GOP Latinos face questions over immigrant pasts

In this Dec. 30, 2010, file photo, Gov.-elect Susana Martinez speaks with media in Las Cruces, N.M. / AP Photo

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is forced to research and clarify her late grandfather's immigration status. Marco Rubio, Florida's GOP Senator, is accused of embellishing his family's immigrant story. A Republican congressional candidate in California puts on his website that he is the great-grandson of an illegal immigrant.

As more Latino Republicans seek and win elected office, their families' backgrounds are becoming subject to increased scrutiny from some Latino activists, a reaction experts say is a result of Latino Republicans' conservative views on immigration. It's a new phenomenon that experts say Latino Democrats rarely faced, and could be a recurring feature in elections as the Republican Party seeks to recruit more Latino candidates.

"It's a trend and we are seeing more of it," said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

For years, most Latino elected officials were largely Democrats, except in Florida, where Cuban Americans tended to vote Republican. But recently, a new generation of Latino Republicans has won seats in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, California and even Idaho. Those politicians have come under fire from some Latino activists for pushing for laws targeting illegal immigrants and for opposing efforts for comprehensive immigration reform — views that are in line with most Republicans.

And the immigrant advocates are pointing to the GOP Latino elected leaders' own family histories in an effort to paint them as hypocrites. Ignacio Garcia, a history professor at Brigham Young University, said it comes from a long tradition by liberal activists of portraying Latino Republicans as "vendidos," or sellouts, since the majority of Latino voters tend to vote Democratic.

For example, Martinez tried twice in the New Mexico state legislature to overturn a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain state drivers' licenses. Then earlier this year, various media outlets reported that a grandfather of Martinez may have been an illegal immigrant. The reports sparked immigrant advocates to protests outside the state Capitol with poster-size photos of Martinez on drivers' licenses.

Martinez, a Republican and the nation's only Latina governor, ordered her political organization to research her family's background and found documents that suggested that her grandfather legally entered the country and had various work permits.

The episode drew criticism, even from those who opposed Martinez' efforts on state driver's licenses. "This has nothing to do with her views and how she governs," said Michael A. Olivas, an immigration law professor at the University of Houston who also is aiding in a lawsuit against a Martinez's administration probe over the license fight. "I don't think it's fair for people to dig around in her family's past."

Sen. Marco Rubio

/ CBS News

In Florida, Rubio's official Senate website until recently described his parents as having fled Cuba following Fidel Castro's takeover. But media organizations reported last month that Rubio's parents and his maternal grandfather emigrated for economic reasons more than two years before the Cuban Revolution.

Somos Republicans, a group dedicated to increasing Latino Republican voting numbers, immediately attacked Rubio over the discrepancy and for holding harsh views on immigration. "We believe it is time to find out the complete history of his parents' immigration history," the group said in a statement. "It is also time for Rubio to be a leader and help Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) fix the broken immigration system."

Patricia Montes, executive director of Centro Presente, an immigrant advocacy group in Somerville, Mass., said voters need to know a politician's family background for clues on how they will respond to people with similar stories. "It's very important to voters," said Montes.

Montes said most Latino and immigrant voters don't simply view Latino Republicans as "vendidos" but rather as politican leaders who don't share their views. "I don't care if someone is Latina or not," said Montes. "I care if they believe in the same things I do, and if their policies will affect the immigrant community."

Garcia said the current tension also is a result of a new breed of Latino Republicans finally winning high profile seats after years of being largely ignored or dismissed. Garcia said there have always been Hispanic Republicans, through their numbers have been typically small and they have often faced heat from the largely Democratic Latino population.

In New Mexico, for example, the colorful lawman and lawyer Elfego Baca helped establish the Republican Party just after New Mexico became a state in 1912 and actively tried recruit the state's mutigenerational Latino population to join the party. Baca won a number of local offices, including district attorney, but lost bids for Congress and various statewide offices.

