News (Noticias) Tagged ‘Rochester’

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It’s hard to stay healthy if you speak a different language than your doctor, and maybe harder yet if you have no doctor at all.

Those are just some of the health challenges facing local Latinos, said Israel Santana. He organizes Rochester’s Latino Health Fair to help Latinos clear those hurdles and get healthy.”*

The National Society of Hispanic MBAs held its first-ever event in western New York on June 13 at Nazareth College in Pittsford.

The event: The New York chapter kicked off its partnership with Nazareth’s School of Management with a get-together at Casa Hispana on campus.”*

A company based in Spain is promising to invest $2 billion (€1.28 billion) in wind energy in New York over the next five years if regulators approve its purchase of Energy East Corp.

The global company, Iberdrola SA, is trying to buy Energy East for $4.6 billion (€2.95 billion). The deal would affect 3 million customers from upstate New York to Maine and would put Rochester Electric and Gas Corp. and New York State Electric & Gas Corp. under foreign ownership.”*

The long-promised, Hispanic-themed shopping center La Marketa might need to become more diversified in its mix of shops and will require public incentives to become reality.

“There’s no disagreement about what needs to be done,” developer Larry Glazer said Monday. “It just needs to be done.”

La Marketa has been in the planning stages since at least the 1980s, the centerpiece of North Clinton Avenue improvements meant to improve safety and encourage investment. Officials announced plans in March 2007 to retool the project to make it work financially. That those discussions still are ongoing was a point of frustration during City Council budget hearings on Monday.”*

Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help archeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

If you ask someone off the street about Mexican archeology, they’ll say Aztec, Maya. Sometimes they’ll also say Inca, which is the wrong continent, but you’ll almost never hear anyone talk about the Zapotecs,” says Middleton, acting chair of the Department of Material Culture Sciences and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology. “They had the first writing system, the first state society, the first cities. And they controlled a fairly large territory at their Zenith—250 B.C. to 750 A.D.””*

Rita Moreno won an Oscar for playing Anita in the film West Side Story. She won a Tony for playing Googie Gomez in the Broadway musical The Ritz and was awarded Emmys for appearances on The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files.

On Saturday morning, young people who gathered in the Little Theatre found out that she does a pretty good iguana voice as well.

Moreno is in town for the Rochester High Falls International Film Festival and was honored with the Susan B. Anthony “Failure is Impossible” Award Saturday evening.”*

Young African-American and Latina girls treat their mothers with greater deference than do whites but their mothers take it harder when tempers flare, according to a new University of Florida study.

“Within African-American and Latino families, children follow a cultural tradition that places a high value on respecting, obeying and learning from elders, and in our study they did indeed show more respect for parental authority,” said Julia Graber, a UF psychology professor.

However, when African-American and Latina girls do act up, their mothers consider the arguments more intense than those reported by white mothers who clash with their daughters, said Graber, whose study is published in the February issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.

Hispanic and black mothers, who value strong family connections, a deep sense of family loyalty and the importance of extended family and social support networks, seemed to be much more upset if daughters fell short of cultural, good girl expectations, Graber said. “It may be just the kind of issue that pushes their buttons more, thinking of their daughter as no longer being the good, respectful daughter,” she said.

For all girls, discipline was the only factor that influenced how much conflict they perceived in the relationship. The stricter and harsher mothers were, the less conflict their daughters reported, Graber said. However, as girls get older, stricter discipline may lead to greater conflict if girls try to disagree, she said.

The study differs from other research on mother-daughter conflict in that instead of looking at adolescence, it examines girls in middle to late childhood, at an average age of 8½, Graber said. The teenage years are naturally turbulent times for families, but understanding what happens immediately preceding them sets the stage for a smoother or rockier transition, she said.

Teen conflict is a risk for other behavior-related problems, Graber said. “It does seem that when there are higher levels of conflict, those daughters are more likely to have adjustment problems in terms of feeling more depression, sadness, anxiety and those problems,” she said.

The intensity of the conflicts aside, the study found that mothers’ and daughters’ reports of the frequency of conflict were similar, Graber said. The study, which Graber did with Sara Villanueva Dixon, a St. Edward’s University psychology professor, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a Columbia University child development professor, involved 45 African-American, 23 Latina and 65 white girls recruited through fliers while in the third grade and their mothers. The girls and their families were from racially integrated, working and middle-class communities in a large metropolitan area.

