Friday, October 17, 2014

Get Out The Alien Vote: Activists Intensify Efforts to Get Latinos to Vote, Despite Apathy

10/17/2014



PHOENIX – Organizations pushing to turn out the Hispanic vote in Arizona are intensifying their efforts to get Latino voters to go to the polls on Nov. 4 and not become apathetic due to the lack of congressional action on approving immigration reform.

“It’s of great important for all Latino families that we have a government and leaders who respond to our needs and the only way to achieve that is by voting,” Roberto Reveles, with the Somos America group, told Efe.

Reveles acknowledged that there are Latinos who are disillusioned with both the Democratic and Republican Parties as a result of the lack of agreement in Congress on approving immigration reform that would end the deportation of undocumented foreigners, a record 438,421 of whom were deported during Fiscal Year 2013, which ended on Sept. 30.

They are also disillusioned by President Barack Obama’s recent decision to postpone taking executive action that would provide relief to undocumented immigrants until after the November elections.

“The best way we can help President Obama is to go out to vote and elect people who support our community. He alone cannot change the laws,” Reveles emphasized.

Arizona is known nationwide for approving severe laws against undocumented immigration, including AB1070, which authorized police to ask people they “suspect” of being undocumented what their immigration status is.

Arizona voters will go to the polls on Nov. 4 to elect their governor, secretary of state, attorney general and the head of the state educational system.

“The Latino vote can be decisive for these contests,” the executive director of Mi Familia Vota in Arizona, Raquel Teran, told Efe.

Mi Familia Vota estimates that Latinos represent 23 percent of the electorate in Arizona and their votes can be crucial in a number of races.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are seeking to change their anti-immigrant image for a more moderate stance like that taken by the governors of the neighboring states of New Mexico and Nevada, Susana Martinez and Brian Sandoval, respectively.


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