Latino Leaders to Dems: Pick Brooklyn for ’16 Convention Because NYC ‘Tip of Arrow’ on Pro-Amnesty Agenda

DNC NYC 2016 AP

Latino leaders in New York want Democrats to pick Brooklyn for their 2016 convention because New York would symbolize the party’s liberal pro-amnesty policies.

According to Capital New York, 21 Latino leaders from New York sent a letter to Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz this week and touted the city’s new IDNYC program, which “provides residents with a free, government-issue photo ID to allow them access to city services regardless of their immigration status” and is the “most ambitious municipal identification card program in the United States.” The Latino advocates believe highlighting the city’s pro-amnesty agenda will allow Democrats to turn out the Hispanic vote in 2016.

“Perhaps no issue is more important to the Latino community – nor more crucial to the coming election cycle – than immigration. The success of President Obama’s initiatives will depend largely on local municipalities’ ability to implement them,” the letter states. “New York City, home to over 2.4 million Latinos (more than the population of most U.S. cities) has taken the lead: in December, Mayor de Blasio hosted mayors of more than 20 cities from around the country, as well as senior White House officials and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, to discuss the best practices for implementation. The group, Cities United for Immigration Action, is shaping the national immigration debate and pressing for comprehensive reforms.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has also been leading efforts to implement President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty. As the letter notes, de Blasio hosted mayors from more than 20 cities with White House officials to strategize on how best to implement Obama’s executive amnesty. De Blasio also joined mayors like Los Angeles’s Eric Garcetti and Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel in a brief in support of Obama’s executive amnesty against the majority of states that have joined a lawsuit against it.

“New York City is the tip of the arrow when it comes to civic issues most important to the Latino community,” the letter continues. “There is no city more committed to advancing these causes than New York and thus no better way for the Democratic Party to reach out to this community than by choosing New York to host its convention.”

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D), who is trying to get legislation passed to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, and Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) were among those who signed the letter.

New York is competing with Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio for the convention. Mayor Bill De Blasio’s feud with the NYPD, though, may cost the city the convention because Democrats want to avoid bad optics that may lose them a swath of voters for another generation, as Breitbart News noted:

Democrats may worry that a convention in New York could turn off Americans like their 1968 convention in Chicago. Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential win was arguably assured when riots broke out during the convention in Chicago. The national audience that saw the breakdown in law and order started to associate Democrats in general with being on the wrong side of law-and-order issues. That label stuck to the party and helped Republicans win elections across the country for a generation.

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