important that he make immigration reform a priority.”

Michael Franc, vice president for government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said overhauling immigration laws was a divisive subject among Democrats as well as Republicans.

“They hate it. It’s radioactive on both sides of the aisle,” Franc said. “There was a schism on the Democratic side during the last immigration debate, but because the Republicans were so vocal in their opposition, no one noticed the Democrats’ reluctance.”

When people are out of work and struggling to keep their families together, there is less sympathy for illegal immigrants, he said. A tight job market and the competition for jobs provided in the federal stimulus package also could influence public perceptions about immigration.

“If you are trying to reach out to newer audiences and expand the pro-immigration reform level of support, it is easier to feel sympathy for the horror stories coming into your living room on your TV screen when things are going well for everybody,” Franc said. “If you have a job, the story of those kids pulls on your heartstrings, but it is perceived differently when you are wondering how you are going to pay your bills because the economy is tanking.”

Still, Latino leaders are highlighting the stories of people like Tanyia Lopez, 12, whose mother was deported to Honduras last year, leaving her and her four younger siblings, including a chronically ill 2-year-old. Their 16-year-old aunt dropped out of high school to care for them full time. They recently faced eviction because their grandmother lost her job. They have depended on their church for survival.

“The little ones don’t understand what happened to our mom,” Tanyia said, adding that they have no money to join her in Honduras. “We all miss her and we want to be together.”

Popularity: 25% [?]

By GEBE MARTINEZ, Politico

She has been likened more to Sarah Palin than to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Which would be just peachy if she were a Republican. But she is a Democrat.

She is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was just beginning her third year in the House representing a conservative, upstate New York district, when she was appointed by New York Gov. David Paterson to fill the Senate seat recently vacated by Clinton.

The decision annoyed some of the nation’s top Hispanic leaders, who are dismayed by what they describe as Gillibrand’s “anti-immigrant” record. (Gillibrand’s promotion to the Senate was praised by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an immigration restrictionist group.)

Either top Democratic leaders like Paterson and New York Sen. Charles Schumer did not know all of Gillibrand’s positions on key Latino issues when she was hurriedly picked or they let them slide, banking instead on her strong ability to dial for dollars and pull in New York’s conservative voters when Paterson and Gillibrand are up for election in 2010.

Bet on the latter. It’s all about winning the next election, not what a person stands for, Democrats remind us. (Gillibrand raised a staggering $4.7 million for her last House race.)

The result is a new senator who is an immigration hard-liner from an ethnically rich state where the Statue of Liberty is an enduring symbol of freedom; where more than one in five residents are foreign-born; and where more than half of the immigrants are citizens and eligible to vote.

Instead of being a rock-solid bet to keep the seat vacated by Clinton, who is a rock star to Latinos, Gillibrand cannot rule out a primary challenge. (She also has been backed by the National Rifle Association, scratching against the grain of New York’s liberal Democratic base.)

What’s more, Schumer’s replacement as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — the arm charged with making sure incumbents like Gillibrand hold on to Democratic seats — is Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the highest-ranking congressional Hispanic and a fierce advocate of immigrants’ rights.

With no way to go but up after being thrown into the deep end of the political pool by her bobbling governor, Gillibrand is setting out to prove she’s unsinkable. She has hired Bronx political veteran Roberto Ramirez to help plug up opposition as she assembles her campaign team for next year’s statewide race.

The “Educating Kirsten” campaign has begun.

Since being sworn into office last week, Gillibrand has met with Menendez and became the 45th member of the Senate Hispanic Task Force.

On Sunday, she sat in a Brooklyn meeting room for two hours with 15 state and local Hispanic leaders who grilled her about her House record, which included opposition to legalizing 12 million undocumented immigrants and backing penalties for cities, such as New York, that protect undocumented immigrants. She was a favorite of “English only” groups.

At the meeting, Gillibrand took copious notes on the Hispanics’ concerns, offered to take a walking tour in immigrant neighborhoods and agreed to receive a 100-day report card, according to a meeting participant. Talks with other leaders in Washington are continuing this week.

Gillibrand has a lot to learn about Hispanics and immigrants, even as a New Yorker.

Recent killings of Latinos in New York have prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to review how local authorities handled the cases. Hate crimes against Hispanics were not on Gillibrand’s radar as a House member, but they will be now, predicted John Trasvina, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 26 groups.

“We are looking forward; we are not looking backwards,” Trasvina said of Gillibrand’s position on immigration. Gillibrand “is an adult. She’s an elected official. She has to be accountable, and she will be accountable for her [future] votes,” he added.

In limited public statements, Gillibrand has shown a willingness to bend her previous hard-line positions, mindful that she is now representing the whole state, not just the conservative Albany area.

