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WaPo: Luis Gutierrez is Immigration Reform Activist and Spanish TV Star

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Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has long been an outspoken champion for immigrant rights and immigration reform.  Now,  Washington Post profile by Ed O’Keefe explains something we’ve known for awhile: Gutierrez is also a Spanish language TV star.  With the immigration debate underway in Congress, the long-time champion has been getting recent surge of English-language media interest.  But, that’s been happening for years in Spanish-language news on networks like Univision and Telemundo.

As the profile–with quote from Jorge Ramos, the Walter Cronkite of Spanish-language news, explains:

He has been a ubiquitous presence on the national Spanish-language newscasts of Univision and Telemundo, mostly talking about the need for immigration reform. That history has given him outsize influence on the debate among some of the people most directly affected by the issue.

“There are only a few names that are familiar to most Hispanic families, and Luis Gutierrez is one of them,” said Jorge Ramos, who anchors Univision’s nightly newscast, “Noticiero Univision,” and its Sunday public affairs show, “Al Punto.” (Which means “To the Point.”)

Ramos said Gutierrez can draw a crowd “not just because he’s always on, but because he’s on the right side of history, or he’s on the side of Latinos and undocumented immigrants.”

At a time when Republicans desperately need to reach out to Latino and minority voters, Spanish-language networks wield enormous influence, which Congressmen like Luis Gutierrez understand–and others, so far, do not.  As Gutierrez told O’Keefe:

“I see a lot of the non-Hispanic congressmen and they look at me and they say, ‘Oh, he had a press conference and a couple of ethnic TV camera crews showed up from the ethnic stations,’ ” Gutierrez said. “They’re not ethnic stations. These are stations that are reaching tens of millions of people in America and are providing many voters — and many more immigrants that are not voters yet — with the information they use to formulate their views on politicians, politics, who’s on their side and who’s against them.”

Gutierrez has been spending this summer traveling around the nation, meeting community members in different states, and pushing Congress to take action on immigration reform.  Last month, Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) held a joint town hall event with Gutierrez, and was applauded for it.  Many other GOP House members are not appearing with Gutierrez though, even as he comes to visit their districts.

“I go to Republican districts, I raise the level of consciousness and awareness among the public and the news media in that congressman’s district,” Gutierrez said in an interview. “And I invite the Republican congressmen to join me, because from that sense of confidence and camaraderie that is created there, you can get the kinds of votes you need.”

In July he visited Republican congressional districts in California, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Texas and Washington and plans similar stops this month in the Midwest and in the Virginia districts of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Of the eight events Gutierrez held in July across the country, only one Republican, Rep. David Valadao (Calif.), agreed to join him. Regardless, Gutierrez insisted that the recently approved Senate immigration bill could easily pass the House, because dozens of House Republicans have privately told him they would vote for it.

With the clout among Latino voters that Rep. Gutierrez and the Spanish-language media he brings wields, House Republicans who don’t take advantage of the opportunity to appear with him (or express open-mindedness on immigration) could come to regret it.

Read the full profile here.

Watch the Washington Post’s interview with Gutierrez: