Latino Voter Outreach in Iowa

Nation’s Oldest & Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization to Discuss Successful Voter Outreach Campaign; 70% of Adult Latinos Are Now Registered to Vote in the Hawkeye State


Des Moines, Iowa - Today, January 30th, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) announced the results of the organization’s successful Latino voter outreach efforts in Iowa. During a press conference at the Iowa State Capitol, LULAC National President, Domingo García, was joined by LULAC Iowa leaders and newly registered first-time Latino voters to discuss the importance of the powerful Latino electorate in Iowa and the implications for the 2020 Caucuses.


According to the State of Iowa, the Latino population in Iowa increased by 135.8% from 2000-2018. LULAC has a long record of defending voting rights for Latinos in Iowa. In 2016, LULAC initiated a successful voter registration campaign during the presidential election. The impressive ground operation executed by LULAC Iowa’s eighteen councils-- which included the LULAC Vote Van that traveled over 5,000 miles across the state-- ensured that Latinos represented one out of eight Iowa caucus-goers in 2016.


LULAC continued its voter outreach following the 2016 election and this cycle, 70% of adult Latinos are currently registered to vote in Iowa, meaning Latinos will represent one out of every four Caucus goers in 2020. In a state with a smaller population, LULAC’s grassroots work means that Iowa’s Latinos will finally have a big seat at the caucus table.


LULAC has been at the forefront of protecting voter rights in the Hawkeye State. In October 2019, LULAC celebrated a victory when District Court Judge Scott D. Rosenberg ruled in favor of the organization in a lawsuit that challenged Iowa’s voter ID law. The ruling resulted in the court rejecting a controversial rule that would have allowed state voter records to be compared to the federal immigration database known as SAVE. As a result of the unlawful rule, certain voters would have been identified as ineligible to vote and removed from Iowa’s voter lists. The ruling held that Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz acted outside his authority in creating the rule.


“Underestimating the Latino vote in Iowa could cost the Democratic primary candidates the Iowa Caucus this year,” said Domingo García, LULAC National President. “We know this because our local LULAC councils spent years throughout the state doing outreach, talking to our neighbors, hitting the phones, holding community meetings, and getting Latinos registered to vote. One of every four voters that will participate in the Iowa Caucus on Monday will be Latino. If that doesn’t encourage candidates to care about what matters to our community, it’s unclear what will.”


“The Latino community has become the largest minority voting block as we head into the 2020 elections. Every 30 seconds, a Latino turns 18 in this country,” said LULAC CEO Sindy Benavides. “These statistics matter even more in states with smaller populations like Iowa, which sets the tone for the rest of the Democratic presidential primary. LULAC’s eighteen Iowa councils organized on the ground, resulting in more than 50,000 registered Latino voters because of their tremendous efforts.”

Pottsville, Iowa Raids

POSTVILLE, IOWA - 18JULY08 - Maria Rosala Mejia Marroquin and Anacleta Tajtaj, Guatemalan immigrants, were arrested in an immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville on May 12. The raid was the largest workplace raid in a single worksite in recent history. Both were released to care for their children, but now have to wear ankle bracelets to monitor their movements. They and 46 other women cannot work or travel, and have been waiting for weeks for a hearing which would result in her deportation. Most have husbands or brothers now in Federal prison, forced to plead guilty to misusing a Social Security number, as a result of the raid. Luz Maria Hernandez works in St. Bridget's Catholic Church, trying to help the families of those arrested. The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant sits on the outskirts of Postville, a tiny town of 2000 inhabitants. New Latino businesses have taken over storefronts in Postville, but as a result of the raid, most stores and restaurants are empty now.
David Bacon
For more articles and images on immigration, see http://dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgrants.htm

Coming in September, 2008, from Beacon Press:
Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002

See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US
Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575

See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html

Obama Wins in Iowa

This from our ally Hunter Gray.

Just a few thoughts on Iowa -- and Beyond:

When I sacked in last night, I felt considerably better about the national -- and even global -- future than I have for a hell of a long time.

It wasn't too long ago, historically speaking, that people like many of us had to fight to survive at a Woolworth lunch counter.

We see the tremendous influx of young people into the Obama -- and, to a substantial extent, into the Edwards bailiwick as well -- as a damn realistic harbinger of a better future and an ultimate promise of an even better one.

In the late 1950s, many veteran left radicals were discouraged. Those of us, vastly younger and just "taking the trail," were far more hopeful and actively zealous. Even in Arizona, we were engaged in the more socially conscious dimensions of Labor, we organized a highly successful campus-wide food strike and dorm betterment campaign at Arizona State, and were moving to challenge compulsory ROTC. And we pushed in our far corner for human rights.

And comparable things were certainly going on in lots of other local places.

Nationally, the Civil Rights Movement was, with deliberate speed, picking up momentum -- just as there has been, in this difficult epoch, much anti-war movement.

JFK's election was never seen by many of us as any great millenium. But, fueled by many younger people and others of similar inclination, it reflected the profound discontent and frustration that had festered in the "dismal '50s." The election of '60 ushered in a rapidly growing atmosphere of Realistic Hope.

Movement picked up -- and up -- and People Wanted More -- and More. They pushed and More came.

It's always been my experience that, when folks start winning on good and tangible fronts, they shoot higher -- and higher. The Kennedys et al.[and the System in general] were pressured from the grassroots For More -- and More. And a fair amount of More did indeed come.

There is always a place for Us Radicals -- especially if we try to avoid the intricate theology of ideological nit-picking and its consequent schisms and falling-away and, even more fundamentally, alienation from the grassroots.

Whether times are lean or times are flush, it's up to Us to keep the Vision high. Whatever happens in 2008 and beyond, we all have our jobs to do -- as we, via our hearts and minds, see fit:

Organize -- That remains Genesis. Always and Forever.

Just a few thoughts on a rather cold and windy Idaho mountain morn -- where the arising and inevitable Sun shines just under the eastern horizon.

Yours, Hunter [Hunter Bear]

See also the video at http://www.sacramentopa.blogspot.com