Three Hispanic Cabinet Members Hammered by Congress and the Press in April

April was not a good month for Hispanic cabinet members and major agency Secretaries appointed by President Biden. Almost all were hammered in Congress and the press. Xavier Becerra, Health and Human Services Secretary, was criticized for controversial mask and vaccine mandates for America’s youngest children as well as for the release into the country of hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, mostly older teenagers, who had entered illegally. Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education, has been under fire for months for supporting the rights of school administrators and unions to control the curriculum and behavior of students with no transparency or notification to parents. And Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, is being threatened with impeachment for his mismanagement of unprecedented surges of unvetted migrants over the southern border. Last week (April 25-30), the focus on Mayorkas  - a Cuban/Jewish heritage Hispanic prosecutor from Los Angeles and former DHLS Deputy Secretary under President Obama- went viral.

Chaos at the US southern border is the focal point. More than 2 million migrants have already crossed illegally into the US from Mexico since January 2020 – about a quarter were deported. Millions more are expected to come starting May 24. That’s when Biden had ended Article 42 – the pandemic order that blocked almost all legal crossings. Biden’s rescission has been blocked temporarily by two federal judges on the constitutional principle that the executive branch cannot make or amend laws. On April 26 and 28, Secretary Mayorkas was “grilled” by two Congressional Committees (the Congressional Committee on HLS, and the full House Judiciary Committee, respectively) on what Mayorkas intends to do about the coming surge. Democrats at both spent most of their question time blaming President Trump for Mayorkas’ “inherited” immigration problems, while almost all Republican Congressional representatives ended their accusations of DHLS mismanagement by threatening to impeach Mayorkas as soon as they won the majority in the House in the coming November midterm elections – something widely predicted will happen.

On top of all this, on Tuesday, April 26, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the constitutionality of the Biden Administration’s rescission of the “Remain in Mexico” program. Simply put, the law states that anyone who crosses into the US illegally cannot then apply for asylum and get to stay. The law is clear: anyone who crosses illegally must be returned. Universal asylum laws claim that anyone seeking temporary asylum from mortal danger can only apply in the first safe country they get to – of which Mexico is one. The Executive branch can decide how much to execute a law, but it can’t ignore the law altogether.

Ukrainian and Afghani refugees are different. Congress accepted them as legal immigrants as soon as they reached a US border patrol -- a legal situation similar to what Cubans enjoyed for decades, including Mayorkas’ parents.

In yet another move on the immigration front, on April 30, Democrat Leader Senator Richard Durbin (IIl) announced he would reconvene the 2013 bipartisan committee to try to put together a shorter version of their 1000 plus page comprehensive immigration bill. That one passed the Senate in June of 2013; but House Republican leaders said they would only consider piece-meal bills – such as the Republican “Kids Act” presented on July 23, 2013, that would have given legal status to all DACA program recipients. However, the Democrats refused it saying they wanted a comprehensive bill or nothing.

Reading and Math Books, Student Loans Become Significant Election Issues

April found that Education is evolving further into a major 2022 election issue. In elementary and secondary schools, the area of increasing conflict is parental rights to review and assess school curriculum, including learn-to-read books that focus on sexual gender education for pre-K-4th grade students (such as a colorful illustrated pre-k picture book called “the ABCs of LGBTQs”). In April, the monitoring of math books focused on those that emphasize SEL – Social Emotional Learning. SEL sections emphasize students’ feelings about learning math or having to do math, including fears of racial discrimination. Many math problems in SEL-favored books involve racial, gender and social sensitivity questions, such as figuring out percentages of teachers or students in a class by race. Some states are starting to ban SEL math books.

Over the past month, student loan forgiveness hit the national headlines as President Biden gave mixed messages about his support for total loan forgiveness, none at all, or some loan forgiveness. On April 30th, Biden declared that he was  “looking at forgiving some student loans, but not $50,000”.

Two Hispanic Democrats Causing Hottest 2022 Primary News

Hispanics are also the focus of the hottest 2022 Congressional run-off primary race to take place May 24 in Texas. It is between two Hispanic Democrats in the 28th Congressional District, which is a strong blue-collar, 76% Hispanic district close to the Mexican border. Despite being solidly blue, the population is socially conservative on many issues. The contest is between the 17-year incumbent, centrist Henry Cuellar  and newcomer liberal Jessica Cisneros. Cuellar is a moderate, blue-dog Democrat, a former chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a longtime member of the House Education Committee. He is pro-second amendment (owning guns), school choice and supports strong border security, including keeping Title 42 in place.  Cisneros, on the other hand, is thoroughly liberal, supports lifting all border controls and putting in place more sensitive identity-group education policies. She is supported by progressive Democrats like New York City’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, self-identified socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and democrats from Texas’ more liberal San Antonio region.

But the contest is not just about which of these two Democrats will be the nominee in the November election. A win by the more leftist Cisneros could mean an almost certain win by the Republican nominee in the November general election, causing the Democrats to lose a formerly strong blue seat in Texas.