Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, one of only three Puerto Rican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, was arrested on May 1 in Washington, D.C. while protesting Arizona’s new controversial illegal immigrant legislation bill, SB 1070. Representative Guiterrez, the first Latino elected to Congress from the Midwest, has a long-time commitment and passion for protecting and advocating for the nation’s immigrant community.
Outraged by a controversial Arizona immigration law signed on April 23, tens of thousands of protesters — including 50,000 alone in Los Angeles — rallied in cities across America demanding that President Barack Obama tackle national immigration reform immediately.
Congressman Gutiérrez was among 35 activists arrested and taken away in plastic handcuffs by U.S. Parks Police for failing to move from a sidewalk outside the White House.
Immigration reform is Rep. Gutiérrez’s greatest legislative passion. He has held public forums around the country to build a grass-roots movement in support of overhauling the existing immigration laws. His efforts led to President Obama expressing support in May 2009 for rewriting the immigration laws, however Gutiérrez is not satisfied with the lack national advancement on the issue.
In December 2009 Gutiérrez introduced his own immigration reform bill focusing on border security, detention, and enforcement. The proposed bill also includes employment verification and an earned legalization program for the country’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.
For more information on Congressman Gutiérrez please read the May political column at ElBoricua.com.
I’ve heard that there’s a Latino blogger, Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga, who owns the most-visited political blog in America. Except, he says he isn’t part of any ethnic minority. According to him, he isn’t “Latino” or “Hispanic” at all. I guess that just having a Latin last name and a mother from El Salvador doesn’t mean that a person is Latino in his heart. That sure is true in the case of Markos (“Kos”) Moulitsas Zúñiga.
I don’t get it. I am a Puerto Rican Latina concerned about political, social, ecoomic issues of Puerto Ricans. I don’t see other Latin country advocating for the Vieques clean up or any other agenda of concern to Puerto Ricans. We have a common language but different cultures and different nationalities. I have compassion for other Latin country agendas, but the focus of my concern right now are Puerto Rican issues and immigrations is NOT one of them. We, Puerto Ricans, have many pressing problems that we need to resolve. People in Puerto Rico are hurting bad. Let’s resolve our own problems first and help advance Puerto Ricans to a position of empowerment. We’re NOT there yet. Afterwards we can pick and choose where else we can do good. This is not to say that I don’t sympathize with other Latino countries, but we have serious, pressing work to do ourselves right now and Puerto Rico must be our focus NOW. I’d like to see Gutierrez working on domestic problems. Isn’t he the Puerto Rican Representative? Or, are things in Puerto Rico alot better than I think?
Thanks for the comment, Shirley. I apologize for my delayed response online. Thanks for our earlier email change. There is still much work to be done in Puerto Rico and Rep. Guiterrez has been vocal in the political status question. Hopefully he will get more involved in the financial situation there as well. Guiterrez represents a district in Chicago, which along with Puerto Ricans, is heavily populated by Mexicans. Rep. Guitierrez represents all Americans in Congress and feels passionate about immigration reform. I would suggest you contact the Congressman’s office directly for more information on what he is specifically doing to help Puerto Ricans in general. Thanks again for your comment and continued readership.