Here are a few of Huntsman’s statements on immigration:

“I believe that young kids when they’re dragged here to the United States have no say over their journey. They have no say over their destiny,” he said at an event at the Salem Chamber of Commerce. “And we either have a two-tiered bifurcated system or we allow, somehow, people to achieve the American dream.”

“I hate the thought of a fence on the border. As an American, the thought of a fence to some extent repulses me, because it is not consistent with the image that we projected to the rest of the world. But the situation is such today that I don’t think we have a choice, and before we begin the conversation of processing 11 or 12 million undocumented workers, we’ve got to secure the border. There’s got to be an alternative rather than sending people back. That’s unrealistic.”

“Yes, they came here in an illegal fashion. And yes, they should be punished in some form or fashion. We can find a solution. If President Reagan were here, he would speak to the American people and he would lay out in hopeful, optimistic terms how we can get there, remembering full well that we’re dealing with human beings here. We have to agree. But let me just say one thing about legal immigration. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that our legal immigration system is broken. And if we want to do something about attracting brain power to this country, we need to focus as much on legal immigration.”

What are your thoughts? Do you think that the remaining GOP candidates will regret having taken more extreme positions on immigration?

2012 could be the actual beginning of the long expected Latino political awakening. Why? Perhaps sheer numbers, the reaction to the dire economic costs the community has endured, the evaporation of Latino family wealth in the housing bubble and great Mortgage scams, high unemployment and under-employment, continuously high drop out rates for high school completion of any ethnic group, the appallingly high prison population, and an alarming obesity and diabetes problem that plagues the community. All of these issues are maddening and worthy of action. Simply stated, the Latino community writ large is in crisis.

This crisis is further exacerbated by the anti-immigrant (now largely anti-Latino) social and political movement emerging throughout the country with such mean-spirited fury in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and many other locales signals a most distressing phenomena. The continued aggressive deportations have helped portray Latinos as a marginalized class of dark, uneducated, criminally menacing and generally undesirable people. Our discouraging lack of unity or even outrage is sadly absent amongst our fellow Hispanics. This general lack of passion suggests that a boiling point has not been reached. Hence, to expect an out-pouring of angry or concerned Latino citizenry at the polls is not in the cards.

This lack of cohesiveness readily explains President Obama’s tepid leadership on Latino issues. At times, the Democrats smack of a craven or pusillanimous approach. For instance, the Congressional Democrats, more specifically those in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, have been reluctant to challenge the President on his record deportations that have separated American born children from their parents and have occasionally caught US citizens in the ICE dragnet. As for the GOP, it manifests irrational derailment (crack up) or plain madness. An example of this is how many Republicans refuse to address the immigration problem humanely, while ratcheting up the heated rhetoric that many Latinos find offensive. Additionally, the Republican approach to Latin American foreign policy is irrational, as evidenced by the recent failure to confirm Ambassador Aponte and the continued linking of Hugo Chavez to Iran. Neither party appears to feel the need to cater or attend to our disturbing issues. It is as if our 50 million + population does not matter and may be satisfied with only a handful of swing states: Florida the biggest prize, which empowers the Cuban Americans out of proportion and the smaller states like New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada give the Hispanics some electoral heft. Overall, the Latino vote in electoral terms is largely viewed as those reduced groups of prosperous or “assimilated” Hispanics.

Leadership is another conundrum. Who and where are the leaders the community sees as following them into a foxhole in the endeavor to improve the general welfare? The current GOP primary debate is at best disquieting. It feels like Latino immigrants are readily tossed together with terrorists, Islamic extremists, drug cartel minions, and folks who are stealing America’s jobs. Being the national scapegoats begins to describe us in these difficult times. Yet, we can publish success stories of our 100 most influential Latinos because they are real. But is this the real pulse of our overall condition? We certainly should extol and applaud our achievements but never forget our less fortunate.

Perhaps 2012 will be the beginning of a more complete discussion of the Latino community. It is indeed merited in the 2012 electoral discourse. However, if one waits for our current national political leadership or presidential pretenders to address the Latino agenda, the betting is it is going to be plainly unsatisfactory. The new year could still bring a dramatic change in the effect Latinos have on the national scene. The most probable scenario for the Latino community is that if they do turn out in historic numbers is: they will be divided….neither party will be able to claim  with certainty that the Latino vote is wholly theirs. If that is the case then Latinos could be up for grabs every national election thus becoming a significant swing vote.

My initial reaction to the piece was that there was a lack of analysis of what Muñoz has been saying. More specifically, Ms. Muñoz has been telling us that more than half of the people who have been removed are serious criminals when other data suggests that they aren’t. And then there’s the issue of Muñoz addressing DHS’s prioritization of removals when new evidence suggests that the application of deportation prioritization are inconsistently applied. So there’s a disconnect in the policy implementation where the folks on the ground are pursuing a different course of action from what the leadership (people like Muñoz) are publicly saying.

