Rohrabacher’s Harsh Rhetoric Misrepresents Latinos and Facts

* Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-Huntington Beach) political ambitions are causing an entire population to be dehumanized and criminalized.

Rohrabacher thinks that the major problem after the quake is the undocumented working community and then by implication the entire Latino community.

Rohrabacher not only conveniently overlooks our productive membership in this economy but key facts have escaped him. For example, the best research today indicates that the majority of undocumented immigrants are in fact members of productive, wage-earning households, not social loafers.

Further, a large number of those in fact are currently awaiting legalization proceedings.

Also, his figures on the size of the undocumented population are not correct. The federal government itself has concluded that the undocumented population is less than 4% of the total California population. Latinos are only one-third of that percentage. And barely 7% of the state’s entire Latino population lacks legal status.

Rohrabacher wants us voters to believe that undocumented immigrants are now also a drain on disaster relief funds. This is ridiculous. Sound public policy cannot be built on the basis of fear, hysteria and deliberate misinformation. And to play upon people’s fears in this time of crisis is outright racism.

I’ve met Dana several times in Costa Mesa and I come away each time convinced that he would say or do anything to get reelected.

So, Dana I’ll ask you once again to cease making the Latino community your whipping boy for all of California’s problems. Your statements do nothing to build stronger multiethnic societies. They only foment fear, hatred and civil strife.

The next time I see you I’ll have to remind you that my neighbors and I are wage-earners and professionals; we are educated and we vote because we are citizens. We were also born in Mexico.

ANTONIO ACOSTA SWEET

Costa Mesa