The girls’ respect for authority was observed during a series of videotaped interactions with their mothers. Daughters were scored on their listening behaviors, which included attending to their mothers when their mothers were speaking, acknowledging their mothers’ comments and not interrupting their mothers. They also were evaluated for defiant behaviors, such as disobeying their mothers’ requests, being unwilling to cooperate with their mothers and ignoring their mothers during the interaction.

Not only do children need to be more aware of the expectations their parents have for them, but mothers may also want to reassess their feelings about particular issues, she said.

“The challenge for African-American and Latina mothers is they are in an environment where their children are potentially getting messages at school, on television and elsewhere about what normal childhood behavior is like that may conflict with their own expectations for these behaviors,” Graber said.

“In the higher conflict families where mothers and daughters are arguing much more often there seems to be less productive resolution going on and less learning of those skills,” she said. “Everybody feels mad afterwards rather than feeling the potential of moving forward.”

“This is a fascinating study that enhances our understanding of ethnic and racial differences in parent-child relationships,” said Judi Smetana, a University of Rochester psychologist. “One of its strengths is that it examines in a very careful and detailed way how different cultural values are expressed in mother-daughter interactions and how those values influence the quality of family relationships.””*

National Health Partners, Inc. (National Health) (OTCBB:NHPR), a leading provider of unique discount healthcare membership programs, announced today that it has entered into agreements with several chambers of commerce in 2008 representing a total of over 8,000 companies nationwide.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has announced agreements with the Troy Chamber of Commerce (Troy Chamber) and the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (MHCC). The Troy Chamber is comprised of over 750 businesses located throughout the greater Troy, Michigan area. The MHCC is comprised of over 300 member companies, including Michigan’s leading Hispanic-owned companies, original equipment manufacturers, tier one suppliers, non-automotive Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies and community-based organizations.

In addition to these chambers of commerce, however, the company has also entered into agreements with several additional chambers of commerce during 2008. A profile of some of these chambers of commerce is provided below.

* Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit association dedicated to the economic advancement of Asian Pacific American businesses and professionals comprised of more than 1,000 Fortune 500 corporations, multi-ethnic private business enterprises, small businesses and corporate professionals located across the country.

* Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce, which has a membership base of approximately 1,300 businesses ranging from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies located primarily in Rochester, Rochester Hills, and Oakland Township, Michigan.
* Southern Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization that has over 1,000 member organizations located primarily in southeastern Michigan.
* The Greater Berkley Chamber of Commerce, which promotes and supports businesses in the greater Berkley, Michigan area, including the cities of Berkley, Huntington Woods and Oak Park.
* Macomb County Chamber of Commerce, an organization promoting the advancement and development of the greater Macomb County, Michigan area which has approximately 1,000 member organizations.
* The Greater West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce, which has approximately 250 member organizations located primarily in the greater West Bloomfield, Michigan area.
* Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit membership organization based in Kalamazoo, Michigan with approximately 2,000 member companies located throughout the United States that range in size from sole proprietorships to multi-national corporations.
* Madison Heights / Hazel Park Chamber of Commerce, which promotes and supports businesses in the Madison Heights and Hazel Park areas of Michigan and has a membership base of over 500 businesses.

“As we have said in the past, chambers of commerce are ideal business partners for us as they are comprised primarily of large numbers of small companies that cannot afford to provide their employees with health insurance,” stated David M. Daniels, President and Chief Executive Officer of National Health Partners. “For example, 85 percent of all members of the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce are small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. And none of these chambers of commerce currently offers any comprehensive health discount programs like our CARExpress membership programs. This is the first time that any of these organizations has offered a program like CARExpress to their respective member organizations.”

