[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should Foreign STEM Graduates Get Green Cards?]
If the current rediscovery of Latinos is to mean anything, we need to move beyond clichés and lazy stereotypes. In the post-election data euphoria, the nexus between Latinos and immigration has been overdone. Yes, Latinos care about immigration reform but they care even more about the economy, jobs, and the future of their children. Research shows that Latinos want their children to learn English and thrive in schools but they also want to save Spanish from the fate of immigrant languages (such as German, Italian, and Japanese) in a country once called "the cemetery for languages." Latinos want better schools but the evidence shows that the high-stakes testing regime of the era of accountability is doing enormous damage to this generation of English language learners. Above all, Latinos who invented "familism," the cultural complex making the extended family the economic, social, and moral bedrock of existence, value the integrity of the family in an era when 3.4 million immigrants—the vast majority of them Latinos—have been deported during the Bush (two million over eight years) and Obama (so far 1.4 million) administrations. Before Republicans and Democrats out ran each other to embrace America's mañana they would be wise to do first their homework.
- Read Ford O'Connell: Fixing the Fiscal Cliff and Immigration Are Keys to a GOP Revival
- Read Kristen Soltis: GOP Must Show How Policies Benefit Everyone
- Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insider's guide to politics and policy.
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