In 2007, 50percent of Latinos surveyed told the Pew Hispanic Center that the growing number of illegal immigrants was a positive force for the existing Latino population. In a Pew survey released Thursday, that number had plummeted to 29percent.As an aside, who knew this about Cesar Chavez?
Thirty-one percent said illegal immigration had a negative effect, and 20percent said it had no effect.
"Mexican-American populations have been divided throughout the 20thcentury, and (opinions) largely changed since the 1970s," she said. "Most famously, Cesar Chavez came under intense attack from others within the Chicano movement because he ... encouraged punishments of those hiring illegal immigrants."
While we're loosely on the subject of immigration, here's a good WSJ piece on Marco Rubio, whose specific policy recommendations I don't know, but I like his attitude about immigration:
The GOP's cranky side seems to bother him. He argues that the Republican Party needs to offer up clear alternatives to liberal policy, not just say no, and brighten its tone along the way. Take immigration. "Where Republicans have failed: We should be the pro-legal immigration party, not the anti- illegal immigration party," he says. If he wins, Mr. Rubio will be the most prominent elected Hispanic official in the U.S. from either party.
This was my immigration hobby horse during the Bush "comprehensive" immigration effort -- I just hate the way Conservatives talk about the issue, whining rather than "evangelizing." It provides such a natural platform for talking about markets, incentives, the meaning of citizenship, the goods of the founding. Plus, we need the new blood, given that we ain't having any of our own babies. And the "American dream" is an immigrant dream.
The immigrant experience provides the raw material for his most resonant message. Mr. Rubio's parents fled Cuba and worked blue- collar jobs all their lives. He paid his way through college and law school.
"The only privilege that I was born with was to be a citizen of the greatest nation in human history," he tells a breakfast crowd of supporters at the Original Pancake House in Palm Beach Gardens. "What makes America great is that anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything."
