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The Political Cost of Guttiérez's Crusade

Promoting immigration reform comes with a high political cost.

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Promoting immigration reform comes with a high political cost.

Obama said it right when he spoke to Hispanic Democrats, and told them that he was “ready to invest some of his political capital on immigration.”

That capital would surely be spent in the fight against Republicans and other groups, including radical conservatives.

In the case of Guttiérrez, undertaking a tour of over 20 US cities in order to promote a discussion of comprehensive immigration reform takes some guts.

The Democratic Congressman’s struggle has focused on the separation of families by raids and deportations.

Its an initiative that has high political cost, not only among his colleagues in Congress, but also among the public. This is evidenced in the comments that readers send to the newspapers of each of the cities he has visited.

In addition to containing degrading language against Guttiérez, the messages are full of hate, false paradigms, racism, irony and criminalization of undocumented people.

Considering that there are recognized incendiary pseudo-journalists in this country, one really can’t expect a less violent reaction.

Hence, it takes bravery for Guttiérrez to undertake a tour of this kind, or even to make any kind of declarations in favor of humanizing the immigration process.

The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi never heard the end of it when she told an audience of immigrants that the way the country enforces immigration laws is “anti American”.

She acompanied Guttiérrez to San Francisco, one of the stops on his pilgrimage route that finishes this Saturday, April 4th in Philadelphia.

When speaking against raids, Pelosi referred to immigrants as “very, very patriotic” and it didn’t take long for the scornful responses to come out, not just from the public, but also from anti immigrant media, with its well known anti immigrant sources.

It’s a vicious cycle of hatred and irrationality.

In politics it’s impossible to predict the future, but when he announced his tour, Gutierrez, as well as those who have the courage to join him in the struggle for immigration reform, must have known that they also have a political cost in their favor, judging by the young Latino community that’s ready to excercise its rights in the coming elections.

 

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