“We are beginning to implement marketing and advertising campaigns directed at each of these chambers’ respective members,” continued Mr. Daniels. “We are doing this with the assistance of each chamber on a co-branding basis. As a result, we believe that these marketing and advertising campaigns will be particularly effective at bringing us in front of the decision-makers of each chambers’ respective member organizations. We expect to produce a significant number of members during 2008 from these chambers of commerce as well as other chambers with which we are working. We also expect to enter into agreements with several additional chambers of commerce in the future. These chambers will help springboard our sales during 2008.””*

*From: http://www.businesswire.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

The newly merged Rochester High Falls International Film Festival, which runs April 30 to May 5, will honor Rita Moreno with this year’s Susan B. Anthony Failure is Impossible Award, to be presented by actor Bill Pullman.

Moreno won an Academy Award for her supporting performance as Anita in West Side Story and was the first female and Hispanic to win each of the major entertainment awards, including an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. She will accept the award on May 3 at the Little Theatre.”*

*From: http://www.democratandchronicle.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

hawkeye, the special forces team that uses insight and data intelligence to solve challenging situations for world-class marketers, won the silver Ethnic Marketing Campaign—Multiple Product Line award for its innovative Spanish-language multi-platform program that significantly increased brand awareness of Schepps Dairy in the Hispanic communities of Dallas and Houston. The award was sponsored by the IDFA (International Dairy Foods Association), the premier organization that represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers.

The hawkeye team capitalized on Schepps’ long-standing reputation in Texas as a source of quality and purity, and launched a “natural” message to emphasize Schepps’ change to hormone-free milk. The campaign leveraged the Schepps milk truck as a symbol of freshness and extended this platform to a billboard and radio campaign featuring “Sam, the Schepps Milkman.” Traffic to the Schepps website tripled and prompted increased demand for its Texas Recipe Coupon Book.

About hawkeye

hawkeye is a special forces team that uses insight and data intelligence to quickly solve challenging situations for world-class marketers like Dean Foods, Capital One, HP, Microsoft and Make-A-Wish. Core practices include Branding, Interactive, B-2-B, Direct, Sports and Entertainment, and Interactive.

hawkeye’s U.S. associates are in Boise, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle and Vail. Its international associates are in Lodz, London and Singapore. For more information, go to www.hawkeyeww.com.”*

*From: http://www.businesswire.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

The snow and cold temperatures on Saturday didn’t keep about 150 young Hispanic girls and their parents from attending the annual rally for ¡Soy Unica! ¡Soy Latina!(I am unique! I am Latina!).

Entering its sixth year, the event has a new partner — the University of Rochester.

The college is now a prime sponsor of the rally along with advocacy group Latinas Unidas. Free rally events were held on the university’s River campus.

Latinas ages 7 through 17 toured the college and participated in workshops on financial literacy, self-esteem, nutrition and career planning. Workshops were also held for parents.”*

*From: http://www.democratandchronicle.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

What has often been overlooked in the community’s ongoing dialogue on the Rochester School District’s graduation rates is the simple fact that Latino students have the lowest rates in the district. According to district reports, the Latino graduation rate is about 12 percent lower than that of African Americans.

Why should this concern anyone? After all, Latinos are relatively new to Rochester. Other ethnic groups that also find themselves struggling were here first. Earlier immigrants made it through the urban school system, and yet became part of America’s middle class. Why should Latinos be given any breaks?”*

*From: http://www.democratandchronicle.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

-ImpreMedia, the No.1 Hispanic news and information company in the U.S. in online and print, today announced the promotion of Jim Schumacher to ImpreMedia Corporate Production Director. With the new position, Schumacher will now coordinate printing and production for ImpreMedia’s nationwide network of publications.

Mr. Schumacher was promoted from Production Director of ImpreMedia’s largest Spanish-language daily in the U.S., La Opinión newspaper in Los Angeles, where he held the position for four years. La Opinión ranked #1 in net daily paid circulation growth among the 200 largest newspapers in America for the six-month period ending September 2007, based on the latest FAS-FAX Report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

“Jim has an enormous amount of experience in production. ImpreMedia will benefit enormously across the entire corporation from his skills,” said John Paton, Chairman and CEO of ImpreMedia.

Mr. Schumacher has worked a combined 37 years in the newspaper industry. He began in the newsroom where he was a reporter and editor for 17 years, and advanced to production director, regional general manager and eventually publisher/co-owner. Schumacher has been the project manager on five major press, mailroom and facility projects. Schumacher worked for Wick Communications on USA Today, Landmark Communications, Kendell Communications, Pioneer and Gannett newspapers. And served on several corporate task forces for press installations, purchase contracts and technology.

