LATINOS OUTNUMBER WHITES

Weekly Review:

By Angelo Falcón

California Browning. The Census Bureau's 2014 annual population estimate makes it kind of official (these are, after all, only estimates) that Latinos now outnumber whites and other groups in California: 14,988,768 compared to 14,920,185 non-Hispanic Whites. This is the second state where this is the case, New Mexico being the first. Teresa Watanabe, Ruben Vives And Angel Jennings provide a nice overview of what this Latino population surge could mean for the state in their July 10th Los Angeles Times article, "As Latino population surges, gaps in income and education may shrink."

This demographic development no doubt contributes to the growing backlash on immigration reform as its raises anxiety among many Californians feeling that Latinos, mostly Mexicans, are overwhelming their state. The sad part of that despite these growing numbers, Latinos in the state still lag in political and economic power. That is the story for Latinos throughout the United States, sheer numbers do not automatically translate into political or economic clout. A successful formula for doing so still eludes most of the Latino community.

GOP Presidential No-Shows. She tells you she loves you and that you are important to her, but she will not return your calls! That seems to be the way almost all of the Republican Presidential candidates are treating the Latino community these days. Despite a call to all of them, none of the GOP contenders accepts an invitation to address the annual conference of one of the largest national Latino organization, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). At another meeting held by another major national Latino groups, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), in Los Vegas, the only one to show up was Ben Carson! I mean, things are really strange when you cannot even get the two Cuban GOP candidates to show up to speak to Latinos!

¡Que interesante!

LULAC Elects New Leadership. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) elected a new board at their 86th annual convention, which was just held in Salt Lake City, Utah. At last year's convention, held in New York City, there was a major controversy over the election process, leading to lawsuits. This year, the organization instituted a new electronic voting system for the 549 delegates who attended (the majority from Texas, with Puerto Rico LULAC only sending a limited delegation in protest over LULAC policies).. The Editor of the "Voice of the Mainland" blog, which has been hypercritical of the current LULAC leadership hailed this result as a "new day for LULAC." However, there remains the criticism that the organization is controlled by the founding Texas delegation that has held the group's Presidency continuously since its establishment. Last year, a candidate from Crystal Lake, IL won the election for President, but was not seated due to legal challenges that reverted control to the Texas group. Throughout these internal leadership battles, Brent Wilkes remains LULAC's Executive Director, a position he has held since 1997.

The LULAC Board election results this year are:

• Roger Rocha of Laredo, TX for President with 71 percent of the vote to Maggie Rivera's 29 percent, with 4 abstentions.
• Lourdes Galvan for Vice President for Women
• Joe Henry for Vice President for the Midwest
• David Hernandez for Vice President for the Southwest
• Gared Hernandez for National President for Youth
• Juan Lopez for Vice President for the Northeast
• Lidia Medrano for Vice President of the Southeast
• Patricia Roybal Caballero for Treasurer
• Frank Urteaga for Vice President for the Elderly
• Ana Valenzuela Estrada for Vice President for Youth
• Abigail Zapote Vice President for Young Adults

Growing Dominican Political Power. Dominicans USA commissioned

a path-breaking study by Latino Decisions on the political development of the 1.7 million Dominicans in the United States, the 4th largest Latino group in the country. Latino Decisions usually conducts surveys of Latinos as a whole and this may be the first looking at a specific Latino subgroup. Supplementing the survey with focus groups, they found:

1. Top issues for Dominicans were the economy and jobs (29 percent), improving schools (23 percent) and housing (20 percent). Immigration was only seen as a top issue by 13 percent.
2. They overwhelmingly felt there was a need for more Dominican-focused civic advocacy groups.
3. Dominicans were more willing to vote for Dominican candidates for office.
4. Dominican involvement in homeland politics did not dampen their participation levels in U.S. politics.

This research, unfortunately, did not address some hot-button issues affecting Dominican politics today. For example, it would have been interesting to have explored the racial attitudes of Dominicans, both from its relationship to the Haitians of Dominican descent citizenship status to Dominican relations with African-Americans and other Blacks. There is also the question of how Dominicans see themselves in relations to other Latino groups and pan-Latino coalitions, to address the often-heard criticism that Dominicans are "too nationalistic." The lack of data comparing the Dominican experience with that of other Latino subgroups also limits the applicability of the findings.

While pointing to growing Dominican political clout, largely tied to this group's demographic growth, this research does not address Dominican political setbacks such as the failure of the first Dominican mayor of Providence, Rhode Island's run for Governor, or State Senator Adriano Espaillat's failure to unseat Congressman Charles Rangel in Manhattan after two tries. Besides the cheerleading of this report, it would have been useful to explore how Dominicans themselves viewed these setbacks and their implications.

