In the 1994 elections, the Democratic Party lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which it had held since 1954 and 1986, respectively. This change in U.S. politics is known as the “Republican Revolution.”

The repercussions that these changes have had for the country are well known. Currently, the two congressional houses are in the hands of the Republicans, and Republican is in the White House. This Republican advantage has led the country to one of the darkest eras it has ever seen, marked by economic crisis, the war in Iraq and the breakdown of civil rights.

Twelve years after the conservative revolution, Americans are facing the unknown: Will voters decide to continue supporting the Republicans in November or will things start to change?

For Latinos, the November elections are of vital importance. If the Republican Party is strengthened by the elections, the fate of immigrants will be held in the balance, especially for those who do not have legal residence and are hoping that Congress approves immigration reform to allow them to normalize their lives.

Months ago, millions of immigrants took to the streets of their cities across the country to defend the approval of just and humane immigration reform. From the power of these mobilizations a new movement was born under the slogan, “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.”

Today this movement, which has been growing across the country, is embarking on an ambitious campaign to register millions of Latinos to vote, and to help them vote in the Fall elections.

According to the national Census, there are more than five million immigrants who are U.S. citizens, but who are not yet registered to vote. Another eight million are legal residents who are eligible for citizenship.

Incredibly, the Sensenbrenner legislative project, which would make immigrants into criminals, has become the principal mobilizing factor for the national campaign to register Latino voters.

In the 2000 elections, the Republicans sold the image that they were compassionate and had the same family values as Latinos. Trusting this image, many Latinos helped President Bush take control of the White House.

Four years later, Latinos have lost faith in the Republican administration. They realize that the Republican Party is not interested in resolving the issues that concern our community, like immigration reform, universal medical insurance, low-cost housing, access to education for our youth and fair salaries for our workers.

The Republican Party is preparing for the battle in the November elections, and it is suspected that it will use its best weapons to maintain control of the country. In fact, there were already indicators of the party’s bad intentions when last month a reduced group of Southern legislators blocked the renewal of the Voting Rights Act that expires in 2007.

Thanks to this legislation, approved 41 years ago, thousands of Black voters were able to vote in the Southern states that favored the strengthening of the Democratic Party. In recent decades, the law protected the rights of immigrant minorities by offering them vital election information in their own languages.

For some analysts, the delay in the renewal of the Voting Rights Act is part of a plan to orchestrate electoral fraud in the 2008 elections. Among the voices of alarm that have started to be raised across the country is that of Greg Palast, a journalist who discovered and denounced the electoral fraud in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.

Latinos need to be prepared and participate in large numbers in the November elections. What is at stake in these elections will profoundly affect our lives. In November we should send Washington politicians a clear message: the United States has always been the land of opportunity for many generations of immigrants, and we are prepared to defend our right to be part of the American dream.