Latinos want hopefuls to address core issues

Reforming the nation's health care system will be the topic of a town-hall meeting Sunday afternoon, with representatives from the McCain and Obama campaigns participating.

“There is something very wrong out there in the system when you have Latinos not only working one job, but two jobs, and still not being able to get access to health insurance,” NCLR President Janet Murguía said.

The candidates' advisers are expected to detail how the rivals intend to tackle the health insurance crisis, Murguía said. But the most anticipated details, she said, entail what the candidates intend to do about revamping the immigration system. Obama will be speaking at the convention Sunday, and McCain on Monday.

McCain, who once championed legislation calling for a temporary-worker program and a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, altered that position and spoke of focusing on border enforcement as he pursued the Republican nomination.

However, during this week's national convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, D.C., he told audience members that he would pursue wide-ranging changes in immigration law “practically and humanely.”

McCain's positions on immigration have cost him support from conservatives – local anti-illegal immigration activists plan to protest Monday when he speaks – and Latinos have not flocked to his camp this summer. A Gallup poll released this week showed 62 percent of Latino voters supporting Obama.

Latinos are an important political demographic. For example, nearly a third of Californians are Latino, and the population continues to grow here and in many other states.

During the convention, the pressure will be on both candidates to build on what they've stated to other Latino organizations recently, Murguía said.

“Everybody is seeking more clarity and specifics from both candidates,” she said. “The time for rhetorical flourishes is over. We want to hear specifics.”

Jorge Mariscal, director of the Chicano Studies program at the University of California San Diego, said he would like to see the candidates, as well as NCLR, take a stand on some issues affecting the Latino community that are not widely addressed, including the Iraq war and intensive military recruitment within minority communities.

“They should be talking about all other sorts of options, like access to higher education, which they don't do enough,” said Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran who will be participating in the convention as part of Project YANO, a local group that stresses non-military options for youth.

NCLR, along with other national Latino organizations, supported the DREAM Act, proposed legislation that would have given conditional legal status to undocumented youth if they attended two years of college or served two years in the military.

Murguía and Mariscal said they would like to see the candidates address issues such as the recent immigration-enforcement sweeps that have led to record deportations, often dividing families.