Seeking Hispanic vote, Gore talks to LULAC

Appeals for tolerance of ethnic differences

WASHINGTON – Spicing his speech with Spanish phrases, Vice President Al Gore pitched for Hispanic votes in the presidential election Friday with an appeal for social tolerance of immigrants and ethnic differences.

He said the United States has an obligation to prove to the world that “people of different cultures and histories, different languages and religions, can not only get along but make each other stronger.”

He spoke to the national convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, whose president is Houston lawyer Enrique “Rick” Dovalina.

Gore said the nation needs stronger laws against “hate crimes” and an accepting attitude toward people who move to the United States.

Without directly accusing Republicans of bigotry, Gore mentioned in the context of his remarks about ethnicity that the Republican-led Senate has not acted on President Clinton’s nomination of El Paso lawyer Enrique Moreno, a Hispanic, to a judgeship on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I do not understand the delays,” Gore said. “I do not understand the excuses.”

The two Texas U.S. senators, Republicans Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison, have questioned whether Moreno is qualified.

Moreno’s status was a central issue of the LULAC convention. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Gore’s main opponent in the presidential race, has not taken a position on the issue.

Bush spoke to the convention Monday and is going further than previous Republican presidential candidates in making a specific appeal to Hispanic voters.

So Gore was striving Friday to keep the majority of Hispanic votes in the Democratic corner. He was accompanied to the convention by high-ranking Hispanic appointees of President Clinton, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Small Business Administration chief Aida Alvarez.

Bush put his own knowledge of Spanish on display at the convention and he saved a newsy nugget for his speech. He came out in favor of a proposal to split the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies, one to offer immigration services and one to enforce laws, shutting the borders to illegal immigrants “in a humane way.”

In contrast, Gore offered no new proposals and said he would “stick with the strategy that is working so well for the American people.”

He said that includes paying down the national debt and strongly enforcing civil rights laws. He also praised bilingual education programs and said the country needs to work harder to improve its high school graduation rate.

As mentioned in the LULAC convention programs, the dropout rate for Hispanics is higher than for Anglos and blacks.



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