September2i.20H______________
Minority & Small Business Week________________Pa& 11
Family Matters for Gov. Martinez
Wrong-headed logic
would take away
her citizenship
by
L ee A. D aniels
N ew M e x ic o ’s new
R e p u b lic a n G o v e rn o r
S u sa n a M a rtin ez has
drawn significant national
attention not only because
she’s the first Latina to
hold that high office in the U.S., but also
because she’s pushed a hard-line against
undocum ented im m igrants— most of
whom, of course, are from Latin America.
She has opposed passage o f the
DREAM ACT, and has made repeal of
a New Mexico law allowing undocu
mented immigrants to get state drivers
licenses (the law also requires that they
register their cars and buy automobile
insurance) a centerpiece of her political
platform.
Now, Martinez has drawn even more
attention for another, family-related rea
son: In the 1920s her paternal grandfa
ther, and perhaps her paternal grand
mother as well, crossed the Mexican
border into the United States without the
proper papers. In other words, at least
one of them was an undocumented im
migrant.
The Governor tersely acknowl
edged her complicated family heri
tage last week after news reports of
the possibility had been swirling for
weeks, and local news organization’s
check of the 1930 census did not find
her grandfather’s name listed.
‘I know they arrived without docu
ments, especially my father’s father,”
the Governor said in an interview in
Spanish with the Albuquerque affiliate
ofUnivision.
She later issued a statement that her
paternal grandfather had abandoned her
family when his father was a year old,
and that she has never met him.
“Frankly, I am an American citizen,”
she later said to another television station ’ s
reporters. “I have been elected governor
and it is my job to do New Mexicans’ jobs
... to do what they’re asking me to do ...
I’m fighting to repeal a law that makes
people in our state unsafe ... that makes
our countiy unsafe.”
There is no question that Martinez,
who was bom in El Paso, Texas, has
lived her entire life in America; gradu
ated from the University of Texas and
the University of Oklahoma law school;
served three terms as a popular, elected
though bom in the U.S., are, in their
parlance, themselves “illegal” and not
eligible for any of the benefits of Ameri
can citizenship. Applying that wrong
headed logic to the case of Susana
Martinez would mean that she has never
been an American citizen.
But Susana Martinez has always been
I ’m fighting to repeal a law that
makes people in our state unsafe ...
that makes our country unsafe.
- New Mexico’s Governor Susana M artinez
I
prosecutor in her adopted state; won the an American citizen, and she has used
popular vote for the G overnor’s office; her matriculation at two of the finest
and has already been mentioned as a public universities in America to forge an
rising Republican star.
already estimable career in public service.
And yet, according to the stance of the Isn’t it fortunate, for her and the citizens of
conservative immigration hardliners who New Mexico, that in her case at least,
opposed the DREAM Act and who want some of the immigration policies she advo
to repeal the “birthright citizenship” pro cates are not the law of the land?
vision of the Fourteenth Amendment to
Lee A. Daniels is Director o f Com
the Constitution, the children (and grand munications fo r the NAACP Legal De
children) of undocumented immigrants, fense and Educational Fund.
Economy Takes Its Toll: America gets poorer
Poverty should be a
priority for
government
by
G reg M athis
We don’t need a study
or news report to tell us
the economy has taken
its toll on the average
American. Indeed, many people need
only to look at their dwindling bank ac
counts to know that the country isn’t any
better off financially than it was two
years ago.
News reports and studies do, how
ever, help paint a broader picture so that
we may all understand just how deep this
recession goes. The most recent report
on Americans and their income, released
by the Census Bureau, reveals that the
number of people in this country living in
poverty has reached its highest level in
51 years.
One in six Americans, over 14-per-
cent o f the population, are currently liv
ing below the federal poverty level. Ad
ditionally, over 20-percent of the nation’s
children live in poverty and, in what may
be a surprise to many, much of that is
being fueled by an increase in poverty
among white Americans.
These numbers tells us that pov
erty can no longer be dismissed as an
inner city or rural problem: it affects
Americans in cities and suburbs,
w hether they be black, white or
Latino. Those who were, before the
recession, struggling financially are
no better off than they were before,
and the middle class is sliding into
poverty with them.
The data stands in sharp contrast to
a report that revealed 25 of the nation’s
top com panies paid more to their chief
executives than they did in federal
taxes: Verizon paid its top dog Ivan
Seidenberg $18.1 m illion and received
a $705 m illion refund; eB ay’s CEO
John Donahoe earned $12.4 million
and the com pany banked a $131 m il
lion tax refund.
Multi-billion dollar corporations are
using federal loopholes to avoid paying
their fair share of taxes. To add insult to
injury, the refunds they receive are rein
vested back into their companies instead
of being used to create jobs and shore up
the economy.
This isn’t the first time corporations
have appeared to win out over average
A m ericans: the federal governm ent
Saving entire industries from financial
bailed out the banking and auto indus ruin was a necessary step. That point
tries, costing taxpayers several hundreds cannot be argued. But the federal gov
of billions of dollars.
ernment must also work to save families
With so much money spent, it is not from financial ruin.
unreasonable to expect these industries
Pulling families out of poverty must be
would have created more jobs or com a key priority of our government.
munity initiatives. Instead, taxpayers stand
Judge Mathis is a longtime advo
to lose over $14 billion of the money cate fo r equal justice. His life story' of
spent and, on a personal level, have very a street youth who rose from jail to
little to show for it.
judge has provided hope to millions.
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