In Texas, civil rights activist Felix Tijerina, a Mexican-American Houston restaurateur and former national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens in the 1950s, remained committed to Republican Party despite a backlash from fellow activists who disagreed with his laissez faire, pro-business views. One Texas civil rights leader, John J. Herrera, called Tijerina "a white man's Mexican" for his support of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower for president over Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

"The difference now is that these new Latino Republicans, like Martinez and Rubio, are better prepared and are being groomed as national figures," said Garcia. "Meanwhile, the Democrats are falling behind. They have no equivalent and they aren't giving Latinos the same opportunity."

Garcia said there's also a new factor — the millions of new independent Latino evangelicals who could be potential GOP voters. This population is new and unpredictable, he said.

Still, some Latino Republicans want to use the new attention around them in the party to change what they say is damaging rhetoric around immigration. Tony Carlos, who is seeking the GOP nomination for California's 3rd Congressional District, is running on a platform to push comprehensive immigration reform and believes if other Republicans follow, more Latinos will vote with the GOP.

On his campaign website Carlos says his great-grandfather came to Arizona from Mexico "without papers." Carlos said it's all about showing that his family is part of an ongoing American story and that political leaders need to honestly attack today's problems.

"I'm putting my family history out there. And once Latino voters hear that I support immigration reform, I find that they are open to other issues that appeal to conservatives," said Carlos. "My argument is that they are just as conservative. They are just in the wrong party."

[HISPANICVOTERS]

When is the GOP going to learn that if you don't reach out to the fasting growing minority; the HISPANICS of our Country (the USA) now, sooner rather than later, you will be alienating the HISPANIC Voters of today and future GENERATIONS of HISPANICS. If you alienate HISPANIC Voters for generations to come, the GOP will never win another Congressional or Presidential Election, come on, GOP Strategists' should be smart enough (you should be bring this up to the GOP Leaders in every way/fashion and at all times/discussions) to bring this up to you and the GOP National Leaders. We don't understand what is so hard to digest and understand by the GOP Leaders. I am not a strategist and I can tell you what the problem is; the GOP is so politicize that you are looking only at the short term, not the impact this will have on the long term, when the GOP Leaders open their eyes, it will be too late, the damage to the HISPANIC GOP future generations will be done and you will never recover the HISPANIC Vote. Not even damage control will work. Doesn't the GOP look toward the future and make strategies/plans to continue to grow a solid GOP that includes minorities. Especially a minority that his young, vibrating, and may be the biggest ethnic group of the US in a short future just right around the corner. WAKE UP GOP PARTY AND LEADERS, YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, HISPANICS ARE PART OF OUR NATION AND WHAT WE CALL OUR MELTING POT. WE HISPANICS ARE AMERICANS LIKE MANY PAST IMMIGRANTS THAT HAVE COME TO OUR GREAT NATION. IMMIGRATION IS WHAT HAS MADE OUR COUNTRY A GREAT COUNTRY. GOD BLESS AMERICA.

[MTATL67]

Boy, oh boy. I saw this coming a mile down the road. Is anyone surprised my lord Michelle Bachman claims to be for family but has no conscience about breaking up a family that has been here for 25 years and send them packing.

[ajvw]

Kind of like black republicans. If we can't drag them back to the democratic plantation we must attack them. cBS.

[ramos1129]

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is forced to research and clarify her late grandfather's immigration status. Marco Rubio, Florida's GOP Senator, is accused of embellishing his family's immigrant story. A Republican congressional candidate in California puts on his website that he is the great-grandson of an illegal immigrant.
--------------------------------------

What delicious irony. If Martinez's grandfather was illegal, she must then resign her post and then go back to Mexico and then go back to the end of the line if she wishes to gain American citizenship. This is the current GOP line as prominently expressed by Gingrich, Brachman, Romney, etc.

[nehicks]

Nope, sorry, the 14th Amendment, according to our Supreme Court, states that her parents are American citizens, so, that makes her an American citizen. Doesn't matter what her grandfather did, she is an American citizen and is trying to stand up for every American citizen in the state of New Mexico.

[credibility2]

We are a nation of immigrants, but legal immigrants. When people entered the U.S. either through Ellis Island or Angel Island, they were properly documented and entered here legally. That is the difference. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty hasn't anything to do with illegal immigration. It's become too easy for many to hide behind that saying. If you want to become a U.S. citizen that much do so legally and wait your turn.

