DLOV: Republicans “obsessed with intimidating and demonizing decent and hard-working people”

I wrote an extensive article on this last night, quoting Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) that the Virginia Republicans’ anti-immigrant piling-on is “a ridiculous blame game and just plain wrong.” Now, here’s DLOV adding its thoughts.  I couldn’t agree more; this demonization of Latinos by Republicans is utterly disgusting.

Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia Statement on Republican Immigration Subcommittee Hearing

The Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia (DLOV) released the following statement following Friday’s meeting of a special subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee organized to hear a slate of immigration legislation proposed by Republican legislators:

“To say that this committee was ‘stacked’ to push through as much anti-immigrant legislation as possible is a serious understatement,” said DLOV President Andrew Rivera. “The Republicans who comprise this panel are the ones who most often go out of their way to score points on the backs of hard-working immigrants in their own districts. This hearing was nothing more than a staged opportunity for Republicans like Dave Albo, Todd Gilbert and Jackson Miller to prove that no one is more obsessed with intimidating and demonizing decent and hard-working people than they are.”

“While it’s disappointing that these elected officials would use the power we gave them to put an agenda aimed at scaring people out of Virginia ahead of  job creation, education or any other issue that matters to people’s lives, I can’t say it’s surprising coming from these particular individuals.”

Delegate Patrick Hope, one of two Democratic members of the subcommittee said, “We just voted out a series of bills that will further cast into the shadows individuals who want to contribute to our society and be a positive influence on our economy. This is nothing more than an attempt to score political points and cast blame for everything under the sun, including the Commonwealth’s budget problems, high unemployment, taxes, and overcrowding of our schools.”

There were many Virginians at the hearing who spoke against the various GOP-sponsored bills. The diverse coalition of speakers included:

*Latino students from the University of Virginia

*DREAMERS from Harrisonburg

*Members of the business community including representatives of the retail industry, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the travel Industry

*Faith and community groups such as the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations and Virginia New Majority