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The Real OC: GOP Candidate Tells Latinos They’ll go to Jail if They Vote

By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, October 24th, 2006, 3:48 am
Filed under: Human Rights, Society/Culture: Racism, Society/Culture, US Politics

14,000 registered Latino voters in Orange County, California received letters telling them that immigrants who voted would be imprisoned. The letter, sent out from the office of Republican candidate Tan Nguyen said, “You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or if you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time.” This of course, is false information because immigrants which have become US citizens have the same right to vote as native-born citizens. The letter also falsely states that certain government computer systems, along with anti-immigration groups, have access to the names of all immigrants. The mailer specifically targeted voters (legal immigrants and naturalized citizens) with Latino surnames.

This level of xenophobia is nothing new to the Republican Party, which has a rich history of using fear to encourage citizens to vote for them instead of their opposition. Tan Nguyen is himself an immigrant whose family fled to America, escaping the communist takeover of Vietnam. Just another case of that good ol’ fashioned GOP hypocrisy. However, Republicans are trying to distance themselves from racially-targeted fear mongering like Nguyen’s since black voter intimidation during the 2000 presidential elections is still fresh in the minds of many Americans.

Republican leaders like Governor Schwarzenegger are now throwing Nguyen into the fire, by calling for him to quit the race, in hopes of saving their own image. Loretta Sanchez, the Democratic incumbent who was born in California to Mexican immigrants, called Mr. Nguyen’s letter “disgusting”, given that Nguyen himself is an immigrant. She further stated that the campaign was so tragic because, “these communities have spent years trying to get naturalized immigrants to vote.” We can only hope that Mr. Nguyen is less successful at keeping certain ethnic groups from voting than Bush is.

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4 Responses to “The Real OC: GOP Candidate Tells Latinos They’ll go to Jail if They Vote”

  1. Hey Whoa… sensationalism has so room in blogging! You totally forgot to include that he fired the chief of staff that was responisble for the letter and then he rehired him on account that it was as simple as a mistranslated word. La migra obviously has multiple meanings.

    SirJouge
    10/24/06 at 1:26 pm

  2. Sensationalism is how I earn my living sir. Actually, that would be true if I werent broke.

    In response to your comment, the only person who is saying the letter was mistranslated is Nguyen. Spanish-language experts disagree with him, stating that the wordage implies all immigrants, not just illegal ones. Plus, it should be taken into account that the letter was sent specifically to Latino voters and not immigrants from other racial groups. Ironically, around two thirds of CA Asian voters are immigrants (like Nguyen), while only one third of CA Latino voters are immigrants. Why focus specifically on Latinos if not to discourage their predominantly Democratic vote?

    Nguyen has come out in defense of the letter, stating it was a mistranslation, while simultaneously denying the letter, saying someone in his staff sent it out without his knowledge. If the letter was sent out by a staffer, then why defend it as if it were something you had a hand in? Things simply don’t add up.

    Anyway, here is a pdf of the actual letter:
    http://www.theliberaloc.com/pdf/theletter.pdf

    Administrator
    10/24/06 at 3:24 pm

  3. To anyone trying to post a reply, the site is sucking hard right now. If you want to post a reply, use Internet Explorer. Firefox currently won’t allow you to reply (for unknown reasons), but we’re working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

    Administrator
    10/24/06 at 4:06 pm

  4. However the mistake was made, it was simply a mistake. You anti-Republicans blow every small incident up to try to discourage those who would vote Republican.

    Of course the letter was sent to specifically latino voters. Duh, who are we having major illegal immigration problems with? It doesn’t matter who the illegal latinos would be voting for. They have no right to vote in U.S. elections!!

    Also, the Asian voters immigrated the legal way; there’s no comparing the two groups.

    Bob
    10/24/06 at 8:35 pm

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