Latino Tea Party Leader Rips Conyers For Racial Politics

At a House hearing on immigration on Tuesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the debate about the estimated 14 million illegal aliens in the United States is dividing the black and Latino communities. But one witness at the hearing said Mexican-Americans have nothing in common with people who have broken the law by being in the country illegally.

George Rodriguez, president of the San Antonio, Texas, Tea Party who formerly worked in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, objected to Conyers’ implication that Mexican-Americans have tensions with the black community over immigration issues.

“Mr. Conyers, with all due respect, one thing you said a few moments ago as far as abhorrence and the competition between people -- let me tell you what is really abhorrent -- that Hispanic Americans are classified in the same breath with illegal aliens,” Rodriguez said. “We are American citizens."

“We are born in this country and we honor this country,” said Rodriguez. Not distinguishing Mexican-Americans from illegal aliens is “unfair and discriminatory,” he added.

Rodriguez said in his opening statement that he was a third generation American whose father struggled to support the family by running a printing business. He said one of the greatest challenges faced by Mexican-Americans who lived in Texas towns along the Mexican border was the illegal aliens who came across the border to work for low wages.

“My father’s story is not unique, but rather typical of the experience most Mexican Americans have had in border towns,” Rodriguez said. “Even today, Mexican American, not just in border communities, but everywhere, will tell you that they do not want illegal aliens competing for their jobs in any form or fashion."

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was not present for all of the two-hour hearing, but her opening statement mirrored Conyers’ and blamed Republicans for blocking “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Waters concluded her remarks by rebuffing the witnesses.

“I wish I could stay to hear further from these witnesses but I really don’t think it’s worth it,” Waters said before leaving the room.

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