Anchor with attitude: Jorge Ramos fights for immigration reform

*This article has been getting a lot of attention lately, but possibly for the wrong reason. Aside from highlighting Jorge Ramos’ now famous confrontation with John Boehner (which I think has been made to sound more confrontational than it actually was), the piece inflates Ramos’ influence on Capitol Hill. Ramos’ 2.1 million viewers are important, but the majority of them don’t vote because they’re not citizens. Most of the country’s 53 million Latinos don’t watch Ramos. Yet, he’s described as “the conduit between Washington politics and Hispanic America.” This doesn’t diminish Ramos’ influence, it’s typically misread. Ramos is important because he speaks for the voiceless, the 2.1 million viewers, mostly immigrant or undocumented, who can’t make their concerns known with a vote. This makes Ramos’ confrontation with Boehner more poignant and more important. VL

By Dylan Byers, Politico

Jorge Ramos, the most popular Hispanic news anchor in America, arrived in Washington recently on an unusual journalistic mission: He wanted to challenge Speaker John Boehner about why he’s “blocking” immigration reform.

“Republicans don’t get it. They’re going to lose the 2016 election if they don’t move on immigration reform, and they’re going to lose again in 2020,” Ramos said in an interview. “They have a very short memory. They forgot in 2012. They’ll remember after 2016.”

Ramos is startlingly blunt for a news anchor, but he makes no apologies for his outspoken stance on immigration reform – or his plans to push his views throughout this midterm election year and into the next presidential cycle. He’s a declared political independent who doesn’t hesitate to confront both Republicans and Democrats when he believes they are standing in the way of overhauling the nation’s immigration policy.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo courtesy JorgeRamos.com]