Figures of the Future by Michael Rodriguez-Muñiz

Author:Michael Rodriguez-Muñiz [Rodriguez-Muñiz, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780691199467
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 5.2. LULAC Leadership on Capitol Hill, circa 2015. Used by permission of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Demographic claims were not only directed at Republican officials. Later that afternoon we arrived at the office of a newly elected Democratic congressman from Texas. Sitting on brand-new leather chairs in a mostly undecorated office, we met with a legislative aide. Efrain de Leon, a LULAC staff member from the West Coast, asked me, as the resident researcher, to comment briefly on the “Latino vote,” its impact, and the importance of immigration reform. I obliged, sticking close to the talking points we had received in the training sessions. When I finished, Carlos Herrera, a longtime LULAC council member and leader from Texas, jumped in and stated that the bill needed to “move away from punitive” measures. Another member called on the congressman to go as “far to the left as possible.” The rationale: “so that we can meet somewhere in the middle.” Endorsing her colleague’s point, another member reiterated the organization’s opposition to more “criminalization.” Carmen Vega, a New York member, stressed that LULAC did not want a path to citizenship that “doesn’t become a reality.” Dramatizing the long waits proposed by the Gang of Eight, she worried that many abuelas (grandmothers) would die without ever becoming U.S. citizens. Shifting from a moral to a political register, Carmen invoked a familiar figure: “It’s a numbers game … fifty thousand Latinos turn eighteen every month! We’ll continue playing numbers and get the vote.” Despite this point, Efrain de Leon felt compelled to underscore after this visit that we could not forget to “remind them of our vote … the power of our demographics.”

As members and affiliates communicated Latino “demographic power” in legislative visits, so did the leaders and spokespersons. In February 2013 Janet Murguía testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Her prepared remarks touched on all of the major immigration policy positions of Latino advocacy groups. She challenged the need for additional enforcement, described the situation on the border as “already intolerable,” and spoke about the contributions already being made by immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, to the country. “Their lives are inextricably linked with ours,” she reiterated. Murguía characterized a path to citizenship as “the single most essential element of immigration,” urging the path be made “clear,” “achievable,” and “direct”—all descriptors at odds with the punitive language coming out of the Senate and White House. Anything less, she warned, would not be “legitimate” to the Latino community.

All these points about the content of the proposed legislation came after Murguía had articulated the demographic stakes:

As the recent election clearly demonstrated, the issue of immigration is a galvanizing one for the nation’s Hispanic community. There is a precious opportunity to address it humanely and responsibly. The toxicity in this debate has affected us deeply, regardless of immigration status, and we see getting this debate on the right course as a matter of fundamental respect for the presence and role of Latinos in the U.

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