Trump’s Immigration Plan Is Irresponsible, Inhumane, and Politically Expedient

It’s hard to take Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric seriously when he’s taken literally every position possible on the issue of immigration. A month ago, he was arguing for a path to legal status. Three years ago he criticized Mitt Romney’s self-deportation policy as ‘maniacal’. And now he’s supportive of mass deportation? Trump may characterize himself as an anti-politician, but he’s certainly showcasing himself as a typical politician who says whatever is most politically expedient in the moment. Mr. Trump’s proposal is irresponsible and lacks seriousness. But most importantly, Trump’s proposal is inhumane. The immense majority of undocumented immigrants are honest, hard-working people who ended up

When Will Hillary Return Trump’s Donations?

Hillary Clinton has been extremely irresponsible in taking advantage of Donald Trump’s insulting comments about Mexican immigrants. Saying that all GOP presidential candidates agree with Trump on immigration is factually untrue. Several key candidates including Governor Rick Perry, Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, have forcefully denounced Trump for his insulting and baseless comments. Clinton’s comments are misleading Latino voters and this is the worst kind of crass political pandering. If she is so appalled by her friend Donald Trump’s comments, she should give back the over $100,000 she received from the Trump Foundation. Today I call on her

What Would a Conservative Immigration Reform Look Like?

On Sunday, I was invited to C-SPAN to discuss immigration reform and APIA’s new five-point action plan to fix our country’s immigration system.  You can see the full video, as well as an excerpt of the discussion, below: Steven Scully: “I want to share with you a poll that came out a couple of months ago. It’s available online at washingtonpost.com. But as you look at the breakdown of how Democrats and Republicans view the issue of immigration, 70 percent of those self-identified Republicans say they oppose any path to citizenship. Seven zero…” Alfonso Aguilar: “Right, but the problem is with

On Immigration, the President Wants an Issue, Not a Solution

On Tuesday, a Federal Court of Appeals ruled against lifting an injunction against President Obama’s executive order to halt deportations. This latest ruling represents a small portion of a much larger problem with the President’s handling of immigration policy. When it comes to immigration, the President clearly wants an issue, not a solution. Sadly, the President chose to play with the hopes and aspirations of millions of undocumented immigrants for political purposes, instead of trying to work with the new Congress to find a real and permanent solution to our immigration problems. This unfortunate circumstance, however, presents Republicans with an extraordinary opportunity

Bush Takes on National Review on Immigration

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, responded to National Review’s criticism of his position favoring a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants by saying: “I love you… I just think you are wrong on immigration”. Unlike many politicians, who flip flop with the political winds, Jeb Bush keeps coming forward and staying consistent on his pro-immigration reform stance, which nowadays seems as an odd position within official and non-official pre-presidential Republican candidates. The National Journal even refers to Bush as “a moderate outlier” just for defending his immigration position versus an array of ideas coming from most of the other Republican pre-candidates,

Outreach to Latinos Takes Center Stage at Pro-Life Gala

The Susan B. Anthony List’s annual gala was a star-studded affair: Republican names from Rand Paul to Carly Fiorina took the stage to celebrate the latest victories for the pro-life movement and recommit to ending the tragedy of abortion. Perhaps the most important contribution, however, came from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who pointed out a path for social conservatives to radically expand their base. Senator Graham, in answering why being pro-life is a winner in America, asked a poignant question: Who are the most pro-life group in America? The answer, in this case, was Hispanics!  Graham made another important point on

The Pulse Gets It Wrong on Perry and Religious Freedom

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with Maggie Gallagher’s ‘D’ rating for Rick Perry on religious liberty.  I should point out that Governor Perry took to Twitter to clearly and strongly defend Indiana Governor Pence and the state’s religious freedom law. But, most importantly, he has a history of speaking passionately and eloquently on the subject that isn’t just limited to the past couple of days, and making assumptions about his views based on a single statement is a extremely unfair to him and only helps to distort his record.  Below are some quotes of Rick Perry engaging on nearly every

Is Ted Cruz Latino?

I had a great conversation last week about Ted Cruz with Alejandro Negron, the host of the Hispanic Agenda on Channel 8/Telemundo, who kindly introduced me as “a leading Latino conservative voice and advocate for Latinos inside the Republican Party.” Alejandro started by asking me about the media voices saying Cruz is not really a Latino, and whether that is fair. Of course, I defended Cruz: “It’s totally unfair, because it tries to create this perception that the Hispanic community is a monolithic community, that there is one Hispanic agenda that all Hispanics have to buy into,”  I told him. “To

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