Hillary Clinton Cries Crocodile Tears for Latin American Immigrants

By Meleiza Figueroa, Truthdig
February 19, 2016

At first glance, Thursday seemed like a banner day for Hillary Clinton’s “minority firewall.” Several respected leaders of Latinx organizations offered their enthusiastic support for the Democratic presidential candidate, while at the same time—Beyoncé-style—her campaign dropped a new, emotionally charged ad into the Nevada market two days before the state’s crucial caucus event. In the ad, a 10-year-old Latina girl expresses fear for her parents, who have just received a letter of deportation. Clinton urges her to be “brave” and let Clinton do “all the worrying”; the candidate chokes up as she tells the child, “I’m going to do everything I can so you won’t be scared.”

Though the ad was obviously meant to be warm and inspiring, it chilled me to the bone. I grew up in Los Angeles—the great Latinx-majority metropolis I once heard described as “the northernmost city in Latin America”—as the child of immigrants, and I have been a witness to the great transformations wrought by the dynamics of immigration over the last few decades. And I cannot reconcile Clinton’s newfound role as “worrier-in-chief” for immigrants in the U.S. with what I know about the policies she has supported for that vast region south of our border where many immigrants to the United States (especially those lacking legal permission) come from.[...]

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillary_clinton_cries_crocodile_tears_for_latin_american_immigrants_2016021