While a useful starting point in developing political research on Dominicans in the United States, this report also suffers in looking like part of a proposal to justify funding for Dominicans USA's voter registration and education programs. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, but it does seem to limit the questions being asked. Despite these reservations, Dominicans USA and Latino Decisions need to be commended for investing in this important research.

Dominican-Haitian Tensions Continue. The criticism of the Dominican Republic government's immigration policy as it affects Dominican-born Haitians has been growing.In Boston on Thursday and in other cities, the Haitian community has been picketing Dominican consulates, and more and more voices have been raised. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and other political leaders are calling for a boycott of the Dominican Republic, Meanwhile, defense of the Dominican policy based on that country's sovereign right to control its border and denials of racism as the motive are also growing, In the middle, many US-based Dominican elected officials are remaining silent on this issue as they express support of the DR government's ability to resolve this problem. NYC Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez's flip-flopping on this issue, for example, surprised many who saw him as a progressive, when he originally was defending the Dominican government and then joined Mayor de Blasio in condemning them. For the defenders of the DR government's position on this issue, there is the saying in Puerto Rico of the "prejudice of no prejudice."

Re-Redistricting Florida's Congressional Districts. Florida's Supreme Court just ruled on Friday that the state's Congressional districts were gerrymandered and ordered their redrawing within 100 days. Although focused on 8 districts, this decision could affect the shapes of as many as 22 or the state's 27 districts, which is a major redo. One African-American Representative is calling the decision discriminatory by violating her district's voting rights. It is not clear at this point how it would affect the state's Latino Congress members. The Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart seats appear to be safe, but the prognosis for newcomer Carlos Curbelo is not so certain. An interesting development is Alan Grayson's district, who plans to run for the U.S, Senate and has a couple of Puerto Ricans in the wings planning to take his place Puerto Ricans have claimed that this district was meant to be a Puerto Rican seat all along, and if a Puerto Rican gets elected it would be the first in the state;s Congressional delegation, the fifth voting member to serve in the Congress.

Is the Puerto Rican NYC Council Speaking Backing Bernie Sanders? Since NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was not yet endorsing Hillary Clinton for President until he heard more details about her policy positions, there has been speculation about his strategy --- was he just playing hard to get, or was he seriously considering alternatives? This week we received via one of journalist Gerson Borrero's famous tweets an invitation from our friends at Eva Longoria's Latino Victory Project for a July 18th Arizona fundraiser that featured Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, along with NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito that raised eyebrows. Her being such a close ally of Mayor de Blasio, this has raised speculation about whether the Mayor and the Speaker are really thinking about not supporting Hillary by moving to her left. As the first Latina woman to serve as Council Speaker, many assumed Viverito would be a strong Hillary supporter as the first woman President, but we'll have to wait and see how the de Blasio-Viverito 2016 strategy evolves.

By the way, the sponsor of this fundraiser, the Latino Victory Fund, headed by former Ford Foundation staffer Cristobal Alex, is demonstrating its nonpartisanship by endorsing a Republican candidate, who is Puerto Rican (yes, not Cuban), for the Virginia House of Delegates There has been speculation that the Latino Victory Fund would just be a front for the Hillary campaign or the Democrats, especially when her Hispanic campaign director was featured at a California fundraiser for the Project, but events since seem to indicate that this will not be the case.

Latina OPM Director Pork Chopped. As a result of the massive hacking of federal personnel data administered by the US Office of Personnel Management, its direct, Katherine Archuleta, was forced to resign a post she held for less than two years. Latino leaders, spearheaded by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, hailed her appointment given the extreme underrepresentation of Latinos in the federal workforce but she made no progress in addressing this problem. As of 2012, Latinos made up only 9.2 percent of the federal government workforce and only 4.5 percent of Archuleta's staff at OPM. Was the Latino leadership being too undemanding of her because she was a Latina? Alternatively, is her departure a major setback for Latino access to this important federal agency?

The Latino Vote for Trump. On Wednesday, Donald Trump had this to say: :

"I have a great relationship with the Mexican people. I have many people working for me - look at the job in Washington - I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico. They love me, I love them . . . And I'll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I'll win the Latino vote."

Well, most Latinos I spoke to were laughing out load about this. But last Thursday, columnist Ruben Navarette made a strange guest appearance on Fox News' The O\Reilly Factor. On the show he reported to Bill O'Reilly that,

"Donald Trump's anti-Mexican screed began with him saying Mexico is not sending us its best people . . . And I am here to tell you that doctors and lawyers and engineers in Mexico agree with that. They think they're the best Mexicans and certainly Mexico can't be sending its best because they're still there."