“I am looking forward to working with the talented professionals throughout ImpreMedia to attain the highest quality products for our growing number of readers and advertisers,” Schumacher said. “Working at La Opinión has truly been the highlight of my career.”

Schumacher is a former member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and served on the human resources committee. Schumacher holds B.S. and A.B. degrees from Syracuse University in Journalism and Political Philosophy. He studied print technology and project management at the American Press Institute and Rochester Institute of Technology.

About ImpreMedia:

ImpreMedia is the No. 1 Hispanic news and information company in the United States in online and print. ImpreMedia is also the nation’s largest Hispanic newspaper publisher with publications reaching 17 markets representing 66% of the U.S. Hispanic population. For more information, visit our website at:

*From: http://www.hispanicprwire.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

I have recently completed a film “American Harvest” about immigration as it relates to agriculture. It is a reasonable and rational look at the immigration debate based on the facts.

Please take a look at the comments on our website. You can also view our trailer.

http://www.americanharvestmovie.com

Then there is a place to opt-in by email. We will let you know when you can see the movie when it screens in your area.

We are building a list of supporters of the film. The larger the list of supporters the more likely a theatrical distributor will give us better distribution. Please share the link with your friends and families.

The more the public is aware of “American Harvest” the more they will want to encourage reasonable debate regarding immigration in America.

Help me spread the word by email around the world. It’s time for the silent majority to speak out. Please don’t let the angry voices like Lou Dobbs be the only ones to speak up.

Thank you,

Angelo Mancuso
Director

The following is just one of the many positive remarks about the film. In this case, the writer thought so much of the film he wrote a ‘letter to the editor.’

Democrat & Chronicle ~ Letter to the Editor

August 18 , 2007

A true account of migrant workers

I had the unique opportunity to watch American Harvest in my sociology class at Rochester Institute of Technology, and I must say it was one of the most innovative movies devoted to representing the migrant workers’ situation in America.

Unlike other movies devoted to this subject, it shows the account in such a way that the truth is represented, without opinions and motives from the director. This film uses live accounts and facts to argue its case, while also showing the migrant workers’ day at work. It gives an amazing perspective that every American should take into consideration.

I am a Mexican-American, a descendant of migrant workers, and I’ve had the opportunity to see the situation firsthand and hear accounts from my family who still work in the fields. I must say this is the truest account I have ever seen. This movie can be a catalyst to light a fire that will burn away the many misconceptions that American society has about migrant workers.

-BRIAN ORELLANA
ROCHESTER

Washington, DC - In the elections this past Tuesday, immigration emerged as a prominent issue in the closely-watched Virginia state and local races. It also showed up late in the New York elections. Meanwhile, in the U.S. House of Representatives, freshman Congressman and former football player Heath Shuler (D-NC) introduced an enforcement-only bill (HR 4088) alongside such anti-immigrant stalwarts as Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA). The following is a statement by Frank Sharry, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington, DC.

As the saying goes, the only polls that matter are on Election Day. Forgive us. We are biting our tongue. We want to scream “We told you so!!!” But we are above that. We will refrain from such childish triumphalism and seek to educate.

Let’s Review

Immigration is an issue that is relatively new to most in the political class, and as a result is often misunderstood as both a policy issue and a political issue. Just as in the lead up to the 2006 mid-terms, the pre-election conventional wisdom this year held that illegal immigration had arrived as a potent new Republican wedge issue. It goes something like this: “Watch out. This issue has legs and it will swing elections. The polls couldn’t be clearer. People are angry about this issue. Candidates, especially those who run on the issue, say illegal immigration is all they hear about on the campaign trail.”

But what about 2006 we ask? You told us it would work then and it didn’t. In fact, in the first election in which immigration became a major issue across the country, the results were indisputable: in race after race the centrist reformer beat the hard liner. (See the Forum’s analysis of the 2006 races, Nov. 8, 2006.)

Perhaps, but that was then and this is now comes the response. In 2006 the pop of this issue was overwhelmed by the prominence and power of other issues. Now that illegal immigration is front and center, from Virginia to New York, you guys are in for a rude awakening.

