Softening Immigration Tone In Texas

By Duke Machado, Voxxi

Shortly before midnight, a person went to a microphone in the Fort Worth auditorium and made a motion to end a bitter debate over immigration. And just like that, the Texas Republican Party made history by adopting new, more moderate immigration language in its party platform – and signaled its desire to bring more Hispanics into the party fold.

The moment made national headlines recently, when such entrenched anti-immigrant groups such as The Minutemen – an armed group of civilians who patrol our borders — joined a disparate statewide coalition to forge what is called the “Texas Solution,” which acknowledges that mass deportations of illegal immigrants are unpractical and even calls for a temporary guest worker program.

Before, the party’s platform contained such strident language such as:

“Anyone who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t American at all. We have room but for one flag, the American Flag. We have room for but one language here and that is the English language.”

Now, the language read more like:

“Mass deportation of these individuals would neither be equitable nor practical…We seek common ground to develop and advance a conservative, market- and law-based approach to our nation’s immigration issues…”

To fully appreciate what took place at last week’s convention, one must understand all that led up to that moment.

A flawed plank

In 2010, I attended my first Republican state convention.  I was green, lost, and uncertain of the process.  Despite this, I was taking part in our political process.

Before that year, I was on the outside. All my time went to work and family.  Then Barack Obama was elected president.

As the 2010 convention came to an end, we Republicans gathered in a general session to vote on the party platform, a nonbinding document that acts as a blueprint for the party’s ideology.

The debate that year was spirited.  But one issue that did not attract much debate was immigration. Apparently, the committee responsible for crafting the language on immigration felt it was appropriate to include a strong “tone.”

It was a  tone that not only offended many Hispanics, it positioned our party on the wrong side of the immigration battle, as far as many Hispanics were concerned.

The Republican party had approved a platform that contained what I thought was a flawed immigration plank.

As I became more engaged with the party and began helping with Hispanic voter outreach, we kept running into the same obstacle: our immigration platform.

I’d visit a group of Hispanics who seemed eager to make a difference.  Then, I found in a follow-up meeting that only half of them would be there.

“Where is everyone?” I’d ask.

“They’re not coming.  They talked to their cousin and he told them that Republicans hate Hispanics and showed them our platform on immigration,” another responded.

Over and over again, I kept hearing the same thing.

Not loving our country

I, like others, knew the platform needed to be changed, and we knew that would trigger a major battle.

So we began drafting versions of a new immigration platform, passing them out at meetings, talking about our 2010 version and how it was keeping us from connecting with Hispanics.

People accused us of not loving our country.  Others accused us of wanting amnesty.  Others simply shook their heads as if we didn’t understand the dangers of our position.

At this time, word of the Hispanic population surge was becoming a dominant theme in political circles and everywhere we went, we reminded Republicans, “If we don’t do something to create the right environment for conservative Hispanics to feel welcome in our party, then we’ll lose the Hispanic community for good.”

This all set the stage for last week’s convention.

Beyond the receptions and camaraderie of a state convention, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes, involving hundreds of people broken up into committees. One of the key committees is the Rules and Platform Committee, which formulates the platform to be voted on by delegates.

This year, there were so many resolutions presented on immigration, the committee decided to create a sub-committee, which worked late each night forging language that was tough and pragmatic.

That led to a hearing in which Republicans could testify on any platform issue. It was the first hint of the type of opposition we were to encounter.

Critics of the new platform language said it would destroy this county and open the flood gates for illegal immigration.  They said we didn’t understand the consequences. Deportations and strict enforcement of the laws were the only solutions, they argued, ignoring the central question of how does a country rids itself of 11 million people who didn’t want to be found?

People expressed a visceral reaction to “illegals” (a term used in the language of the platform we were trying to change). And many refused to listen to what we thought was simple logic: the party platform was being used against Republicans by Hispanic Democrats.

Only 30 minutes was allowed for debate. We walked away frustrated that there wasn’t more time. But we were proud when we realized Hispanics were participating — and it was obvious.

Each word cut deeper

Friday was the day when all the delegates would vote on the platform. A battle strategy was set. It involved everything from preparing key talking points to getting in line early to speak.

We could see the challenge ahead of us when Gov. Rick Perry was booed during a speech for endorsing a U.S. Senate candidate viewed as too moderate. This crowd didn’t seem like they were in the mood for moderation of any sort; even moderation in the tone of the party platform.

Almost immediately after the debate began, a delegate moved to remove the new language on immigration and replace it with the language from 2010.

The chairman of the party asked that the 2010 language be read aloud for those who did not have that language in front of them.

As the delegate read the platform, each word cut deeper into my psyche; the symbolism and the spite that had been in the 2010 platform was evident. But it also provoked cheers.

“I hope there are more of us then there are of them,” I thought to myself.

After several volleys, a delegate called the question, or asked that a vote be held on whether to kill the more moderate language and substitute it with the harsher tone from 2010.

After several confusing votes and daunting moments, it became clear that the motion had been defeated; the new language would stay. We had won our first challenge.

But our opposition wasn’t done.  They coordinated their speakers as we had coordinated ours. They threw out terms like “chain amnesty” and “open borders.” They warned that moderating the tone of the immigration plank would ultimately lead to the demise of our great party.

The debate went on for nearly three hours.

Then, at approximately 11:30 p.m., a delegate approached a microphone and called the question to adopt the 2012 Republican Party of Texas Platform as written. Our moment of truth had arrived.

It was a moment in which a political party that I now believed in would reveal whether it believed in me. For two long years, Republican Hispanics in Texas had been arguing that the language of the party was too harsh. To soften the tone did not mean the party had to soften its resolve.

Then, in a surreal moment, a voice vote was quickly taken and the platform was adopted. We had won.

What does this mean for the party?  It means we can claim we are the Party of Solutions.  It means our candidates and elected officials must abide by the platform and must speak on its behalf – including the issue of immigration.

It means we are no longer hostage to the vitriol of this debate; instead, we can argue that Hispanics are welcome by Republicans.

Hispanic Republicans knew something else that night: if the tone can be softened in Texas, it can be softened anywhere.

It’s a good sign for Texas, and proof that our party embraces the Hispanic community.

This article first appeared in Voxxi.

Duke Machado is director of GOPisforme, which performs Hispanic outreach for the Republicans in Texas.