Latino Groups Backing Away from Bush Flunky Gonzales

By Darryl Fears
The Washington Post Staff [MORE]
Tuesday, May 29, 2007; A03

Two years ago, major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination for attorney general, primarily because he would become the highest-ranking Latino ever in a presidential Cabinet.

Now, these groups say they are suffering from buyer's remorse.

"I have to say we were in error when we supported him to begin with," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Gonzales, Wilkes said, has not aggressively pursued hate crimes and cases of police profiling of Hispanics. "We hoped for better. Instead it looks like he's done the bidding of the White House."

Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic rights group, called Gonzales "a follower, not a leader." In the Hispanic community, she said, "people are conflicted. They are excited that a Latino had a chance to serve as the attorney general." But, she added, "I think we've been disappointed with his record so far."

Activists have criticized La Raza and LULAC for backing Gonzales. Critics questioned how these groups could support, in the name of ethnic solidarity, a man who had a role in permitting more aggressive interrogation techniques to be used on terrorism suspects held in Cuba and elsewhere.

A few rights organizations that once backed Gonzales now refuse to talk about him. Gilbert Moreno, president of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, said, "We're not really in a position to comment." Gonzales once sat on his organization's board.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which offered enthusiastic support for Gonzales, also declined to discuss him. William Ramos, director of the organization's Washington office, said, "We provided a support letter, yes," then hung up.

Wilkes and Murguia said their disappointment with the attorney general started long before Democrats and Republicans in the Senate began calling for his ouster over the firing of U.S. attorneys.

"The reason these attorneys were fired is that they weren't investigating allegations of voter fraud," Wilkes said. "Republicans use voter fraud allegations to create more registration burdens for our members without any evidence. I think Gonzales himself was pushing some of these voter-restriction techniques. He ought to know better."

Wilkes said LULAC's frustrations with Gonzales came to a boil last year when he declined to meet with board members to discuss the beating and sodomy of a Mexican American teenager by two white teenagers in Houston. The attorney general agreed only to meet with Hector Flores, a former president of LULAC.

"When he showed up, Gonzales wouldn't talk much about the case," Wilkes said. "He wanted to lobby him for his support of the Patriot Act and the removal of individual protections. When that happened, we realized things weren't going as planned."

Flores, who still supports Gonzales, recalled the meeting differently. He said the attorney general met with only one person to avoid turning the session into a media event. Gonzales asked if LULAC would support extending the USA Patriot Act, and Flores said his answer was no.

"I do not see Alberto Gonzales as evil incarnate," Flores said. "Brent doesn't know him from Texas, where he was on the Supreme Court and did a favorable job."

Two years ago, Gonzales's stint on the Texas Supreme Court was cited as the reason that LULAC and La Raza supported him. Unlike other groups such as the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Urban League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, they backed Gonzales despite reports about the administration's policy on interrogations.

At a lavish award ceremony in March 2005, Murguia, of La Raza, praised the new attorney general while introducing him as the guest speaker. "We want to make sure that people understand that we are reaching out to this administration," she said of her liberal group. "We see this as an opportunity to get things done."

In return, Gonzales acknowledged La Raza, saying he had "this organization to thank for supporting my nomination for attorney general."

But he often did not acknowledge Murguia's telephone calls. "I think that if I called him, I know I could get to him," she said. "But I think the difference is someone who wants to engage the [Hispanic] community and do it on a regular basis, and I think we didn't see that.

"I think that based on his credentials in Texas, it appeared that he was qualified. I don't think he's demonstrated that."

Other Hispanic organizations say he has. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Latino Peace Officers Association, the Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute all wrote letters supporting Gonzales when he became embroiled in the scandal over the prosecutor firings.

"We strongly oppose what is nothing but patently political calls for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales," the Latino Coalition wrote. "He has been, and continues to be, a leading example to all in the Hispanic community of what we can accomplish through hard work and keeping true to our dreams."

Carlos Villarreal, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, said Hispanic activists sometimes speak ill of La Raza and LULAC for supporting Gonzales.

"My sense is there is more cynicism about both these organizations, particularly among activists," he said. "My sense is that it's been a huge disaster having him there, for many reasons."