EthnicMajority

(Huffington Post) The Republican Party is beefing up its minority outreach nationwide and preparing to put its rising Latino stars on the campaign trail amid concerns that tough immigration rhetoric in the presidential primary is taking on an increasingly anti-Hispanic tone.

But immigrant-rights groups and some political watchers say the damage may be irreversible. They argue that the GOP has severely hampered itself as it looks to woo the critical Latino voting bloc that could decide who wins key states like New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida next fall.

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(Voice of America) Eight years ago, “Mrs. Kim” came to the United States from China “to pursue her American Dream,” but thanks to unscrupulous business practices familiar to many Asian immigrants working in low-wage industries, things went horribly wrong.

Kim, who did not want to use her real name because she is still involved in litigation, began life in the U.S. preparing dumplings and side dishes at a Korean restaurant in Bergen County, New Jersey.

The job went well for a few years. It was hard, but Kim was getting paid for her efforts.

“When I first started working, [the owner] agreed to pay me $600 per week,” she said. “Specific hours were not indicated, but she did indicate I would have to work over 12 hours per day.”

Though she worked as many as 17 hours a day, when the restaurant’s business started to decline, the owner began paying employees late or not paying them at all.

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(Washington Post) Four years ago in Iowa, Republican caucus-goers chose illegal immigration as the most important issue facing the country. The issue of how to deal with more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants is not playing a central role in the 2012 GOP race. But fresh numbers from the Pew Hispanic Center reveal that Republicans have made little progress since 2008 in courting a fast-growing Hispanic voting bloc, two-thirds of whom voted for Barack Obama.

In their basic political party identification – the continental plates of American politics – 67 percent of Hispanics identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 20 percent who lean toward Republicans. The 47-point Democratic advantage is larger than at any point in more than a decade of polls, including 2008, when 26 percent of Hispanics sided with the Republican Party. As we noted Thursday, Obama leads Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney by 68 to 23 percent among Hispanic voters in a hypothetical general election match-up.

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(UPI) Hispanic leaders in Phoenix say Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio should resign following a court ruling that his officers engage in racial profiling.

U.S. District Judge Murray Snow also said in his decision Friday that being in the United States illegally is not grounds for arrest.

Antonio Bustamente of Los Abogados, the Arizona Hispanic Bar Association, called Snow's ruling "monumentally important," The Arizona Republic reported. Bustamente appeared with other leaders at a news conference Monday at the El Portal restaurant in Phoenix.

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(National Catholic Register) The Catholic Church in the United States stands with undocumented immigrants, declares a letter written by 33 of the nation’s Hispanic bishops.

The letter, released on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, says the Church sees the suffering face of Jesus in the tribulations of immigrants.

Addressing themselves to those “who lack proper authorization to live and work in our country,” the bishops declare their solidarity with immigrants, promising them that they are not alone or forgotten.

“Many of you perform the most difficult jobs and receive miserable salaries and no health insurance or Social Security. Despite your contributions to the well-being of our country, instead of receiving our thanks, you are often treated as criminals because you have violated current immigration laws,” the bishops said.

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(Reuters) The nation's 33 Hispanic Roman Catholic Bishops released on Monday a strongly worded "letter to immigrants" suggesting illegal immigrants deserve thanks from Americans, and calling for "denunciation of the forces which oppress them."

The bishops have come out in support of comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants before, as they do again in the letter, but it uses stronger language and goes further in offering support to undocumented immigrants.

The letter was released by San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, the highest ranking Mexican-Americans in the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops.

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(LatinaLista.net) How long does a person have to live in a foreign country before he/she calls it home?

Six months? One year? Three years? Ten years?

The answer, of course, is however long it takes for that person to feel comfortable in their surroundings. While some people quickly adapt and make themselves at home, for others it may take a few years. But it's a safe bet to assume that if a person has been living in a foreign country for 15 years or more, then they're feeling right at home.

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(Huffington Post) For many immigrants arriving in the U.S., maintaining ties with their countries and cultures is becoming easier. Their countries, it seems, are coming straight to their doorstep.

Increasingly, Hispanics "have access to their cultural heritage and language through product and service offerings that are targeted to the Latino community," according to Hispanic Research Inc.

Take Pizza Patron, a new Mexican-themed pizza joint opening up in Fresno, California. "From the colorful decor to some of the pizza ingredients, which include Mexican-style chorizo sausage, Pizza Patron is committed to serving the Hispanic market," according to an article by The Business Journal.

Since 2007 all Pizza Patron restaurants accept Mexican Pesos (bills only) as payment. The Dallas-based pizzeria seeking to open franchises in predominantly Hispanic communities throughout the nation and hire bilingual managers and sales teams.

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(Care2) The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics report was released on November 14, and the numbers show a dramatic spike in crimes against Latinos.

The number was up 11% since last year to 66.6 percent of victims of ethnically motivated hate crimes in 2010. In California, they went up 50%.

These figures for those targeted because of anti-Latino bias are the highest percentage in almost a decade.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said of a previous spike in 2007:

There’s no doubt that the tone of the raging national debate over immigration is growing uglier by the day. Once limited to hard-core white supremacists and a handful of border-state extremists, vicious public denunciations of undocumented brown-skinned immigrants are increasingly common among supposedly mainstream anti-immigration activists, radio hosts and politicians. While their dehumanizing rhetoric typically stops short of openly sanctioning bloodshed, much of it implicitly encourages or even endorses violence by characterizing immigrants from Mexico and Central America as “invaders,” “criminal aliens” and “cockroaches.”

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(Bradenton.com) With growing signs that Hispanic voters are turned off by GOP positions on immigration, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is using his national profile to deliver a message to his party: Tone it down.