Immigration worries Hispanic delegates

Immigration worries Hispanic delegates

Web Posted: 06/13/2008 10:15 PM CDT

By Janet Elliott
Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — As a son and grandson of men who came to the United States without documents, Joe Martinez has cringed at some of the red-hot talk about unauthorized immigration he has heard this week at the Republican State Convention.

“I'd love to see the rhetoric softened,” said Martinez, a 26-year-old from Mercedes who is attending his first state convention.

But he knows that this is a nation of laws, and so did his father and grandfather, who both became American citizens. And he's enthusiastic about being a Republican, proudly showing off his tan-and-blue cowboy boots, one signed by Rick Perry and the other by Ron Paul.

“Once people start to realize what Republican principles and values are, that's pretty much the way the culture lives its life: faith, love and self-dependence,” said Martinez, who works as a supervisor in a state program that provides attendants for homebound elderly and disabled people.

Hispanics have a small presence among the 6,000 delegates and alternates at the convention, a worrisome sign for the party's future. The momentum provided by President Bush's popularity among Hispanics could stall out in the face of the party's hard-line stand against amnesty for unauthorized immigrants.

Republicans took over state government, beginning in the late 1980s, by growing their base at the local level, particularly in suburban areas.

But it can be difficult to recruit candidates to run as Republicans in heavily Hispanic areas when the GOP affiliation is often a “death warrant,” said Hector Farias, 41, of Weslaco.

Just as U.S. Sen. John McCain and Bush have supported a pathway to citizenship for some unauthorized immigrants, convention delegates are split on the issue.

“We're for securing the border,” said Ruben Jimenez, whose family has been in Texas for 150 years. “In order to be a good citizen, you've got to obey the law.”

But Martinez can't forget a scene he witnessed when he was 12: a frightened, hungry family of four hiding in a cemetery on his family's ranch. Just as his father took food to the man, woman and children, he is looking for compassion and compromise by his party on the emotional issue.

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