For example, she previously favored an immigrant work force only when farmers could not find U.S. citizens to do the work, but as a new senator she floated the idea of temporary worker visas for five consecutive years and then letting workers apply for legal permanent residency.

The lingering question is whether Gillibrand’s enforcement-only immigration stance can be modified enough to satisfy immigrant and civil rights advocates. Is it even possible for Gillibrand to credibly reposition herself on immigration if it is not in her political DNA?

The situation reminded one activist of Palin, whose own words and limited public record could not be gussied up enough by handlers to increase her credibility during her unsuccessful GOP vice presidential run last fall.

“I am still open to [Gillibrand] being able to conform her ability to run as a U.S. senator to some of the positions she has taken before. I don’t know if it’s possible,” said New York state Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera, the longest-serving Hispanic in the state Legislature. Before the Brooklyn meeting, Rivera observed that Gillibrand’s immigration record “borders on xenophobia.”

But after listening to Gillibrand, Rivera wished her “the best,” while noting that she does not have a lot of time to transform her anti-immigration image.

“We started a relationship on which we can build upon, but really, the rest of it is up to her. There is skepticism that she will be able to change, particularly that she can become a champion for Latinos. Only time will tell,” Rivera said.

Party leaders are trying to put behind them the botched process that led to Gillibrand’s appointment, and Schumer wants time for her to prove her savvy.

“She is doing a great job of reaching out, and we will have to see where that leads,” Schumer said.

Gillibrand’s plight highlights how disconnected most lawmakers are from Hispanics, observed Courtney Cavagnaro, a neighborhood organizer from New Jersey who was in Washington last week with the Campaign for Community Values to lobby for the economic stimulus bill and children’s health care programs.

“We need to ask: ‘How often has [Gillibrand] been in the Latino communities?’” Cavagnaro asked. “‘How often have any of them been in the Latino communities?’” The answer is, not enough, or they would know how Hispanics are disproportionately affected by a bad economy, poor schools and other issues.

Gillibrand will be in those neighborhoods as she works to keep her political career alive.

Popularity: 26% [?]

On May Day in 2006, a human mass of white shirts stretched along downtown Denver’s Speer Boulevard in one of the largest mobilizations in the city’s history. An estimated 75,000 people skipped work and school to march and protest against federal legislation that would have further criminalized undocumented immigrants in the United States. Millions of others rallied in more than 25 cities.

Two years later during the Democratic National Convention, another group, estimated at 1,000, again took to the streets in Denver, demanding that immigration reform — hardly a front and center issue so far this year — isn’t forgotten when a new president takes office in January. But the event was marred with the somber memory of the past two years since the colossal May Day actions — during which immigrants in Colorado have witnessed a crackdown on the undocumented, a massive expansion of an immigrant prison, and a surge in raids and prosecutions by federal authorities.

In a state where the immigration issue directly affects the Mexican community, local activists are speaking out against what has become an increasingly hostile environment to both immigrants and those of Latino origin. Federal immigration reform is not only seen as an urgent step toward protecting undocumented families and workers in the United States but is also considered to be one of the surest ways to end a disastrous immigration legacy in Colorado.

Many who helped organize the May Day march in 2006 also took part in planning the most recent immigrant rights rally during the convention, which began at Denver’s Rude Park across from Mile High Stadium on the the last day of the convention, Aug. 28, a day that marked the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

Nita Gonzales, daughter of late Chicano activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and president of La Escuela Tlatelolco, a community-based private school with an emphasis on Chicano and Mexican culture, helped lead the rally, where people marched a short distance on Interstate 25 from Rude Park to Lincoln Park at Mariposa Street and West 11th Avenue.

“It’s worth the struggle,” said Gonzales, who donned a T-shirt with an image of her father, a Denver native and figurehead of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and 1970s. “I understand that immigration raids put a chill on people’s ability to stand up and have a voice, but that’s what we have to do. We’re the citizens, we have to walk our talk and get up and do it and march.”

Asked about parallels between her father’s community organizing work in Colorado and the struggles that are currently faced by immigrants now in the state, Gonzales said, “I think the energy in the 1960s and 1970s was amazing, for several groups and organizations including those in the Chicano movement. We were under so much oppression then because we dared to speak up, and I truly believe that there is fear now. People are fearful.”

Gonzales was quick to add that “We can’t tolerate that. We have to stand up.”

In May, Gonzales became a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado against Denver officials and the United States Secret Service to disclose plans relating to parade routes and rally permits during the convention. At a press conference announcing the litigation, Gonzales stated that she had submitted a request for a parade permit in March and had yet to hear back from the city about where a parade would be permitted, how the parade permitting process would would work, or if she would even be granted a permit to hold a immigrant rights march while media and Democrats were in Denver for the convention.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

By Richard Cowan - Analysis

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Immigration, once the hottest U.S. political issue, is on a backburner this election season with little firm evidence it will advance, no matter who moves into the White House in January.

