Latin America: Week in Review, North America, United States
Immigration: Rubio Announces Plan To Win Latino Votes For GOP
April 18, 2012 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Florida Senator Marco Rubio announced that he was pulling together a conservative proposal that would allow young undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States without creating a path to citizenship. Rubio presented the measure as an alternative to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a bill backed by Democrats that remains enormously popular with Latino voters but failed to pass in Congress in December 2010. The DREAM Act would allow undocumented immigrant children to become U.S. citizens if they serve in the military or attend college, but Rubio said his alternative plan would only allow applicants to receive nonimmigrant visas. Rubio’s announcement Tuesday came just as the latest Pew Research poll revealed that only 27 percent of Latino voters expressed support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, compared with 67 percent of Latino voters supporting U.S. President Barack Obama. Rubio said that he planned to speak with the Romney campaign about his proposal in an effort to sway more Latino voters.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- An Alabama House committee approved revisions to Alabama’s immigration bill on Tuesday morning in a 6-3 vote.
- Scientist said Tuesday that they detected activity at Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano, including a low amplitude tremor that lasted 40 minutes.
- Mexico’s rival PAN and PRI parties agreed to a debate over an unfinished roadway after Mexico’s ruling National Action Party accused Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Henrique Pena Nieto of lying about completion of the road.
Caribbean
- The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said that there were 1,158 political detentions in March ahead of the papal visit.
- Haitian President Michel Martelly suffered a pulmonary embolism as a result of an earlier surgery, an advisor said Tuesday. He is currently recovering in Miami.
- The Dominican Senate issued an apology to U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday after former Dominican president Hipólito Mejía made remarks suggesting Obama was born in Africa.
Central America
- Avaaz launched a campaign to prevent Honduran Congress from voting to jail young women for using the “morning after” pill to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The pill has been criminalized since 2009.
- As Panama undergoes a construction boom, roughly one-third of Panamanians live in poverty.
Andes
- Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled Tuesday that the regional government of Cajamarca should not have suspended work on the $4.8 billion Minas Conga copper and gold project.
- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on Monday criticized the U.S. and Canadian decision not to endorse a declaration supporting Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
- U.S. Secret Service investigators are seeking to interview 11 women allegedly hired as prostitutes for Secret Service agents prior to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena.
Southern Cone
- A 26-hour prison uprising in the state of Sergipe in Brazil ended Tuesday, with inmates releasing 131 hostages, most of them family members.
- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Chile early Tuesday, causing at least two people to die of heart attacks in Valparaíso.
- Amnesty International said that only one-third of the approximately 1 million weapons held by civilians in Paraguay are registered.
Image: Gage Skidmore @ Flickr.
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