While Navarette is critical of Trump and seems to want to expose the hypocrisy of Mexican elites, by going on O'Reilly and letting him steer the conversation to his anti-immigrant position, Navarette gave the impression that he is the sole Latino who would vote for Trump. Not a helpful appearance.

Moreover, speaking of Trump, did you read the report by the American Immigration Council, "The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States"? It does a pretty good job of debunking myths about the undocumented having higher crime rates than the U.S.-born. The murder of Kate Steinle. fpr which undocumented Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez was charged by San Francisco police, has reignited the debate over the future of "sanctuary cities" with even liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein joining the chorus of those condemning San Francisco for protecting its undocumented populations from ICE abuse.

Puerto Rico Fiscal Crisis Update. Well, it looks like Puerto Rico still owes a massive $72 billion dollars, but what exactly it is going to do about it is still not clear. Tomorrow, the government of Puerto Rico is meeting at Citigroup headquarters in NYC with its major bondholders to begin negotiations. At the same time, stateside Puerto Rican community activists are planning a protest during that meeting at 3:30 pm to take on what activists Jesus Mangual calls the "modern day thieves-vultures." Puerto Rico's Working People's Party leader Rafael Bernabe outlines the purpose of this protest of this bondholder meeting that will feature a presentation by Anne Krueger who headed a team commissioned by the government of Puerto Rico to make recommendations on this problem. In addition, New York's Working Families Party, with the support of Hector Figueroa, President of SEIU 32BJ, are circulating a petition telling hedge funds not to push for further austerity measures for Puerto Rico.

On another front, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be meeting with Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to discuss their support of legislation allowing Puerto Rico to file for bankruptcy under U.S. law. Congresswoman Velazquez wrote a July 6th letter to President Obama calling on him to address the Puerto Rico debt problem by convening an emergency meeting of his Working Group on Financial Markets and bring Puerto Rican officials and the island's creditors together to hammer out an agreement. Also, all three major Democratic Party candidates for President (Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley) have publicly supported giving Puerto Rico this bankruptcy option, but this legislation had not gotten much traction yet in Congress given strong Republican and Koch brothers opposition. Meanwhile, stateside Latino organizations like the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, National Council of La Raza and others are starting to weigh in on this issue in support of the Puerto Rican people.

NiLP's contribution to this campaign has been to propose a 6-point program for federal action to solve the Puerto Rico fiscal crisis that argues that what is needed is a comprehensive approach by Washington. DC based on recognizes the role of the U.S.' colonial legacy. These points include:

1. Congressional action to allow Puerto Rico to apply for bankruptcy protection. This would start by passing he Puerto Rico Chapter 9 Uniformity Act of 2014 that would empower the government of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico to authorize certain government-owned corporations to restructure their debt obligations under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
2. Congressional repeal of The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-261, also known as the Jones Act) that deals with cabotage (i.e., coastal shipping), freeing Puerto from the requirement that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.
3. Congressional adoption of legislation like what was Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code that gave mainland United States companies an exemption from Federal taxes on income earned in Puerto Rico, whether it came from operations or interest on local bank deposits, with provisions calling for significant reinvestment within Puerto Rico tied to job creation.
4. Congressional adoption of legislation mandating parity in the federal budget of Puerto Rico with the states.
5. Congressional adoption of a Marshall Plan-like Puerto Rico Recovery Program. The original Marshall Plan involved funding devastated European economies $13 billion in 1948, which is the equivalent of $120 billion in current dollars. Unlike the European countries supported in this way, the residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens.
6. The creation of a comprehensive economic development plan by the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico.

Moreover, as the Pew Research Center reports, the exodus from Puerto Rico continues. They found that, "Over a two-year period between 2011 and 2013, Puerto Rico's net population decreased by 50,000 people annually. Job-related reasons were cited by 42% of those leaving." But on July 11th,The Economist points out in "The Puerto Rico problem" that this has resulted in giving Puerto Ricans in the United States, thanks to large number moving to the battleground state of Florida, greater political clout in American politics.

Corrections. In the July 7th Weekly Review, we incorrectly identified actress America Ferrara as being Mexican-American in the "Defending Trump" section, when she is actually of Honduran heritage. Thanks to Professor Ana Celia Zentella, apparently an "Ugly Betty"expert, for pointing this out to us.

In the same edition's "Oscar Lopez Rivera and the Confederate Flag" item, we referred to "sedition conspiracy" when it should have been "seditious conspiracy." Thanks to the FBI for this correction.

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The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics is an online information service provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy. For further information, visit www.latinopolicy,.org. Send comments to editor@latinopolicy.org.