Latinos Want Prominent Role in Obama Government

Proposal wouldn't require Congress' OK

(NEWSER) - President Obama will today propose a change in immigration rules: Under the suggested regulation, undocumented immigrants wouldn't have to leave the country while they apply for green cards. Current regulations can split families during the lengthy application process: Illegals who leave are subject to a ban from returning lasting up to 10 years, the Los Angeles Times reports. Though undocumented immigrants can seek exemptions from the rule, to do so they must apply outside the country, and even then they may have to wait years. More»

Speaks today with largest Hispanic advocacy group

(NEWSER) - President Obama will speak today to La Raza, the country’s top Hispanic advocacy group, as he aggressively pursues the Latino vote in 2012. He’s already been the first sitting president since JFK to visit Puerto Rico, nominated the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, given a major speech on immigration reform, and invited leading members of the Hispanic community to the White House, NPR notes. But immigration overhaul has fallen by the wayside, despite Obama's 2008 “promise that comprehensive immigration reform would be an absolute top priority,” notes La Raza's head. More»

Some call her 'Jackie Robinson'; others, no 'superhero'

(NEWSER) - For many Hispanics watching yesterday as one of their own was nominated for the nation's highest court, it was what one New York assemblyman calls “a Jackie Robinson moment" long overdue such a sizable voting bloc. For others, though, Sonia Sotomayor's Hispanic background doesn’t necessarily make her a “superhero,” a Colombian American tells the New York Times. “There’s not going to be this enormous outpouring of ethnic triumph,” a Latino author notes. More»

But little action taken to staunch the flow

(NEWSER) - The Republican Party is facing falling Latino support, but little is being done to reverse the trend, Politico reports. Some Latinos have been disillusioned by Republican rhetoric on illegal immigration, attacks some heard as swipes at Hispanics themselves. “If we don’t figure out a way to open our party up to more Hispanic voters, nothing else we do will matter,” said a former GOP congressman. More»

(NEWSER) - As Hillary Clinton takes over the State Department, it's worth remembering that her train-wreck presidential campaign followed an "audacious 2000 run for Senate" and an excellent record as a legislator, Michael Crowley writes for the New Republic. "The question—not only for Hillary's legacy but for US foreign policy—is which of these models she will bring to" her new job, Crowley observes. More»