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Make no mistake, Mitt Romney is the furthest to the right of any candidate running for President in modern history. The facts are clear and the differences couldn’t be more frightening for our community.
While the President’s Recovery Act kept 6.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2009, including two million Latinos and the tax cut legislation he signed into law assisted close to four million Hispanic families, including 8 million Hispanic children, Mitt Romney supports the Republican Cut Cap and Balance plan that would have eliminated 700,000 jobs. And while President Obama provided 150,000 additional Hispanic students with Pell Grants, investing in the future of our country by allowing so many talented kids to continue their studies, Mitt Romney supports a plan that would cut financial aid, or Pell Grants, rather than do away with subsidies for Big Oil companies.
The Affordable Care Act, which the President fought to sign into law and which now provides more than nine million Latinos affordable health insurance is threatened by Republicans like Mitt Romney who have pledged to repeal historic health care reform and who support a plan to cut Medicaid rather than increase taxes for the super rich, even though Romney himself knows the Medicare program is particularly important to Latino children and seniors.
And while the President supports the DREAM Act, is committed to Comprehensive Immigration Reform and, for the first time ever, has directed the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize the deportation of criminals vs. DREAMers, or hard working individuals with ties to our country and with U.S. citizen children, or the spouses of active duty military or veterans through the Prosecutorial Discretion Memo and has proposed a rule to keep American families together while they are going through the legal immigration process, Mitt Romney opposes the DREAM Act, and talks only of bigger, wider walls, suggesting 11 million undocumented immigrants self deport, and opposes a clear path to citizenship.
In fact, Romney even went so far as to call the DREAM Act a “handout” – but no one could rightly characterize a requirement to serve in the military or work toward a college degree as a free pass. Romney’s stance is offensive to young Latino Americans willing to sacrifice and give back to the only country they’ve ever called home.
If Romney becomes the Republican nominee, his position on immigration would be the most extreme of any presidential nominee of our time. He calls our undocumented “illegals,” sought and accepted the endorsement of Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona's SB 1070 calling it a model for the nation.
Simply put: Mitt Romney is out of touch with the values we Latinos hold dear, he is the wrong choice to represent us in the White House and we must do everything we can to protect the progress President Obama has made for the Hispanic community.
The contrasts couldn’t be clearer and the choice more obvious. I call on you to join me in pledging your support for the re-election of President Barack Obama as we proudly stand together and proclaim ourselves “Latinos for Obama” ... ˇEstamos unidos!
--Isabel Framer, Founder and Principal Partner of Language Access Consultants, LLC
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