Leaders to discuss immigration today

 BY TIM JOHNSON

 WASHINGTON -- Even as senior U.S. and Mexican officials struggled Tuesday to make headway on a sweeping immigration accord, which could swell the ranks of Mexican émigrés on U.S. voter rolls, experts say that Mexican-American officeholders remain under-represented in U.S. politics.

 A rise in Mexican-American political power would be an inexorable result of any possible accord to legalize undocumented Mexicans in the United States, experts say, but any significant increase may be years away.

 Immigration and other bilateral issues are expected to be the focus of the discussions that will begin today after President Bush greets President Vicente Fox of Mexico on the South Lawn of the White House to kick off a state visit. Fox, who arrived in Washington late Tuesday night, will speak Friday in Miami at the fifth annual Herald Americas Conference.

 After Tuesday's preliminary discussions, Secretary of State Colin Powell said progress was made on cross-border cooperation on food safety, border safety, housing and law enforcement.

 But he and Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda downplayed immediate prospects of an accord to legalize as many as three million undocumented Mexicans in the United States.

 ``It is a very difficult, a tough issue and we've got to do it right, not do it fast,'' Powell said, noting ``immense progress'' in ``this tremendously complicated challenge.''

 Echoing Powell's caution, Castañeda described a potential immigration accord as a ``complex, delicate, long-standing and politically touchy issue in both countries.''

 Any agreement on immigration would ultimately have political impact by increasing the number of potential voters. But even though Mexican Americans hold a growing share of governors' mansions, city halls, town councils and school board seats across the United States, that share is not proportional to their swelling population.

 ``The numbers and the political clout don't match up,'' said M. Delal Baer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

 The 2000 Census showed 20.6 million people of Mexican origin in the United States, both legal and undocumented. More than five million are registered to vote, and the numbers are increasing quickly.

 Even so, Mexican Americans have experienced disappointment in some recent political races. Some leaders felt frustration when former California Assembly Speaker
 Antonio Villaraigosa narrowly lost his campaign June 5 to become mayor of Los Angeles. The winner, veteran city attorney Jim Hahn, wove together a coalition of white
 non-Hispanic and black voters.

 ``I thought our time had come,'' said Refugio Rochin, director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives in Washington, D.C.

 In cities like Chicago, where at least 500,000 people of Mexican heritage live, the Hispanic population still has a limited voice in politics.

 Mexican Americans occupy only four of the 50 seats on the City Council; Hispanics of other national origin hold four other seats.

 ``There is somewhat of an apathy among Mexican Americans here, and some distrust,'' said Omar Duque of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce of Illinois.

 No major political or social organization promotes Mexican-American causes effectively in the city, some observers say.

 ``There is no network that reaches into churches, into workplaces and into the soccer leagues,'' said the Rev. Charles Dahm, a longtime Catholic priest in Hispanic
 neighborhoods. ``The Irish organized, the Polish organized, but the Mexicans never organized.''

 Elsewhere around the country, Mexican-American politicians have been making slow headway. Thirteen members of the 435-member House of Representatives are of Mexican heritage. So are the mayors of San Jose, San Bernardino, Santa Ana and Oxnard in California, and the lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante.

 In Texas, Mexican Americans occupy the mayors' seats in Brownsville, El Paso, McAllen and San Antonio.

 The list is destined to grow, experts say.

 ``There's a certain aura of inevitability,'' said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a policy and research think tank with offices in San
 Antonio and Los Angeles. ``We really are in an era of breakthrough.''

 Sometime this week, a Laredo natural gas and banking tycoon, Antonio R. Sanchez, is expected to announce his candidacy for the governorship of Texas. Sanchez, a Democrat, served as a university regent when Bush was governor of Texas and remains a friend.

 Other Mexican-American gubernatorial candidates may emerge in New Mexico, where former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is expected to run, and Arizona, where former state Senate majority leader Alfredo Gutierrez is a candidate.

 Observers say the expansion of U.S. political power by Mexican Americans has been slowed by factors ranging from low voter participation rates, cynicism about politics held over from living in Mexico, and the young age of many voters of Mexican heritage.

 ``The Census shows that 36 percent of our community is under the age of 18,'' said Lawrence F. Gonzalez of the National Association of Elected and Appointed Latino Officials.

 Today, while Mexican Americans have traditionally voted Democratic, their growing numbers are also tantalizing Republican leaders. And activists suggest that voter
 sympathy is fluid.

 ``It is shortsighted for any political party to think that the Latino community is locked up . . . or is a monolithic unchanging community,'' said Raul Yzaguirre, head of the National Council of La Raza. ``Clearly we are not owned by any party.''

                                    © 2001