[ramos1129]

Frankly, you are right except for one critical thing. I am a retired federal employee in South Texas. During my career, I discovered warehouses of immigration applications dating back years that were awaiting processing. To this date the vastly inadequate resources for handling current applications. This application is worse than useless. It leads folks like you to have the opinion you stated above without knowing the true facts. What is the solution to this? Give ICE the resources to clear up the backlog and handle the current workload in a reasonable manner. Chances of that happening are none.

[pohd1]

What a bunch of racist posting here. If you are a minority you must be a Democrat? Wealth has nothing to do with it. I know many minorities that are conservatives and live on less than 50,000 a year. Many minorities wish to have big govt that will care for them many others wish for smaller govt. Name calling does nothing but my question is when will the activist and/or CBS start checking on Democrat Latinos. Start with the mayor of Los Angeles and with several state law makers.

[USSAmerikan]

I agree with your statement that Latinos come in many different flavors, when it comes to politics. You will have a hard time finding too many Democrats among the Florida Hispanics... They already know what it is like to live in a regime like Obama seems to favor and they'd rather face the Bull Sharks of the Florida straits than live under the Bull5h!t of the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat".

[voxpopulus]

The Florida Cubans are relatives of the same corrupt government and inhuman conditions that created the foundations for the Cuban Revolution in the first place. Don't expect any respect for them from anyone who knows ANYTHING about history. Before the revolution 25% of the labor force was unemployed, 75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees, more than 50% had no toilets, 85% had no inside running water, 91% had no electricity, there was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas, and more than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.
Also only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables. 45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school. Which is all about where Republicans would have the US be tomorrow if they had half a chance.

[USSAmerikan]

I am foreign born and entered this country legally as a political refugee. I served my beloved nation in the U.S. Army (85th Maintenance Batallion in Germany, from the late 80's through the mid nineties). I am a Republican and have been since I became a citizen in the early 90's. Why? Because it seems to be the party of full employment, because it seems to be the party of hope and it seems to be the party that is trying to maintain the basic tenet that if you work hard, you can get your kids through college and they will have a shot at being wealthy. So you ask why do I vote Republican? My family left a Socialist regime that stole everything my father worked for all his life, forcing him to leave his law practice and everything he worked for into his 50's, forcing him to work three jobs here in the states so he could maintain us. If we had not made a run for it, the Socialists would have imprisoned and possibly killed my father simply for his beliefs, but this country saved us. Today, I have been able to make a very good life for myself, although thankfully I have not hit the tax bracket levels Mr. Obama wants to punish. My family and I, well, we are giving back, although we will never be able to repay everything this wonderful country has given us!!!

[voxpopulus]

"Because it seems to be the party of full employment," You weren't paying attention three years ago were you?

[nehicks]

Thank you for becoming a citizen the right way - no matter what political party you belong to. You are the type of immigrant we want in this country. Not the ones who want to live off the government and send every penny of their money back to the country they came from. Not the ones that have no interest in working to make this a better country; not the ones that have no interest in becoming a citizen of this country; not the uneducated that can only hold those "low paying corporate jobs" because they can't do anything else. You are a shining example of the kind of people that made the U.S. what it is today.

[TexFandango]

We need to budget for an alteration to the Statue of Liberty. What would the cost be of changing the current inscription:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

What with the intransigent demands of social conservatives like Mitt Romney, it should be changed to:

"Give me your engineers, your rich business class yearning for a MacMansion, tired of wretched state TV and in need of 350-channel cable. Send these, the well-educated, affluent, upper-class to me, and only then will I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[coexistUSA]

How is it that any minority can be a Republican? Just because they think that they have a little bit of money that they will be accepted as Republicans. How STUPID can one be? Look at Arizona, it is full of republicans and probably the most racist ones on top of that. I know, because I live in Arizona.

[formerusmcsgt1]

Hispanics may be a minority, but they are not stupid.

They see which party pushes laws that infringe on their civil rights.....