The three Republican Hispanic members of Congress from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart received the worst grades on immigration legislation from the organization Americans for Better Immigration (ABI).
These legislators, all of Cuban ancestry, were each "awarded" an F by the nonprofit organization, which lobbies to restrict immigration numbers, in their evaluation of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate with regard to their work on "illegal" immigration.
The ABI, which is associated with the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA, has been giving poor grades to the legislators, including Republicans, who favor changing immigration laws and legalizing those who lack a legal immigration status in the country.
Even though there is a general perception that the Republican leadership is either against or indifferent to immigrants, not all of the party's leaders have shared the political vision on immigration held by former Congressman Tom Tancredo from Colorado.
Five years ago, the White House, then occupied by former President George W. Bush, felt that it could count on the support of 23 Republican Senators for the proposed immigration reform bill. And on June 28, 2007, 12 Republicans voted in favor of continuing the debate and keeping the bill alive in the Senate.
In 1986, it was Ronald Reagan, the Republican hero of the second half of the twentieth century, who signed the immigration reform bill that legalized close to three million individuals who, in turn, gave a notable push to the economy at the time.
Given these previous acts, it is difficult to understand why the current crop of Republican politicians are avoiding their civic responsibility to support the initiatives aimed at resolving the immigration problem in a comprehensive manner.
Days before the demonstration this past April 21 in Washington, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on the ABC television program "This Week," sent President Obama the message that it is "time to lead," and for his administration to present Congress a proposal for immigration reform.
Nevertheless, when President Obama recently asked the Republican Senate for help in resolving the problem of immigration, the response was "no" from Graham and his fellow party members.
Neither is it possible to understand how it is that the new vision of the Republican leadership, reflected in their legislative proposals, is nothing more than to secure the country's borders and establish restrictive measures aimed against immigrants, when they used to say, like Senator John McCain (R-AZ) did, that resolving the status of undocumented immigrants was fundamental to the country's security.
At the end of the 1990s, I was present at the largest demonstration held in Miami in favor of the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Colombian immigrants, a demonstration which was led by the Republican Juan Carlos Zapata.
In spite of the bloodbath and the insecurity caused by the Colombian internal conflict, the TPS was not granted; but the evidence of Zapata's efforts remained; today he is a member of the Florida House of Representatives.
Abraham Lincoln, the first president elected by the Grand Old Party, risked everything to defend rights and principles that, although just, were not entirely popular.
His sensible fellow party members ought to remember him and do as he did. With the SB1070 [the Arizona law that mandates local police carry out immigration checks] as the torch carried by the country's nativists, these too are times for the courageous.