In the eyes of many immigration policy observers, the administration and Cecilia Muñoz, since she’s part of it, continue to have a credibility problem. As more people shed light on this issue of who is being deported and for what, look for more people to publicly question what has been going on with the Secure Communities program and deportations given the goals of DHS. The scrutiny may even ramp up if more US citizens are caught in the deportation dragnet.

Word is that the White House is considering Cecilia Muñoz to replace Melody Barnes as President Obama’s domestic policy chief. So ultimately, Muñoz will have to decide whether she wants to continue to be part of an administration that some feel is “worse than Bush” on immigration. Because of her previous advocacy in immigration, people will continue to focus on what she says when she’s tasked with discussing immigration on behalf of the President.

On Friday, November 25^th, DREAMers lost a brother in the struggle, Joaquin Luna. Joaquin was a DREAMer from Mission, TX, a border town, where undocumented students are further imprisoned as the multiple checkpoints make it nearly impossible to even get out of the small confines of their town.

Joaquin was born in Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, and was brought to the United States at 6 months. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle because his birth mother was not in full capacity to properly take care of him. Unfortunately, they could not fix his legal status, and he was caught in limbo like the rest of us.

On Friday, Joaquin dressed up in a nice suit, kissed his mother and his father goodbye, and then headed straight for the restroom where he shot himself with a small handgun leaving behind his dreams, letting them evaporate into thin air. He wanted to become an engineer. He was going to graduate in May with honors. Just five more months. He had a full ride to many prestigious universities one of them being Texas A&M University, he could’ve been an Aggie, like me, like all my Aggie DREAMer brothers and sisters, and then, he would have found us, we would have found him. But there’s no sense in reminiscing on what could have been. The damage is done, and 2 million other DREAMers have lost a brother and are mourning, all around the country in solidarity with his friends and loved ones.

Maybe it is our fault, for not reaching out to the Valley sooner, for not expanding faster.

“Having a DREAM Act organization in place here in the Valley might’ve helped,” said Marie Mendoza, Joaquin’s cousin. “These kids need a support system, there’s so many of them here, so close to the border.”

Maybe it is the broken immigration system that’s really getting the best of all of us.

“There has to be one president that will do something for undocumented students,” said Mendoza. “One president that can pass the DREAM Act.”

We all feel the way Joaquin did at some point or another, but brothers and sisters in the struggle, this is not the answer. Life for us is pretty sad at times, pretty gray, and uncertain, but something will happen for us. Because no good people ever go unnoticed, because no good fight is ever lost.

Let’s not remember Joaquin for what happened on Friday, let’s remember him for the person he was and for the everlasting impact he has made on all of our lives. As DREAMers let’s remember that the DREAM Act does not define us, and that we are so many other things aside from DREAM. Joaquin was a good person, he was very involved in church, spent a lot of time there, and he was always very respectful. His teachers loved him, he was never any trouble in school or at home, and he was kind-hearted.

“He would take his shirt off his back just to give it to you if you needed it,” his cousin told me.

I didn’t know Joaquin, but I knew his heart, I knew his struggle, I knew his pain. They always tell us that things have to get worse before they get better, but for us, it seems to only get worse. Rest assured, things have to get better. And if this doesn’t soften some hardened hearts, then I don’t know what will. As I’m writing this, it is tough to write it without tearing up.

I didn’t know Joaquin, but I’ve had many late night calls from DREAMers, who are having a total breakdown because they’ve allowed themselves to process in their minds and hearts, what it means to be undocumented in this country. Sometimes, I’ve made those late night calls. As a DREAMer, you can’t let your thoughts wander past hope and belief; past that there’s only uncertainty and emptiness, it’ll drive you mad.

I didn’t know Joaquin, but I am Joaquin.

Two DREAMers Jonathan Perez and Isaac Barrera challenged ICE directly in Mobile, Alabama and have been detained. Check out the clip below:

There are some, who want Ms. Muñoz to set the record straight about the statistics she has been citing about the people who have been deported, and there are some folks in the community who feel that calls on Muñoz to clarify those remarks are unjust. Last night apparently, famed labor activist Dolores Huerta weighed in on this at the LATISM conference saying that the attacks on Muñoz are unjust.

How do you solve a problem like Cecilia?

Activists say Obama aide Cecilia Munoz has ‘turned her back’ on fellow Hispanics

Calling the Question: Why Cecilia Muñoz is not the issue (An interesting rebuttal to the first piece listed “How do you solve…” attacking a writer for being critical of Muñoz.)

Plainly, there is a credibility problem with the immigration issue in the administration.

What are your thoughts? Are the criticisms of Cecilia Muñoz and the administration valid, or should people ignore the messenger and just focus on the bigger picture and problems with the current immigration situation? Does Dolores Huerta’s message to “defend Cecilia Muñoz” resonate with you? Do you think Huerta would be asking people to defend the messenger of the administration’s policies if that person was not Latina or did not have a background in immigration advocacy?

So I found it interesting that today the Obama administration used one of the Latinas working in the White House, Julie Rodriguez, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez and daughter of UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, to defend its actions on the immigration issue. Ms. Rodriguez, who is currently associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, offered a gathering of Latinos at a summit hosted by the administration in California’s Inland Empire this:

“The priority … is we are enforcing our laws and focusing on those who pose a national security threat or public safety threat.”

