Huffington Post
October 2, 2012
The New America Alliance (NAA), with many other Latino public interest groups, convened a historic conference, assembling experts and leaders, to discuss the issues affecting Latinos in America and how the Latino community can contribute to moving America forward to achieve its full potential.
With the presidential election campaign for 2012 well underway, there is understandably much discussion about whether America is on the right path and how the country will face and resolve the serious economic and security challenges in the 21st century. The American Latino community will play a major role in America’s future success – a group that accounts for almost 17% of the population and, according to the Census Bureau, will grow to be approximately 19% of the population by 2020 and over 120 million by 2050. In this century, for America to succeed, Latinos in America must succeed.
One of the greatest challenges facing Latinos and preventing America from achieving its economic potential is the broken immigration system. Sadly, achieving sensible immigration reform has become almost impossible because of overheated rhetoric and a refusal to engage in crafting a solution by conservative political leaders. The debate over immigration reform has reached such negative levels that all Latinos in America, citizens included, have been victims of misinformation and anti-immigrant stereotypes.
