NCLR President Janet Murguía:  “Republicans Have Allowed Extreme Voices To Become The Mainstream”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org

During the keynote address at the 2015 NCLR (National Council of La Raza) Capital Awards gala, NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía warned the Republican Party about the political consequences of their rhetoric and policies that are adversely affecting not only the Latino community, but the entire nation’s best interests. Below are excerpts from her speech, which you can read in full here:

“To Speaker Boehner I have this to say: You avoided catastrophe today, but we’ve been at this for over a decade. You keep saying ‘no.’ Any attempt to resolve our broken immigration system is always ‘dead on arrival.’ No matter how much the American public supports a solution, the answer is always ‘no.’ Even when the votes in Congress are there for passage, you block it. Where is your solution? Where is your bill?”
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“There is a malignancy in the Republican Party, and it is growing. There was a time when the extreme views surrounding the immigration debate came only from the party’s extremists. Today, the extreme has become the Republican Party mainstream, and their rhetoric falls too readily from the lips of candidates at the national, state and local levels.”
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“The Republican Party’s blockade of any type of progress on immigration—whether in a bipartisan bill or the president’s executive order—sends a brutal message to our community. Make no mistake. Our complaint is not partisan. It’s personal. The Republican blockade against reform is having a searing impact on our community.”
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“We have already demonstrated that we can shake up the road to the White House. Next year we will also be looking at how our vote can impact Senate races in states such as Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Missouri. Candidates in those states and across the country have a choice. They can continue to follow the strategy that Pete Wilson used in California to marginalize our community—with predictable results—or they can step up to help us change the course of history.”

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