A couple of weeks ago VivirLatino reported on the 35-second Internet ad produced by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The political ad was meant to attack the Republican agenda on domestic security, in doing so, it compared undocumented immigrants crossing the border with bazooka-toting terrorists and Osama bin Laden. DSCC quickly took the ad off the website once the ad was heavily criticized by the Hispanics community.

As mid-term elections are quickly approaching, the ad gives an inside view of the type of political ads being used this campaign season. In fact, we should expect more of them in the coming months from both Democrats and Republicans who currently running for the House and the Senate.

Earlier this week, the Star-Telegram, reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has also sponsored an anti-immigration ad criticizing Stephen Laffey, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee for the Republican nomination in Rhode Island. The ad attacks Laffey, Cranston mayor, for permitting the police to accept identification cards issued by the embassies of Guatemala and Mexico as legal identification. The political ad was also viewed as being offensive, on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic Caucus called on the NRSC to stop airing its ad.

AP also reported on other anti-immigration political ads that have recently been aired.

_In his first campaign ad, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., boasted of his immigrant heritage, but said some immigrants today have sinister motives for entering and lists how he’s tried to beef up border security. The ad was intended to appeal to voters worried about losing their jobs to immigrants.

_Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has an ad on his re-election campaign Web site praising his counterterrorism work. The ad includes an image of him standing in the desert near two white SUVs, similar to those used by the Border Patrol. Critics say the scene looks like the U.S.-Mexican border.

_Republican Brian Bilbray is believed to have sealed his victory in a June California runoff to fill the House seat of disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham with an immigration ad suggesting Democrat Francine Busby was encouraging illegal immigrants to vote.

The number of negative campaign ads has gotten so out of hand, it prompted the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, to take action. In a recent news release, NCLR’s President and CEO, Janet Murguía, has called on leaders from both the Republican and Democratic parties to “refrain from campaign tactics demonizing immigrants and Latinos.”

Via / Star-Telegram
Image Via / Le Monde