Richard
Final Approach
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- Feb 27, 2005
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Ack...city life
Pol of Mexican heritage aims at immigrants
[size=-1]REBECCA BOONE[/size]
[size=-1]Associated Press[/size]
BOISE, Idaho - He is a grandson of Mexican immigrants who has been called a traitor to his people for building his political career on attacks against illegal immigration.
Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez entered the race for Congress earlier this month, and did it in characteristically provocative fashion, making the announcement at a Mexican restaurant that shares a building with the Idaho Migrant Council - one of his more vocal opponents.
"My people - as I'm often accused of turning my back on them - my people are American. I've got an American flag hanging in my office, not the Mexican chicken-and-worm or whatever it is," Vasquez said in a swipe at the eagle-and-snake emblem on the Mexican flag.
The 55-year-old Republican is one of the best-known candidates in the 2006 race for the House seat being vacated by GOP Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who is expected to run for governor.
Vasquez has said he has gotten little financial support from the local Republican Party establishment. And little wonder: He has accused Idaho's congressional delegation - all Republicans, including conservative Sen. Larry Craig - of "collaborating with the unarmed enemy invading America."
Hispanics are Idaho's fastest growing population, according to the Census Bureau. In Canyon County, a sugar beet-growing area just outside Boise, the Hispanic population has reached about 19 percent, with many Hispanics coming here to pick crops.
Vasquez was elected to the three-member board of commissioners of Idaho's fastest-growing county in 2002.
Since then he has billed the Mexican government $2 million for reimbursement of jail and medical treatment costs he claimed the county provided to Mexican citizens. That effort failed, as did Vasquez's attempt to get Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to declare the county a disaster area over an "imminent invasion" of illegal immigrants.
"We're being invaded by Mexicans - they are the enemy, as far as I'm concerned," Vasquez told The Associated Press.
Most recently, Vasquez successfully pushed to hire an attorney to consider the possibility of using a federal racketeering law that was designed to target mobsters to sue local businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
Vasquez's charged rhetoric and political tactics have galvanized opposition, including a political action committee organized by angry county residents.
"He's caused a lot of divisiveness in our community," said Corrine Tafoya-Fisher, an organizer of the committee. "We know that we have to work at making some solid decisions on how the immigration situation is going to be addressed but can't do it by targeting people of one color."
Experts say Vasquez is trying to tap a rich vein of anti-immigrant resentment rooted in the social costs of immigration and working-class fear of low-wage competition for jobs.
"The people enthusiastic about the Vasquez candidacy are working-class people concerned about their employment future who end up scapegoating Mexicans," said Richard Baker, a professor in Mexican-American Studies at Boise State University.
Vasquez said that in his bid to use the racketeering laws against businesses that employ illegal immigrants, he is simply trying to protect U.S. borders as well as illegal immigrants. Unscrupulous employers know they can keep such employees in line and even withhold their pay - by threatening to call immigration authorities.
Vasquez said he is not betraying his heritage. Yes, he said, his grandfather came to this country from Mexico. But "it was legal immigration, and it was years ago when there was actually some control over the borders," he said, "not an invasion of hundreds of thousands of aliens every year that demand a separate culture and language just for themselves."
[size=-1]REBECCA BOONE[/size]
[size=-1]Associated Press[/size]
BOISE, Idaho - He is a grandson of Mexican immigrants who has been called a traitor to his people for building his political career on attacks against illegal immigration.
Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez entered the race for Congress earlier this month, and did it in characteristically provocative fashion, making the announcement at a Mexican restaurant that shares a building with the Idaho Migrant Council - one of his more vocal opponents.
"My people - as I'm often accused of turning my back on them - my people are American. I've got an American flag hanging in my office, not the Mexican chicken-and-worm or whatever it is," Vasquez said in a swipe at the eagle-and-snake emblem on the Mexican flag.
The 55-year-old Republican is one of the best-known candidates in the 2006 race for the House seat being vacated by GOP Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who is expected to run for governor.
Vasquez has said he has gotten little financial support from the local Republican Party establishment. And little wonder: He has accused Idaho's congressional delegation - all Republicans, including conservative Sen. Larry Craig - of "collaborating with the unarmed enemy invading America."
Hispanics are Idaho's fastest growing population, according to the Census Bureau. In Canyon County, a sugar beet-growing area just outside Boise, the Hispanic population has reached about 19 percent, with many Hispanics coming here to pick crops.
Vasquez was elected to the three-member board of commissioners of Idaho's fastest-growing county in 2002.
Since then he has billed the Mexican government $2 million for reimbursement of jail and medical treatment costs he claimed the county provided to Mexican citizens. That effort failed, as did Vasquez's attempt to get Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to declare the county a disaster area over an "imminent invasion" of illegal immigrants.
"We're being invaded by Mexicans - they are the enemy, as far as I'm concerned," Vasquez told The Associated Press.
Most recently, Vasquez successfully pushed to hire an attorney to consider the possibility of using a federal racketeering law that was designed to target mobsters to sue local businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
Vasquez's charged rhetoric and political tactics have galvanized opposition, including a political action committee organized by angry county residents.
"He's caused a lot of divisiveness in our community," said Corrine Tafoya-Fisher, an organizer of the committee. "We know that we have to work at making some solid decisions on how the immigration situation is going to be addressed but can't do it by targeting people of one color."
Experts say Vasquez is trying to tap a rich vein of anti-immigrant resentment rooted in the social costs of immigration and working-class fear of low-wage competition for jobs.
"The people enthusiastic about the Vasquez candidacy are working-class people concerned about their employment future who end up scapegoating Mexicans," said Richard Baker, a professor in Mexican-American Studies at Boise State University.
Vasquez said that in his bid to use the racketeering laws against businesses that employ illegal immigrants, he is simply trying to protect U.S. borders as well as illegal immigrants. Unscrupulous employers know they can keep such employees in line and even withhold their pay - by threatening to call immigration authorities.
Vasquez said he is not betraying his heritage. Yes, he said, his grandfather came to this country from Mexico. But "it was legal immigration, and it was years ago when there was actually some control over the borders," he said, "not an invasion of hundreds of thousands of aliens every year that demand a separate culture and language just for themselves."