It was as though nothing had happened. When the three protestors appeared, Mitt Romney was on the subject of freedom. “Ours is the land of opportunity,” he was saying. “You kill that, you kill America.” The protestors interrupted him with their chant, and he paused while police quelled the demonstration. Then he finished his thought.
Tuesday’s rally was Romney’s first public campaign event in Texas, coming a week after the state’s primary secured him the Republican nomination. Southwest Office Systems, a Fort Worth office supplies company, hosted the event in its warehouse. Hanging on a back wall, above a row of printers and copy machines, a banner read, “Putting jobs first.”
Romney spent most of his time arguing that entrepreneurialism, spurred by his vision of small government, will provide a solution to the country’s 8.1 percent unemployment rate, as well as Texas’ 6.9 percent. He told the audience about a woman he met who had started an upholstery company and hired her husband as her first employee; about a 7-foot-tall man from Oregon who employs 5,000 people in his senior care business; and about a Russian immigrant who developed a solution to back pain and now employs 1,300 people in his San Diego startup. “I have to tell you,” Romney said, “entrepreneurs are alive and well in America.”
Less than 10 minutes into his speech, two men and one woman took to the back of the room and produced a handmade sign that protested Romney’s opposition to the DREAM Act. The bill would grant resident status to illegal aliens who came into the country as minors and have graduated from American high schools. Romney has vowed to veto the act. “Education, not deportation,” the protestors chanted before police escorted them out of the property.
No arrests were made, and Officer Cliff Miller from the Fort Worth Police Department noted that the demonstrators were removed from the event because of their behavior, not their message. He also says the three protestors were not from Texas — two came from New York and one, from Arizona — and may have already left the state.
That Romney will carry Texas in November is more or less a foregone conclusion. The state has not voted for a Democratic president since Jimmy Carter, and John McCain won 55 percent of the popular vote in 2008. But Romney will have to fight for key swing states, and many — such as Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico — have large Hispanic minorities. A recent Pew poll suggests Romney commands only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Domingo Garcia, a Dallas lawyer and contestant in the Democratic runoff for Texas’ 33rd congressional district, hopes that demonstrations like Tuesday’s will draw attention to what he says is Romney’s “anti-immigrant” and “anti-Hispanic” stance. “Romney is on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of a big moral question facing America today,” he says. As part of his campaign, Garcia has pledged to co-sponsor a bill in support of the DREAM Act.
Romney did not address immigration reform at Tuesday’s event, but he spoke to Hispanic voters in economic terms. He blamed the Obama administration for the 11 percent unemployment rate among Hispanic Americans and said, “If I’m the next president of the United States, I’ll be the president for all Americans and will make sure that this economy is good for all Americans — Hispanic or otherwise.”
Vince Puente, a second-generation Mexican-American whose father founded Southwest Office Systems and who now serves as the company’s co-president, says Romney’s appearance in Texas shows the candidate cares about issues relevant to the state. In particular, Puente speaks of his belief in Romney’s small-government approach to the economy. Should Romney become president, Puente says, “the business community is going to feel that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Right now we can’t see that light.”
As for immigration reform, Puente believes the DREAM Act to be a well-intentioned but misguided piece of legislation. “Although we want to take care of the kids, it’s an encouragement to illegal activity,” he says. “They’re here by the grace of God, but they’re here illegally.” To him, reform efforts should prioritize border security and better avenues for legal immigration. “The DREAM Act is a secondary issue.”
A 2005 report from the Pew Hispanic Center places the number of undocumented residents in the United States at 10.3 million. The same report estimates that 1.4 million live in Texas.
Teo Soares is a D Magazine summer intern. He’ll graduate from Yale in 2013 with a BA and an MA in history.
