by Mighel Perez
October 7, 2009
Post Chronicle
Just when we thought things would be a little different under the Obama administration -- because we were promised so much "change" -- we realize that we are getting more of the same. On some issues with which we expected clear improvement, things are actually getting worse.
On two issues of particular importance to the nation's 45 million Latinos -- immigration reform and census participation -- the Obama administration clearly has failed to live up to the expectations of many of the Latino voters who sent them to the White House last November.
Those two issues came together last week, when Obama's Commerce Department said it would not ask Obama's Homeland Security Department to halt immigration raids during the period when federal workers will be knocking on doors to conduct the 2010 census, starting April 1.
This is change, but it's for the worse.
During the 2000 census, many illegal immigrants were able to shed their fears and participate because immigration raids had been informally suspended, at the request of Census Bureau officials, to encourage participation among inner-city minorities and members of other hard-to-count communities.
Yet 10 years later, under a "liberal" president who promised so much change to Latinos, a Commerce Department spokesman told The Associated Press that "neither the Commerce Department nor the Census Bureau will ask DHS to refrain from exercising their lawful authority" to conduct immigration raids.
That is the response that could be expected from a Republican administration. In fact, the idea of calling off the raids in 2010 already had been rejected, when it was presented to the Bush administration two years ago. But coming from the Obama administration, it felt like a low blow.
Like a broken record, current Census Bureau officials keep claiming that they are committed to getting an accurate count of all U.S. residents -- legal and illegal. But they sure don't act like it, not when they think they can do it in spite of the continuation of immigration raids.
http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_212260569.shtml