Apparently, this message and others did not go over well with the Inland Empire crowd according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think? Will the message that is coming from Julie Rodriguez and the Obama administration win out and resonate with the community? Or will organizations like the United Farm Workers and Presente.Org, who have been advocating against programs like Secure Communities, have more credibility?

On Saturday, October 8th, Governor Brown signed the “California DREAM Act” into law. This was a great success for, not only California DREAMers, but for DREAMers all around the nation, for one success means we are one step closer to our ultimate goal which is the DREAM Act.

Is this confusing to anyone?

With elections around the corner, politicians are back on their toes, and trying all kinds of schemes to get the people’s votes. The Latino vote is a very important and crucial one for all politicians, especially those with big Latino populations such as Texas and California. This might be tough to believe, but we are not all undocumented which means that some of us (a lot of us) can vote. And those of us who can’t vote are working determinedly to register people to vote. Surprise!

The DREAM Act has had a hard time becoming a law, and it will continue to, but that is another story. Different state DREAM Act advocate groups have focused on making their specific state more immigrant friendly and more accepting of DREAMers specifically. With the DREAM Act being something far-fetched, politicians are seeking ways to win the Latino vote and what better way than passing state DREAM Acts?

Being a Texan, I have had the luxury to attend college, and graduate from college, all paying in-state tuition. It was a bill that was signed into law before I graduated from high school, and that luckily, despite tireless efforts from my fellow Aggie conservatives, was not overturned before I graduated college. With that said, I never once called this bill the Texas DREAM Act, mainly because it is not!

During one of my many rants about what the DREAM Act is and what in-state tuition is to a new member of our organization, I was interrupted by an old member telling me that in-state tuition was NOT HB1403, SB1528, nor in-state tuition, but rather the Texas DREAM Act (this only after California passed their DREAM Act).

“Why doesn’t Texas pass its own DREAM Act like California did?” This new member asked. Well, simply because California didn’t pass a DREAM Act! And we all remember what happened in February when Utah attempted to give their undocumented population permits to work. It didn’t happen! Why? Because “this was something that should not be a state issue”.

I must add that I am not undermining all the hard work of my beloved Californian brothers and sisters in the struggle, simply that we should not call this a DREAM Act. As activists in the movement, we all know what we’re fighting for. In a nutshell, the DREAM Act is a bi-partisan piece of legislation that would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to succeed and fully become a part of this country by putting them on a path to legalization if they fill certain criteria. In simpler terms, the DREAM Act would allow us to finish school and not hit another wall; it would allow us to continue our lives and legally work in the country. The equivalent of the DREAM Act at a state level would be if the states passed some sort of legislation like the one Utah tried to pass, a piece of legislation that would allow these students to work legally (at least in their state) post graduation.

Although California has taken a milestone step by passing what is in-state tuition for them, it is important to let people know that Governor Brown has passed only a part of what is our full dream. The first part is called in-state tuition and the second part is called DREAM Act. Titles are important and can often be misleading; it might seem like we getting something done for the DREAM Act but the truth is, coming from a DREAMer who got the benefits of in-state tuition, we are still in limbo without the DREAM Act.

“Obama later visited the Spanish-style mansion of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith for what promoters billed as “the first ever Latino fundraiser” for the president.

Actress Eva Longoria, one of the stars of television’s Desperate Housewives, introduced Obama by saying he “speaks to the Latino community because he knows he’s the president of all Americans.”

“And we applaud you from our community,” Longoria told Obama. “We thank you for everything you’re doing.””

Meanwhile on the immigration front, which is a key issue that Candidate Obama touted on the campaign trail in 2008 when he was in front of Latino audiences, we have continued to see record breaking deportations and even suggestions that those same tough enforcement policies will continue. Last week an important documentary aired on PBS’s Frontline, Lost in Detention, in which an Obama official, Cecilia Muñoz said, ““As long as Congress gives us the money to deport 400,000 people a year, that’s what the administration is going to do.”

Watch Lost in Detention on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Understandably, immigration rights advocates are upset, and some people feel a disconnect between the administration’s courting of the celebrity wing of the Latino community versus the needs and desires of the grassroots. Presente.org even has a petition for Cecelia Muñoz to “set the record straight.”

Going into the 2012 election cycle, which message do you think will resonate with Latino voters? Will people support the President because some of our high profile celebrities are lining up behind Team Obama or will the Latino community simply not vote for a candidate for President as Professor Gary Segura of Stanford implies in the documentary?

“We cannot be the anti-illegal immigration party. We have to be the pro-legal immigration party. We have to be a party that advocates for a legal immigration system that’s good for Americans, good for America and honors our tradition both as a nation of immigrants and as a nation of law.”

This warning comes as Mitt Romney ramps up his criticism of Rick Perry for having supported in state tuition for undocumented youth in Texas back in 2001. Romney has already come under criticism for his latest ad:

Do you think the current crop of GOP presidential contenders will heed Senator Rubio’s warnings?