'WTF?' Dems outraged by anti-immigration campaign ad aimed at Mexican-American lawmaker Yanez

Democrats are blasting a Michigan Republican Party campaign brochure that singles out a Mexican-American state legislator from Macomb County for criticism on federal immigration issues, claiming that state Rep. Henry Yanez wants to allow more illegal immigrants to cross the U.S.-Mexican border.

Yanez

The literature mailed by the state GOP to Yanez’s Sterling Heights district claims the Democratic incumbent who is seeking re-election would make the border more vulnerable to illegal crossings and he would make it easier for illegal aliens in the United States to gain citizenship.

Yanez calls the claims a distortion and an attempt to insert a federal issue into a state House campaign. One of his colleagues, Rep.Harvey Santana, a Democrat who represents southwest Detroit, accused the GOP of targeting Yanez for an anti-Hispanic message.

“I am disappointed that the Michigan Republican Party would stoop to an attack piece that carries an undertone of racist scare tactics in order to try to elect one of its candidates,” Santana said. “My Republican colleagues in the Legislature whom I’ve grown to respect would never act in such a fashion, which makes this ‘hit piece’ even more disappointing.”

A GOP spokesman said that the advertisement was fair game because “Henry Yanez has taken a position on this issue.” The fact that Yanez’s heritage is one-half Mexican had “zero influence” on the decision to criticize the Sterling Heights Democrat, according to Darren Littel, state GOP communications director.

The campaign flyer attributes the information to a recent candidate questionnaire but Littel said that was a mistake. It dates back to a 2010 questionnaire when Yanez was the Democratic nominee running for Congress against Republican Rep. Candice Miller.

Littel said none of the other Democratic candidates for the 148-member Legislature had been tagged on the immigration reform issue by the GOP because they had not previously run for congressional office and their views were unknown.

In the yes-no questionnaire of four years ago from a group called Project Vote Smart, Yanez said he was not allowed to elaborate on the issues.

He said as a congressional candidate he favored a “pathway” to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the U.S., not amnesty that leads to automatic citizen status. The incumbent also said he preferred putting more Border Patrol agents in place rather than extending a protective fence for 2,000 miles along the southern edge of several states.

“As a state legislator, I have no stance. I’m focused on what’s happening in Michigan,” he said. “This is shameless on the part of the Republicans.”

Little believes Democrats are trying to rile up ethnic sensitivities rather than sticking to the issues. He said that he had no idea Yanez was of Mexican ancestry.

A retired Sterling Heights firefighter, Yanez countered that in Lansing it’s well known, based on his civic activities, that he is Hispanic.

Rep. Santana was so incensed by the campaign tactic that he used a common abbreviation of crude language to urge Yanez’s Republican foe in the November election, Nick Hawatmeh, who lives in the small Warren section of the 25th District, to denounce the party’s campaign material.

“If I were Mr. Hawatmeh,” Santana said, “I’d be on the phone with (state GOP Chairman) Bobby Shostack asking, ‘WTF?’ Especially considering that Mr. Hawatmeh is of Arab descent.”