Two prominent Latino organizations have come out in support of Rep. Raul M. Grijalva for ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Though the panel deals with environmental concerns, the outside groups see the Arizona Democrat’s ascent to a leadership role as one that would be a boon to a variety of causes they support – including immigration.

“Like environmental efforts, [the National Hispanic Latino Agenda] is also keenly interested in immigration reform; it is an urgent NHLA priority,” the umbrella group of 36 separate like-minded organizations wrote to members of the House Democratic Steering Committee on Wednesday. “The immigration policy debate now unfolding in Washington, especially in the House and Senate, intersects in a number of significant crosscutting ways with the work and policy issues of the Natural Resources Committee. Given this, we believe it is imperative the next Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee has a strong understanding of the ever-growing nexus of immigration reform and natural resources.”

That man, they say, is Grijalva, who has on his own behalf also sought to draw a distinction between himself and his rival for the ranking member slot, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon.

In a recent letter he sent to colleagues, Grijalva pointed out that DeFazio voted in 2005 for an immigration overhaul that, though never enacted into law, was backed by President George W. Bush and should be troubling for Democrats at this critical juncture in the renewed debate over the issue.

Before voting for that GOP-backed bill, DeFazio noted in a floor speech that he was not enamored of the entire measure. “Immigrant rights organizations, labor unions and others have rightfully pointed out that the bill does not in any way address the 10-12 million undocumented workers already in the U.S., no matter how long they’ve been here or how much they’ve contributed to their local community or the economy,” he said at the time. He added he was voting for it because it was the only bill that allowed him to support enhanced border security.

But it’s still being used as a selling point for Grijalva by NHLA, as well as by the California chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

In a letter to California Democratic congressmen, LULAC’s California state director Benny Diaz, Jr., praised Grijalva’s environmental record while slamming DeFazio’s immigration voting history as “abysmal” and “an automatic disqualifier for any leadership position.”

The battle for the ranking member slot on Natural Resources between Grijalva and DeFazio is based on the expectation that the panel’s current top Democrat, Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, will win next week’s special election for the Senate seat left vacant by now-Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

Grijalva has the backing of Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Reuben Hinojosa, D-Texas, and some regional colleagues. DeFazio, however, has the bulk of support from colleagues, including many members of the Progressive Caucus, of which Grijalva is the chairman.

ROLLCALL.COM

http://www.rollcall.com/news/latino_groups_take_sides_in_natural_resources_fight-225794-1.html?pos=oplyh

One of the most unexpected things Los Angeles mayor-elect Eric Garcetti has done as he awaits to take office July 1 is to offer himself as a role model to Latino youngsters from the city’s heavily Hispanic Eastside where dropout rates are high and expectations low.

Garcetti, who is Hispanic on his father’s side of the family, has been telling young Latinos that he is a product of Boyle Heights, one on the city’s barrios, and that he wouldn’t be the next mayor without the experience.

“I wouldn’t be possible without Boyle Heights,” Garcetti told some of the Eastside’s most accomplished Latino youngsters – teens with a voice to their generation of Hispanics – in an unprecedented meeting this week.

The Latino youth the mayor-elect met with are student reporters from the city’s predominantly Hispanic high schools in the Eastside barrios, including Boyle Heights where Garcetti’s maternal and paternal grandparents both settled when they emigrated to Los Angeles in the early 1900s.

Garcetti said that although he wasn’t raised in the barrio, he was a product of it just the same.

“Both of my father’s parents were proudly Mexican-American, both spoke Spanish as their first language,” said Garcetti. “My grandfather was born in Mexico, my grandmother’s parents were from Mexico.

“I don’t think we had a weekend growing up when I didn’t have pan dulce, menudo, and — because of my mother — bagels too.”

Eric Garcetti’s Latino roots helps him connect to youth

On his mother’s side, Garcetti is a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Poland and the Ukraine, who also settled in Boyle Heights in the early 20th century.

Garcetti’s maternal grandfather, Harry Roth, turned the family’s Los Angeles clothing business, Louis Roth & Co., into a major national brand of high-end suits for men.

“Weekends involved bowls of menudo at my grandparents’ and bagels at my cousins’ house,” says Garcetti. “I think if you’re Latino, you’re very comfortable with the idea of mestizo, being mixed. So I kind of joke that I’m mestizo doble, double mixed.”

Both sides of Garcetti’s family came to L.A. in the early 20th century, fleeing the Mexican Revolution on one hand and conscription for the Russo-Japanese War on the other. Both settled within blocks of one another in East L.A.’s melting pot Jewish-Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Garcetti’s meeting with Latino youth was just one of a number of sessions he has had in various neighborhoods – what is being called a “listening tour,” in which the mayor-elect has been getting input about neighborhood concerns.

“The work trumps any symbolism right now,” he says. “I’m not somebody who didn’t understand City Hall. I don’t need 15 experts telling me how the city works. I already have that Rolodex to call whoever I need.”

Garcetti, say observers, is also separating himself in style from outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who often was criticized for not having more substance.

“He’s setting a tone… of a quieter mayoral administration — effective but quieter,” Jaime Regalado, emeritus professor of political science at California State University, Los Angeles, said of the mayor-elect. “Probably not as bombastic, not as celebrity-based.”

VOXXI.COM
Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/eric-garcetti-role-model-latino-youth/#ixzz2WkhcAJ7z

WASHINGTON -- Erin Konkel traveled from Houston, Texas, to go to a daylong tea party rally on immigration reform Wednesday in front of the Capitol, where she held up a handmade sign for more than an hour. "RUBIO CONSERVATIVE RINO," it read, or Republican In Name Only.

