Several conservative groups have joined together in Nevada to promote a get-out-the-vote campaign that on Wednesday labeled President Barack Obama the “most anti-immigrant president” in U.S. history.
Dubbed Nevada Hispanics, the campaign organization is promoting what it calls a “vote your values” approach to get the state’s Hispanic community energized, according to the
Las Vegas Sun.
But on Wednesday the campaign used an event sponsored by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to criticize the president’s policies on everything from immigration to birth control.
“It’s time to say, ‘Enough with the lies, you failed us on immigration reform, and you are the most anti-immigrant president in the history of the United States,’” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, one of the groups involved in the Nevada Hispanics campaign.
Speakers connected with the campaign also accused Obama of pursuing policies that have damaged the economy and embracing liberal positions, such as same-sex marriage, that conservative Latinos find too hard to accept.
But in his speech, Aguilar also criticized Republicans for ignoring Latino concerns on a number of issues.
“I think for far too long conservatives and Republicans have not paid enough attention to Latinos,” he said, noting that they could take a lesson from presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who made efforts to bridge gaps with the Hispanic community.
The Nevada Hispanics campaign is being sponsored by American Principles in Action, affiliated with the conservative American Principles Project. Aguilar’s group is also affiliated with the project.
According to the Sun, the campaign is also backed by Americans for Prosperity, the Librea Initiative, and the Congress of Racial Equality.
Niger Innis, national spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality, also spoke at the chamber event, but he accused both parties of using the nation’s minority communities as “pawns” in their efforts to maintain political power.
“It’s unfortunate, in the minority community, we are often used as pawns,” Innis told the chamber gathering. “Sometimes one political party writes us off: ‘We can’t get their vote.’
“The other political party either takes us for granted or believes that the way to get us out to vote is to terrorize us . . . That’s nonsense, and it promotes a victimology that is not part of our essence as a people and a country.”
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