Thanks for sharing, we reply. But we stand by our prediction: voters want measured leadership, not gotcha politics; yes, the issue has legs, but the hard-liners don’t; voters are not so much anti-immigrant as they are anti-inaction.

The cognoscenti smile and dismiss our views as the wishful thinking of those with an axe to grind.

Results Don’t Lie

So, now that the results are in, perhaps we can shift from predictions to analysis.

In Virginia, the November 7th front page Washington Post headline said it all: “In the Ballot Booths, No Fixation on Immigration.” Democrats continued their winning streak in this once-red, now-purple state by taking the State Senate and gaining in the House of Delegates. Combined with the recent wins of Governor Tim Kaine, Senator James Webb, and the ascendancy of Senate candidate Mark Warner, Democrats are on a roll.

How did Democrats dodge the immigration bullet in Virginia? By emphasizing sensible leadership and practical solutions on the priorities of the voters, including illegal immigration, over the heated rhetoric and polarizing politics of many Republican candidates. Democratic candidates acknowledged the importance of illegal immigration and promised measured action. Perhaps the leading example is the Fairfax Country Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (who won re-election against immigration hawk John Blaise by a 2-1 margin). He promised to deal with problems associated with immigration based on behavior, not immigration status, and he denounced the demagoguery of Republicans, including his opponent.

According to the Post’s columnist Marc Fisher, who follows Virginia politics closely, many Republicans now get that they relied too heavily on immigration as an issue. On November 8th, he wrote:

The one point on which moderates and conservatives seem to agree is that their party overplayed the illegal immigration issue. “They went for a magic bullet with immigration, and it didn’t work,” says a conservative strategist who doesn’t want his name used because his clients don’t agree that immigration is a losing issue. Prince William County board Chairman Corey Stewart [the leading proponent of harsh policies aimed at making the country inhospitable to undocumented immigrants], the strategist says, “won last year as the anti-tax and anti-growth candidate, and he ended up in the same place this year. He pushed hard on immigration, but it didn’t move his numbers” in his reelection victory Tuesday. Moderates say harsh rhetoric on immigration repelled independent voters. Northern Virginians “know this crackdown on illegal immigration was posturing,” Potts says [Sen. Russ Potts is a moderate Republican from Winchester, VA]. “The only entity in the world that could solve that problem is the federal government.”

But what about New York? Didn’t the botched roll-out and public outcry over Governor Spitzer’s ill-timed drivers’ license proposal doom the Democrats up for election on Tuesday? Well, the November 7th New York Times headline read: “New York Democrats Say License Issue Had Little Effect.” According to someone who should know, June O’Neill, the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, “it’s clear that all politics really are local and that the pundits really missed the mark on this one. For weeks, all we’ve heard was that driver’s licenses would be a key issue in these races. That just didn’t come to pass.”

As Mort Kondracke, a long-time observer of the immigration debate wrote in Wednesday’s Roll Call, “American voters this year have rejected a nativist approach to illegal immigration. It ought to be a warning to Republicans: Don’t make this your 2008 wedge issue. Election results on Tuesday, especially in Virginia and New York state, also should encourage nervous Democrats that they can support comprehensive immigration reform - stronger enforcement plus earned legalization - and prevail.” (”Despite Danger, GOP Tees Up Immigration as 2008 Wedge Issue,” Nov. 8, 2007.)

Will House Democrats Learn From Virginia Democrats, or Not?

So, let’s see if we can be heard now that illegal immigration issue was once again tried just about everywhere, and once again failed just about everywhere. Why do polls show voters angry and frustrated with this issue, but seem reluctant to give their votes to the hardliners with the toughest rhetoric, the meanest mailers, and the punchiest slogans? Because despite the visibility of a loud but not large cadre of mobilized extremists, most of those voters upset with the illegal immigration issue want leadership aimed at solving the problem, not political grandstanding aimed at inflaming tensions. And the partisan gap on what E.J. Dionne calls “solutionism” is getting bigger by the day. (”Democrats Hone The Brand,” Washington Post, Nov. 9, 2007.)