She used to be a fan of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is now pushing a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate with the so-called gang of eight. Konkel, as a Texan, is concerned about the border, and she is deeply opposed to the gang of eight bill. By supporting it, Rubio seemed to be going against the views of those who voted him into office, she said.

"I believed in him," she said of Rubio. "I thought he was the real deal, but I was wrong."

The gang of eight bill would provide a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., while also requiring increased border enforcement and a streamlined legal immigration system. Rubio's work on immigration reform won't necessarily damage his chances for a presidential run in 2016, according to conservative observers. Still, many conservatives at two tea party rallies on Wednesday were disappointed with Rubio.

When Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, took to the stage with Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to decry the gang of eight bill, the crowd booed loudly for Rubio in particular.

"No matter what Marco Rubio says -- who has not read his own bill, incidentally," Rector said, interrupted by screams from the crowd, before going on to say that the bill would give welfare to undocumented immigrants.

There was a palpable anger toward Rubio among some at a nearby rally, which was on the other side of the Capitol with many of the same attendees.

"Traitor," interjected one woman passing by as she overheard The Huffington Post asking another attendee about Rubio.

"I think he's a sell-out. I think he got power mad," said Matthew Bishoff, who waved a sign that read, "No Amnesty 1 Law 4 All."

Bishoff, who lives in Ohio, said he and his dad came to D.C. by bus to attend the rally. He said he didn't know much about Rubio before the immigration debate, but had heard some of his speeches and was impressed with him.

"I thought he spoke really, really well and thought he was maybe a future leader for us," Bishoff said. But after watching Rubio in the immigration debate, he said he thought, "Ok, you were in it more for the power than to truly lead us."

"Why is he trying to pair up with Obama?" he asked. "I think it's his lust for power."

Another Ohio attendee, who only gave her first name, Jane, said she used to like Rubio but she's not sure what he "really stands for at this point." She had a bullseye on her shirt that read, "In the crosshairs of the IRS," with a sad face in the middle.

"I'm surprised he's taken this role," Jane said of Rubio, "but my basic observation of Washington, D.C., is people come here and they lose their perspective of the real world in this bubble."

Like Jane, many of the people HuffPost talked to said they used to admire Rubio but have soured on him because they say the immigration bill he's pushing grants a pathway to citizenship but doesn't do enough on border security.

"We need to secure the borders before anything," said Debbie of Maryland, who declined to give her last name. "So much bad stuff coming over the borders. We need to secure that first."

She grumbled, "I was a fan of Rubio's before this."

Fred and Bonnie, a couple from New Jersey who have been together for 45 years, echoed others' complaints that power has gotten to Rubio's head.

"He was the one saying we were going to do the border first or he's not going to do anything. Now he's on board, all macho, this is what I'm doing," Bonnie said. "It's not right."

Bonnie said her biggest concern with the immigration bill is that Americans will have to shoulder the costs of the millions of undocumented immigrants as they work toward a pathway to citizenship. She emphasized that her opposition to the bill wasn't personal, though.

"I worked in a public school, and I'm still volunteering to help illegals at a Catholic Church," Bonnie said. "It's not the people that I have a problem with. I'm there for them. But I don’t want them taking money away from my children and grandchildren. We can't support them."

Bob Henderson, who came to the rally from Winchester, Va., said he thinks Rubio may be regretting his decision to go along with the gang of eight plan.

"He's a young man who let himself get hoodwinked," he said. "It appears to me he's headed down the wrong path and trying to figure out how to turn around and save some face."

Despite their anger, though, some rally-goers said Rubio's immigration views weren't a deal-breaker if it's between him and a Democrat on the next presidential ballot.

"You have to take the bad with the good," said Jim Murphy, who traveled to D.C. from Lake Gaston, N.C., with the Roanoke Valley Patriots, a tea party group. "So if he were to be the nominee in 2016, yes, I would go to the booth, I would cast my vote for him although I disagree with him on that issue. We can go through the entire Senate, and I think we can find at least one issue with each senator that I disagree with."

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/tea-partiers-marco-rubio-immigration_n_3468160.html?&ir=Latino%20Voices&utm_hp_ref=latino-voices

In what some conservatives are calling the most important abortion measure to be considered by Congress since 2003’s partial birth abortion ban, the House today passed a bill that would make it illegal to terminate pregnancies after 20 weeks. The bill, which passed 228-196, is not expected to have an impact on federal abortion law. The Senate is unlikely to take up the bill and the White House has already threatened to veto such legislation if it ever lands on President Obama’s desk.

Championed by Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is symbolic. Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have passed similar legislation, which has been sometimes struck down by the courts or tangled in ongoing litigation. The House effort is meant to add federal firepower to the slow and steady quest to challenge and eventually overturn the 40-year-old Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling, which held that abortion should be legal until a fetus is viable, generally understood to be around 24 weeks. Roe opponents say their momentum is building, especially on the heels of the high-profile murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, who performed illegal and sometimes gruesome late-term abortions and was recently sentenced to life in prison.

Not all Republicans endorsed the idea of bringing the 20-week abortion ban to a floor vote. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times that doing so was a “stupid idea” that risks alienating voters with more moderate views on abortion at a time of economic uncertainty. The measure attracted six Democratic votes; six Republicans voted against the bill.

TIME.COM
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/18/house-passes-20-week-abortion-ban/#ixzz2WfSpHFWT