This is exactly the kind of scene that Republicans are afraid of.
A young girl at a town hall meeting asks Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) what he will do about her undocumented father, who could be deported.
DesJarlais — a Tea Party backbencher who has only really gotten attention because the anti-choicer reportedly asked his mistress(es) to choose abortion(s) — was tactful and kind as he spoke these words: “Thank you for being here and thank you for coming forward and speaking. This is a big intimidating crowd and I appreciate you coming forward, but the answer still kind of remains the same, that we have laws and we need to follow those laws and that’s where we’re at.”
He was telling her that her father would have to be deported because we have laws. That’s the standard anti-reform answer.
But what happened next is why this video is going viral.
The crowd cheered.
The crowd cheered the separation of a child from her father.
But the internet isn’t the only reason why this video should terrify Republicans.
The Latino media in this country are following the immigration reform debate closely. And the Latino media no longer can be considered a small niche.
“Univision’s average of 1.81 million viewers aged 18-to-49 so far in July tops Fox, NBC and CBS, who are all clustered just under 1.5 million, the Nielsen Company said on Tuesday. ABC has 1.15 million,” the AP’s David Bauder reported last month.
And their influence is only growing.
This fall Fusion, an English-language network targeting Latinos, will launch.
“We’re going to come out on Oct. 28th, and if the House doesn’t approve immigration reform by then, then there’s going to be a new, very loud voice in Fusion, talking about immigration every single night until immigration reform passes,” Fusion’s Jorge Ramos told The Huffington Post last week.
Ramos, the nation’s top-rated Spanish-language news personality, took President Obama to task for not pushing immigration reform. Now that reform backed by the president has passed the Senate, the anchor has his gaze fixed on Republicans.
“It is very clear that it is in Boehner’s hands and in the Republicans’ hands,” Ramos said. “The House is going to decide if we legalize 11 million undocumented immigrants or we don’t.”
Republicans are aware that the perception of the debate is hurting them with the nation’s fastest-growing group of voters. That’s why Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus finally rebuked Mitt Romney’s self-deportation strategy — a year and half too late.
Jorge Ramos can only make his case so loudly. A video like this speaks for him. And it’s exactly the kind of thing you can expect to see on Fusion.