What can we learn from the way illegal immigration is playing in elections when it comes to the Democratic Party and in particular the House of Representatives as it heads into an important election year? This is the People’s House, and in 2006 the people fired the Republicans for playing games rather than solving problems. They hired the Democrats to give them a chance. How are they doing on the vexing challenge of illegal immigration?

Speaker Pelosi deserves very high marks. Earlier this year she rightly called on the Senate to move on comprehensive immigration reform first (the Senate had approved a version of comprehensive reform in 2006, and taking it up first would provide needed momentum to move it in the House). She regularly and loudly called for action on this pressing priority. She and those members who are immigration experts were clearly disappointed when in June of this year Republican opposition killed a Senate bill designed to win Republican support, thereby dooming comprehensive immigration reform as we have known it for this Congress.

But the voters want action, and the issue won’t go away. What now? The House Democratic leadership seems divided. Some want to move targeted measures, while some are interested in a reformulated broader approach. Still others seem tempted to move towards an enforcement-only approach favored by most Republicans.

Enter Heath Shuler, Freshman Democrat from the red state of North Carolina. Coming from a state that has experienced the largest percentage increase in illegal workers, one can understand that he wants to take on this issue and be seen as a leader. Introducing a bill and sending out a press release locally is standard fare for members in their first term. But he is not alone. He has been joined by more than 40 Democratic co-sponsors and a similar number of Republican co-sponsors

At first blush, and as policy, the Shuler proposal may sound reasonable to those relatively new to the immigration issue. His enforcement-only bill would get tougher on the border, facilitate the apprehension and deportation of those in the U.S. illegally, and institute a full-blown employer verification and sanctions regime aimed at preventing the hiring and employment of illegal workers. After all, don’t we need enhanced enforcement to get control of the borders and reduce illegal immigration? And what’s wrong with doing “enforcement first” so we gain the confidence of the American people who are skeptical about our resolve to curtail illegal immigration?

In reality, while the Shuler proposal may sound reasonable, if enacted as proposed, it would be anything but. Let’s recall that we have 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, most have lived in the U.S. for more than five years, most work in multiple jobs, and most live in family units comprised of citizens, permanent residents, and undocumented immigrants. The undocumented comprise 1 out of 20 workers in the U.S. and are overrepresented in agriculture, landscaping, construction, and hospitality. The effect of an enforcement-only bill along the lines of Shuler’s would be as follows: some undocumented immigrants would leave the country, but the vast majority would stay even as they are driven further into the shadows; unscrupulous employers and cutthroat sub-contractors would have a bigger pool of even easier-to-exploit workers; and decent employers intent on paying decent wages and growing their businesses would be further undermined by bottom-feeder employers. As a result, American low-wage workers would be worse off, law-abiding employers would be worse off, immigrant families would be worse off, and the currently dysfunctional immigration system would be worse off.

But what about the politics? If voters are upset about illegal immigration and want something done, shouldn’t Democrats take the lead and propose measured solutions? And isn’t enforcement a critical component of fixing the broken system? Yes, and yes!!! As part of a broader bill that reboots the system and legally registers the current undocumented through an earned legalization program, many of Shuler’s proposals could work. In fact, his bill seems to be based on legislation written by the likes of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). Gutierrez rightly sized up the Shuler bill when he said this: “It looked like he grabbed my STRIVE bill [the comprehensive immigration reform proposal introduced by Gutierrez and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) earlier this year], took all the enforcement parts of it and forgot to turn the page. It’s a book he didn’t finish reading.” (CQ Politics, “Divisive Border Bill Faces Tough Road,” Nov. 9, 2007.)

Without the legalization component, Shuler’s bill hops on one foot. Worse, it hops right over the political cliff. As Gutierrez himself said, “we might as well put the Republicans in charge.”

How so? The Shuler bill as proposed is closer to the punitive Sensenbrenner bill that passed the Republican-controlled House in December 2005 (HR 4437) than the comprehensive reform proposals favored by most Democrats. And the Sensenbrenner bill was the infamous measure that led Latino immigrants and their allies to take to the streets in the largest protests in recent American history. It is hard to imagine how the headline “Democrats for Sensenbrenner-lite” does anything but turn off Latino immigrants, the fastest growing group of new voters in the nation.

