Illegal Alien Spells Latino

I am a Mexican- American born in Texas and a graduate of the University of Texas (UT) in Austin so I was dumbfounded by the political shenanigans of a Latino student leader at my alma mater when he came up with the lamebrain idea of slandering his own ethnicity as a promotional club gimmick.

Lorenzo García, a MexicanAtnerican from Houston is, or maybe by now, was the leader of the university's Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT), an ideological political student group.

He organized and promoted a sort of political safari titled, "Catch an Illegal Immigrant," and cither he failed a logics course at UT or should have taken one because if ever there was a bummer for a club political event, this was it.

The idea was to open a campus dialogue on the issue of illegal immigrants but it turned out to be a debate on the lack of sensitivity by a young conservative political group.

By the way, the federal government also is rethinking its terminology and trying to be politically correct, so it has now begun to address heretofore illegal immigrants as "unauthorized" immigrants.

Whatever, selected Y'CT members-most of them white, I bet-would walk around the campus with an "illegal immigrant" label and any student "capturing" them would receive a $25 gift certificate.

The insinuation was deafening and so was the uproar that followed. Garcia said he was supposed to be a fun thing to provoke the student body into a discussion on the problem of illegal immigration.

Garcia added it only wanted to start a debate on a pertinent issue and did not mean to caricature an ethnic group. No one dressed up as a mariachi, did they? Gee, loosen up people!

Had this been another innocuous inner club event, fine but it wasn't and Garcia ended up having to defend the ethics of the YCT organization and upsetting the university's majordomos who belched first and then moved quickly to disavow the activity.

"As Americans, we should ahvays visualize our Statue of Liberty and remember that our country was built on the strength of immigration," UT President Bill Powers said ever so piously.

It played right into the hands of activist Latino leaders -mostly Democrats, -across the state who gleefully portrayed García and the YCT as the products of Texas' traditional biases and reactionary' politics and certainly w'as not the stuff of Latinos.

Garcia shrugged and said everyone should get over it.

The idea w'as to promote a discussion on immigration and other Obama initiatives like health care reform and this w'as perhaps the best way to get into the discussion.

Garcia does have a fertile political mind. Before his "illegal immigrant" act, he copied an event from the University of CaliforniaBerkley which promoted diversity with an "Increase Diversity" bake sale that based prices on an individual's race and ethnicity factors.

Garcia was a campaign worker for first-term Sen.Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

He also worked as a political field director for Texas attorney Greg Abbott's gubernatorial campaign. The Abbott Group quickly disavowed him saying he is no longer affiliated w'ith the campaign.

Abbott's campaign might regret it.

A more seasoned Garcia can be a political asset. He has shown at his young age that he is good at revving up the political rhetoric, but for now seems an irrepressible operative as are most people his age with such ambitions.

He told the The Dallas Morning News, "The reactions of some who claim that YCT is creating a demeaning or degrading environment have been truly disgraceful. I have always viewed the University of Texas as a place where students could express their opinions whether or not they were popular."

The political debate about immigration most likely will continue to stir up controversy, especially given the number of individuals who will be affected by reform measures. There are 11.2 million "unauthorized" immigrants in the U.S. Approximately 81 percent are Latinos and of that number, than 6.5 million are of Mexican descent.

Carlos D. Conde, awardwinning journalist and commentator, former Washington and foreign news correspondent, was an aide in the Nixon White House and worked on the political campaigns of George Bush Sr. To reply to this column, contact Cdconde@aol, com,.