Latino Republican Group Says Marco Rubio is Unfriendly to Latinos

By Kyle Munzenrieder Fri., Jun. 17 2011 at 2:14 PM

Florida senator Marco Rubio is supposed to be the Republican party's great Latino hope, but an upstart Latino Republican group, Somos Republicans, has just dubbed Rubio "unfriendly to Latinos." The group claims that because of Rubio's Cuban-American "privilege" he fails to appreciate the important immigration issues facing the Latino community at large. For that he's ended up on their permanent "Unfriendly to Latinos" list.

Somos Republicans, which dubs itself the "fastest growing Hispanic Republican group in the nation" (though it hasn't quite developed into a power player in Republican circles) sent out the press release condemning Rubio, and also criticizing Ted Cruz, a Cuban-American Republican running for a senate seat in Texas in 2012:

Cuban-Americans Sen. Marco Rubio and candidate Ted Cruz will permanently wind up on the SOMOS REPUBLICANS unfriendly to Latino list because of their support for enforcement only policies against immigrants. They fail to recognize the privilege Cuban immigrants have over other immigrants that come here to achieve the American dream. Furthermore, both Rubio and Cruz are being supported by the same anti-immigrant crowd that supported JD Hayworth and both have been praised by extremist radio show host Mark Levin. We believe GOP Cuban-Americans such as Rubio and Cruz are being used as pawns by the nativist, anti-immigrant and Tea Party crowd.

Florida is experiencing fast growing emerging groups from Columbia, Central America, and etc. Indians, Columbians, Peruvians, Central Americans, Mexicans, Irishmen, Canadians, Asians, Russians, and etc. do not have the privilege of the wet-foot-dry-foot policy as they try to flee their government to pursue the American dream. Most Cubans are able to receive federal assistance provided by tax payers for a short time once their foot touches American soil, and then they are on parole for one year before becoming a permanent resident. Unfortunately, both Rubio and Cruz are also putting 30,000 Cuban families that have slipped through the cracks and they are also at risk with regard to enforcement only policies.

Those are some pretty damning accusations. It should be noted that Somos Republicans have dubbed local Republican congressmen Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen as "friendly to Latinos."

[via SFDB]

Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.

Tags:

Marco Rubio, Somos Latinos

We Recommend

Johnburns67

Marco Rubio is a Brilliant young mind, He will be the first Latino President. That's a fact. Anyone dissing Rubio is either a friggin libtard or just an angry person. Rubio! Rubio ! Rubio ! How about Allen West / Marco Rubio 2012 !

GPaugam7

I question ANY republican especially ones from Arizona. Somos Republicans is home based out of AZ and pushes its narrow agenda to attempt assimilation into the mainstream majority and away from their cultural origins. They do not care about Cubans, Colombians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc...they care about affluent Americans of Mexican-heritage bleached out over years by dilution. Republicans are no good for this country!

campesino

Are you people crazy? There is no such thing as a latino friendly republican politician. It doesn’t exist, never did and never will. How many republican Senators voted for the Dream Act? Not one. Rubio is just one more of them. He’s loyal only to himself and maybe to Jeb Bush, because he hopes to go higher. It’ not about being Cuban-American, it’s about being a republican

Johnburns67

The REPUBLICANS FREE'D THE SLAVES ! THE DemoKKKrats formed the KKK ! Dont forget your history campy

Mixnax

DeeDee Blase isn't a Republican anymore. She just recently quit the Republican Party and changed her voter registration. Its pretty hard to see how someone can expect to be take seriously a non-Republican as the voice of Latino Republicans.

Grillo

I don't think that their hostility towards other Latinos is because they are Cuban Americans whose community benefits with the dry foot-wet foot policy. There are many Cuban Americans who are in sync with other Latino communities. Marco Rubio is hostile to ALL Latinos because he wants to be president very badly. We should keep in mind, however, that you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but never all the people all the time. Marco Rubio and his minions will get what they deserve in due time.

DeeDee

I believe Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio has taken an anti-immigrant stance because they feel secure within their own Cuban community as it relates to the wet foot dry foot policy. Unfortunately 30000 Cubanos will be affected, too, with regard to national e-verify since they have slipped through the cracks. E-verify is not sufficient software at this point. They need to fix the glitches.

Drake Mallard

if the Congress care about America’s immigration system. you can start by removing wet foot, dryfoot" policy, in terms of allowing Cuban refugees that racist

Why is this anti-hispanic when it applies to all illegal immigrants?

illegal is not a Race. It is Illegal

DeeDee

The reason why SOMOS REPUBLICANS is not an affiliate of the Republican Party is because we take a strong stance against fellow Republican legislators who are on the record for welcoming "Operation Wetback" (their words....not ours). Several Republican affiliate groups want us to turn a blind eye on immigration, but we can't because our Latin community is under attack.

DeeDee

We are not an upstart group....we have been in existence since early 2009. It's unfortunate that both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz (both Cuban Americans) are not understanding of other Latin immigrants who do not receive the same privilege of the wet foot dry foot policy Cubanos are able to receive. Marco Rubio makes the GOP look worse when he snubs other ethnic groups/immigrants.