Calls for securing the southern U.S. border and overhauling outdated immigration laws exploded onto the national scene in 2006 with demonstrations in several big cities. Washington failed to work out a broad deal the following year.

Two months before the presidential election, interest in immigration reform has given way to worries over energy prices. That, coupled with different strategies for wooing the votes of the country’s growing Hispanic population and a sour U.S. economy, could be why immigration reform is dormant.

“Despite the fact that immigration was the hottest issue, the thing that everyone talks now is energy,” said Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, a member of the House of Representatives’ Republican leadership team, during a brief interview.

As global oil prices surged this year, hitting U.S. consumers hard because of their gas-guzzling ways, Republicans in Congress have wanted to talk about little else lately other than expanding domestic oil drilling.

Immigration reform was once a signature issue for Sen. John McCain, who accepts the Republican Party’s nomination this week as their choice to run against Democrat Barack Obama in the November 4 election.

Upholding his reputation as a political maverick, the Arizona senator had infuriated many Republican conservatives with his efforts to allow some who came to the United States illegally to work their way to permanent legal status.

McCain also has embraced President George W. Bush’s project to build a 670-mile fence separating the United States and Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out. Conservatives insist the fence along the southern U.S. border is an important national security tool.

Democrats have promised to pass an immigration reform bill during Obama’s first year in office. But plenty of details need to be worked out and efforts likely would be slowed by Republicans not wanting to hand Obama any major legislative victories, according to a former customs and border enforcement official close to the immigration debate.

U.S. ECONOMY NEEDS WORKERS

Whether the passion for immigration reform flares again will depend in part on the health of the U.S. economy. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who opposes broad reforms, said rising unemployment in the United States is now discouraging both parties from raising the issue.

But U.S. companies, many of which back broad reforms, want a more efficient way for bringing in more foreign workers, from low-paid temporary farm hands to nursing home helpers and high-paid high-tech specialists.

“Both (political) parties are ducking the immigration issue,” said Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “They don’t want to get in the middle of it because everyone wants the Hispanic vote” that could be critical in many states this year, he said.

That means, he said, that immigration reform advocates will ride their support among Hispanics to victory, while opponents, many of them conservative Republicans, will try to avoid the topic.

The tough part of immigration reform, which pits McCain against his party’s conservatives, is “amnesty,” or whether an estimated 12 million foreigners who came to the United States illegally, should be allowed to eventually stay.

Many of them now have U.S.-born offspring.

Cecilia Munoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest U.S. Hispanic civil rights group, disputes that the trail has gone cold on immigration reform. She noted that “in state and local elections all over the country, people are talking about it.”

From her view, the presidential candidates “do not have huge differences.”

The question is whether McCain, if elected, will be able to maintain a passionate support for broad reform and bring his party with him, Munoz said.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

Republicans will anoint McCain as their leader this week, all the while embracing an immigration plank declaring: “We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity.”

That stance might satisfy the most conservative in the Republican Party. But it risks offending another important constituency: longtime McCain supporters like Betty Hill.

The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to attend the Republican convention, said she wants comprehensive immigration reform as one of the top goals of a McCain administration.

Voicing support for amnesty, Hill said: “What do you do with 12 million people? There’s no way you can deport all of them.”

Popularity: 18% [?]

By Paul Kiernan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Monday he expects either Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to pass an immigration reform law quickly, whoever wins the presidential election.

“I believe that whichever one of the American candidates is elected for president, they will succeed in passing soon - sometime early next year - an immigration reform,” Clinton said at a press conference in Mexico City, adding that such legislation would lead to a “substantial improvement in the management of that problem, for both countries.”

Clinton also brushed aside the possibility that Democrat Obama may lose ground to Republican rival McCain in the race for U.S. Hispanic votes by not visiting Mexico, as McCain did earlier this month.

“Just like I don’t think you can say Sen. McCain doesn’t want the votes of German-Americans in Milwaukee because he hasn’t been to Germany yet,” Clinton said. “I assure you (Obama) is interested in a good relationship with Mexico and a positive relationship with the Hispanic community in our own country,” he added.

Clinton, who came to Mexico City to speak at the International AIDS conference and to announce a $50 million investment through his charitable foundation in sustainable development in Latin America, said he sees either of the two major- party candidates increasing development assistance in other parts of the world.

“(The two candidates) seem both very committed to the so-called soft-power issues,” he said. “I think they understand - and Americans understand now - that we do very well when people think we’re on their side.”

Popularity: 31% [?]