If You Think No One's Listening, Think Again

Latino civil rights advocates in Texas say two unexpected victories earlier this month give them hope for the possibility of real immigration-policy reform in 2010. Both events were symbolic, rather than policy-based, but in these media-driven days, symbolism can galvanize masses.

The first was the well-publicized resignation of frequent immigration-rights critic Lou Dobbs from his news anchor post at CNN. The second, also job-related, involves the firing of a Texas elections official accused of making disparaging remarks about Spanish-speaking voters.

Two weeks ago at a seminar for political party bosses, Melinda Nickless, an assistant director in Texas's state elections division, advised election workers to talk to Spanish-speaking voters as if they are dumb, or perhaps hard-of-hearing.

"Say really slow and loud: 'Sit down, I will call someone to help you. Un momento por favor, me telefono somebody.'” Nickless is reported to have said. She then quipped about the day her mother's car was hit by a Spanish-speaking shopper outside of a Wal-Mart, who disappeared from the scene.

“Really mother, duh,” Nickless said to chuckles from her audience.

But Democratic Party activist Rosalie Weisfeld was so offended that she stood up to complain, and then took the matter to Nickless's boss -- who happens to be Texas’s first Latina secretary of state.

“I stood up to say that all citizens who enter a polling place to vote should be treated with dignity and respect, no matter what language they speak," she told the Rio Grande Guardian. "I stood up to speak for all voters after a high level member of the Secretary of State's office told a demeaning story and gave offensive instructions about assisting Spanish speaking voters to more than 400 Democratic and Republican chairs, election administrators and other election staff charged with ensuring the sanctity of the vote.”

Martha Sanchez, community activist for La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), said both incidents show that "Latinos cannot be denigrated anymore." She characterized the Dobbs resignation and Nickless' firing as "two small victories on the way to the big one: comprehensive immigration reform.”