Immigration marches put charge in Hispanic power

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Massive street marches to protest a
proposed crackdown on illegal immigration have energized U.S.
Hispanics and may signal a new day of Hispanic political
involvement.

The demonstrations, which attracted both legal and illegal
residents across the country, mean politicians may face an
angry Hispanic electorate in which Republicans would be the
biggest losers, activists said on Monday.

Half a million people marched in Los Angeles two weeks ago,
and another half a million protested in Dallas on Sunday. On
Monday, there were smaller marches in more than 60 cities, all
to express displeasure with proposed legislation in Washington
aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration.

As happened in Los Angeles, the Dallas march stunned the
organizers, who expected only 20,000 people in politically
conservative Texas.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine half a million
people marching in a city that has 1.2 million people,” said
Lydia Gonzalez Welch, a board member with the League of United
Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, which promoted the so-called
Mega March.

“The feeling of celebration and amazement yesterday was
powerful and we will make sure that power continues to be
demonstrated and the local leaders will feel it,” she said.

“This is the first real social movement, bottom-up,
grass-roots movement of the 21st century,” longtime Hispanic
activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez told the
Dallas Morning News.

Flexing what it hopes is new political muscle, LULAC, the
largest U.S. Hispanic organization, called for supporters to
boycott stores Monday and not go to work, but the results were
not clear.

Organizers at all the marches, with an eye to future
elections, encouraged protesters who are citizens to register
to vote. They urged illegal immigrants, who cannot vote, to
push those who can to exercise their right.

“We will see this transfer into political power. If we
cannot change their minds, we will change them (politicians),”
said Elias Bermudez, head of advocacy group Immigrants Without
Borders, at a march in Phoenix, Arizona.

40 MILLION HISPANICS

There are 40 million Hispanics in the United States,
although due to age and legal status, just 13 million are
eligible to vote.

Of those, only 60 percent are registered to vote and
turnout at the polls is usually lower than among whites and
blacks, experts say.

But they are concentrated in key states such as California,
Texas and Florida and, by 2020, the number of Hispanic voters
nationally is expected to top 20 million.

Democrats stand to gain most from new Hispanic involvement
because political analysts say that, typically, two-thirds of
Hispanics vote for their party.

Despite exuberance among activists, greater Hispanic
political activism is not assured because the Hispanic
population is not a political monolith, experts say.

While U.S.-born Hispanics are largely sympathetic to
illegal immigrants, a Pew Hispanic Center survey found that a
third of them feel illegal immigrants drive wages down.

Republicans have made gains in attracting Hispanics, but
could lose ground by pushing a harder line against illegal
immigrants, said Southern Methodist University political
scientist Cal Jillson in Dallas.

They “should take a deep breath here, and ask themselves
what a failure to deal with the concerns of immigrants both
legal and illegal will mean for the Republican Party,” he said.

Republican political consultant Bill Miller in Austin
agreed the party is in a difficult position.

“It’s a real high risk situation for Republicans, and it’s
almost all down side,” he said. “There is no more sacred issue
to Hispanics.”