2011 is almost gone. For Latinos in the United States, it was primarily a year to forget.
Life hasn't been good, and Hispanics have suffered the same fate as the much of the general population: persistent unemployment, political uncertainty and a deep sense of dejection. But as a group, their fate was worse: according to the Department of Labor, last month, when the national unemployment rate was 8.3 percent, for Latinos it reached 11.4 percent.
Among veterans returning from Iraq unemployment reached 11.4 percent in general and 14 percent for Hispanics (and blacks).
In 2011, for the most part, Latino political influence in national affairs is almost non-existent. Neither Latino community representatives nor supporters could stop the onslaught of negative news. This year, just as in the two that came before, the Obama administration tried not to alienate independent and white voters by avoiding immigration reform as if it were leprosy. Obama’s election-year promise to offer a path to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants during his first year in office vanished in clouds of both stark reality and mere excuses.
At the same time, Washington deported undocumented immigrants in record numbers. Thus, in 2009 there were 389,834, 392,862 in 2010, and 396,606 by November 2011. This year, the number is expected to surpass 400,000 for the first time in history. READ MORE
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