The fact that the bill is co-sponsored by the likes of Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA) only makes matters worse. Tancredo, and not Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) or President Bush, is now the face of the GOP when it comes to immigration, especially in the Latino community. As a Presidential candidate, he sure gets a lot of attention in the Spanish language press. He calls Miami a “third world country,” repeatedly demands the arrest and deportation of Latino kids without status who have won honors in high school and want to go to college, and rails against the “invasion” by those from south of the border. Bilbray has his own baggage. Before returning to Congress, Bilbray was a lobbyist for the militant anti-immigrant group FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), and now chairs the equally controversial House Immigration Reform Caucus founded by Tancredo, a collection of mostly Republican Congressional Representatives who have been driving the nativist agenda in the House.

Shuler’s foray could turn out to be something of a political disaster for Democrats in 2008. It could enhance the chances of an enforcement-only bill actually being approved in the House in 2008, a move that would be very unpopular with the growing number of Latino voters in key swing states such as Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Isn’t it supposed to be Republicans that are sweating bullets about the Latino vote and the potential for a historic realignment of the electoral map? This is what Michael Gerson, former speechwriter to George W. Bush, had to say in a recent Washington Post column:

I have never seen an issue [immigration] where the short-term interests of Republican presidential candidates in the primaries were more starkly at odds with the long-term interests of the party itself. At least five swing states that Bush carried in 2004 are rich in Hispanic voters — Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Bush won Nevada by just over 20,000 votes. A substantial shift of Hispanic voters toward the Democrats in these states could make the national political map unwinnable for Republicans … Some in the party seem pleased. They should be terrified.

No wonder Brian Bilbray rushed to join Heath Shuler in the press conference announcing the bill.

Hold Back, or Lean Forward?

So, what should the Democratic leadership do? Here’s our recommendation: Learn from recent elections. Go on offense, propose measured solutions, and unite behind policies that will actually have a chance of working. Be tough and smart. Be for carrots and sticks. Be for targeted enforcement at the border and in the workplace and for earned legalization. Be for ending illegal immigration as we know it. Recognize that the only way to make a system to prevent illegal hiring really work is to make verification and sanctions work and simultaneously provide a path to legal status for the current undocumented in the workforce. Don’t drive workers further underground, bring them out of the shadows so they are known to the government, in the U.S. legally, and able to stand up for their labor rights alongside American workers. Be for enforcement plus legalization, not enforcement-only.

This approach is good politics and good policy. It appeals to those voters who want a tough crackdown and voters who want a humane approach to those here illegally. Beyond the hotheads, most voters want a practical solution that will work. They want employers to be held to account, the border to be controlled, and the immigrants in the country to be legal. They want taxes paid, laws respected, and workers protected. If Democrats unite behind such a strategy, they can stand for what voters want and do so in a way that replicates the winning strategies of recent elections. If they don’t, they could end up being me-too Republicans in more ways than one.

“*

“Educators from Rochester and Utica told an Assembly committee yesterday that the pressures and requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act are hurting students who are not native English speakers.

The achievement and accountability law’s “high-stakes testing, unrealistic achievement targets and punitive sanctions” are “pushing left-behind groups even further behind,” said Diana Hernandez, supervising director of bilingual, English for speakers of other languages and Hispanic services for the Rochester city school district. About 8 percent of the district’s 35,458 students in 2006-07 had limited English proficiency.”*

“Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationwide from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. In Rochester, Latinas Unidas celebrates our Hispanic heritage all year long.

Since 1993, Latinas Unidas has celebrated the accomplishments of 44 Latinas in law, medicine, education, business, homemaking and other fields. Each March, we bring together more than 200 girls to celebrate and confirm who they are and can be.

In 2000, Latinas Unidas set up the Latina Woman Scholarship Fund to aid Latinas ages 25 and older with college, skill training and other resources to help them advance in the workplace.”

“Ivette Torres has been a resident of the Rochester area since 1974, where her family relocated after hearing from relatives what a great place and community this was to raise a family.

She is without equal in her profession and has been employed with Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. since 1977 where she currently holds the position of senior public affairs specialist. She works diligently with key leaders in the community, as well as with the Spanish speaking population. She is an enthusiastic and visible advocate who has a remarkable passion for informing and educating Hispanics on issues that are particularly relevant to their everyday lives.”

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