Photo: Helen L. Montoya, San Antonio Express-News / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Surrogates of the Bernie Sanders campaign recently attacked a well-known Chicana hero Dolores Huerta and now they have their sights set on  HUD Secretary Julian Castro who is on the short list of possible candidates for Sec. Hillary Clinton’s running mate. We take offense and will not remain silent when campaigns and/or their supporters attack our national Mexican American leaders. This demonstrates disrespect and insults us all.

From 2009 to 2014, Castro served as the mayor of his native San Antonio, Texas, until he was tapped by U.S. President Barack H. Obama to join the Cabinet in Washington, D.C.  Julián Castro was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Maria “Rosie” Castro and Jessie Guzman.  He is the identical twin brother of current United States Representative Joaquín Castro. His mother was a Chicana political activist who helped establish the Chicano political party La Raza Unida.  Julian Castro was on the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders as well as Time magazine’s list of its “40 under 40” rising stars in American politics. During his term as Mayor, San Antonio was ranked No. 1 on the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities list, and ranked No. 3 as the new tech hotspot and graded A+ for doing business by Forbes. He was known as a national trailblazer in urban development. His top goal as HUD Secretary is giving every person, regardless of their place in life, new opportunities to thrive. As Secretary, he has worked to improve broadband access to economically disadvantaged communities, so kids in public housing have access to 21st century information technology to help them in school and prepare them for the current workplace.

According to POLITICO: “With Bernie Sanders’ durability exciting progressives at their potential to shape the Democratic race, a coalition of groups — many of them backers of the Vermont senator — are launching a preemptive strike against Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, aimed at disqualifying him from consideration to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate.”  Matt Nelson, the managing director for Presente.org stated: “It’s a situation where the Clinton campaign wants Castro to be a major asset to her chances of winning the White House, and unless he changes his position related to foreclosures and loans, he’ll be a toxic asset to the Clinton campaign.”

While the managing director for Presente sets anticipatory strikes against Sec. Julian Castro, it is also important to know the connection between Presente and Bernie.  In this small world, Bernie Sanders’ current “Latino” outreach director is Arturo Carmona – who was also Presente’s executive director. Those who have been following “Latino” organizations, their followers and the money, know and understand Presente attacks against Castro is predictable.

Castro critics say they believe the mortgages should be sold instead to nonprofits and other institutions that would care more about the communities involved.  Despite political posers abusing their nonprofit status, nonprofits are not immune to fraud either.  Brian Collins — an Audit Manager with over 10 years of public accounting experience responsible for performing audits, reviews, compilation, and tax services for a wide range of clients in various industries including not-for-profits and automotive dealerships, states:

“Fraud has been around since the beginning of commerce and continues to plague even the largest of business organizations, from Enron to the mom and pop corner store, and America’s charitable communities are not immune to fraud.  As reported by Independent Sector, an organization that performs research and publishes not-for-profit trends and data, there were more than 1.1 million not-for-profit organizations in the United States, employing about 13.7 million individuals and generating an estimated $1.5 trillion in revenue. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that organizations lose 5 percent of annual revenue to fraud, which means the not-for-profit sector is a victim of $77 billion in estimated annual losses due to fraud.”

Presente.org bills itself as the largest online Latino advocacy group, however, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is America’s largest Latino advocacy organization.

Grassroots political immigration advocates have witnessed the likes of  Presente.org, Dream Activist.org, and Latino Rebels go after the Obama administration as if he were some king of a monarchy able to undermine public support and laws with regard to our immigration laws. In fact, Erika Andiola, another Bernie staffer suggested the idea of boycotting the Latino vote until she received strong backlash in the State of Arizona.  One well known U.S. Congressman and advocate for immigration, Rep. Luis Gutierrez,  had to cut off ties with groups in light of manipulation and racist ideas  during heated “anti-Obama” moments  when immigrants were being instructed to “deport themselves” by folks who were bullet-proof and not held to the same risks as other immigrants.   Gutierrez told FOX News Latino, a meeting was very emotional, and the parents discussed things that they haven’t told others.

DREAMActivist.org alleged on its Twitter page that Gutierrez, in reference to a founder of the groups, said to one of the parents of the detained activists: “‘Did you know he’s gay?’ – @LuisGutierrez, to #Dream30 parents about 1 of our founders. Guess he hoped subtle homophobia would go a long way”

Gutierrez said to Fox News Latino that his point in asking the question was to make the parents aware that Abdollahi was not making the same personal sacrifice — and taking the same level of risk — that his organization had encouraged their children to make.

“I said ‘Somebody is putting you at risk who has no risk,'” Gutierrez said.”I wanted the parents to understand they’re being manipulated by someone who is bullet-proof.”

DREAMActivist conceded recording the meeting in a response to a tweet inquiring about it.
The response was: “@latinorebels Well, if a member of Congress can troll our members’ Facebook, #Dream30 parents ought to record what he says about their kids.”

Immigration has always been a federal issue, and both Republicans and Democrats must pass a bill that will reach the President’s desk.  The President cannot waive a magic wand and have immigration reform laws appear out of thin air.  Federal laws must be discussed at a Congressional level so that it can advance to the Executive level.  This is basic government 101.  That said, the Democratic-Controlled Senate did pass an immigration bill with the help of the Gang of Eight in 2013, but it was the Tea Party Republicans like  Sen. Ted Cruz who blocked it in 2014 from advancing and reaching the President’s desk to begin with.  Had Presente.org and/or other anti-Obama groups (who are against “the Democratic establishment”) focused more efforts against Senator Ted Cruz and Tea Party Republicans instrumental in blocking immigration reform instead of President Obama,  – we may have had immigration reform after all.

Mexican American Chicanos and many Latinos  would be proud to have Sec. Julian Castro as a Vice President and we would stand behind him. As a former Mayor of San Antonio, one of the largest growing cities in the country. Sec. Castro would bring a deep understanding and knowledge of the issues confronting our country. He has experience in bringing together people of all walks of life and has demonstrated he can get things done.  We will stand by our Leaders that have been working hard for us and not remain silent when campaigns and/or their supporters attack them.