Latinos lob a few words at governor

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s off-the-cuff comments in recently released audio recordings about illegal immigration and the unwillingness of Mexicans to assimilate into American society have drawn angry responses this week from Latino community and political leaders.

“I made an effort,” the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger told aides last April in conversations that touched on assimilation. “But the Mexicans don’t make that effort.”

The governor also used an expletive to disparage the 1986 federal law that granted asylum to more than 2 million illegal immigrants.

“His comments were highly offensive and outrageous,” said Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). “It’s just mind-blowing that he continues to put his foot in his mouth.”

If Spanish-language newspapers and radio are any guide, others were angered as well. The headline on one La Opinion piece this week: “Governor attacks Mexicans.”

Even a former campaign aide weighed in. “Those comments are disturbing to many of us,” said Arnoldo Torres, who worked for the governor during last year’s reelection campaign and is a former political advisor to the League of United Latin American Citizens.

The controversy is the latest flap for the governor involving casual conversations that were not intended to become public.

The recordings were made by a speechwriter and temporarily stored on the governor’s website.

A six-minute excerpt was first made public by The Times in September. The remaining 3 1/2 hours of recordings were recently obtained by The Times.

In the recordings released last fall, Schwarzenegger referred to a Latina lawmaker as “hot,” casually saying that her fiery personality was the result of mixing “black blood” with “Latino blood.”

The more recently released recordings provide the governor’s most candid statements yet on illegal immigration.

The conversations were brainstorming sessions designed to help the governor talk out ideas, his communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, said Thursday.

“I think everyone in this state struggles with how to manage an issue as large as the immigration issue,” Mendelsohn said. “The governor is working through that issue as anyone else, and he is trying to come up with a responsible position.”

Mendelsohn said the recordings, however, fail “to reflect his deep respect for the Mexican culture.... He has a strong belief and understanding of what immigrants have contributed to this state in terms of economic growth.”

Some immigration control advocates were pleased by his more hard-line positions.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the governor “hit the truth” in his comments about the 1986 amnesty and the government’s failure to enforce the law against employers who hired illegal immigrants.

“He was absolutely right,” Mehlman said. “People who broke the law got rewarded, and the American people got a bunch of broken promises.”

But the discussions suggest that the governor’s views on immigration are mixed and sometimes difficult to categorize.

He denigrated, for instance, the idea of sending hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers back to Mexico and called the 700-mile border fence recently approved by Congress “ridiculous.”

“We all know a 12-foot fence has never stopped anybody, because you can build tunnels,” he said.

He compared the fence with the Berlin Wall, saying that the United States should not be looking at Mexico as an enemy.

“These are our trading partners,” he said. “All of a sudden you’re building a wall for a specific group of people, which are the people that are wanting to come over here. Are those necessarily criminals? No.”

Schwarzenegger also critiqued guest-worker proposals and said he supported a path to earned legalization for undocumented immigrants.

“The governor seemed to be trying to work out a position for himself” in his taped conversation, said Harry Pachon, president of USC’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.

Pachon said the governor’s opinions are shared by many Californians.

“He reflects a segment of the California electorate that is really frustrated and puzzled with the immigration issue,” Pachon said. “The answers aren’t easy.”

The governor’s frankness is what worries immigrant rights groups, which say they now have a much clearer view of his true beliefs.

At one point, to illustrate immigrants’ lack of assimilation, he described a shopping mall in Lynwood called Plaza Mexico.

“Literally I felt I was in Mexico City,” he said. “Everyone only spoke Spanish, every shop was in Spanish, every sign was in Spanish. They create a Mexico within California.”

And he compared the United States with a home where some guests help out and others don’t.

“Look, you want to come in here as a guest ... then behave as if you are a guest,” he said. “But what do we see in return? We see protesters carrying the Mexican flag.... And stepping on the American flag and speaking in Spanish and talking about, ‘We are here, and we’re going to stay.’ ”

Immigrant rights groups said the governor was simply wrong about the lack of integration.

“Integration is in the eye of the beholder,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “Somebody might say that because of his accent, the governor hasn’t integrated fully.”

Salas added that the governor should be “more careful about what he says about the very people who are sustaining the economy.”

“He needs to be much more appreciative of all the opportunities he himself has had as an immigrant,” Salas said, adding that not everyone becomes a movie star or marries a Kennedy.

Eddie “El Piolin” Sotelo, a popular Spanish-language radio personality, said the governor’s remarks made him want to work harder to prove that immigrants play a key role in U.S. society.

“We love this country, and we want to be a part of it,” said Sotelo, who helped mobilize immigrants to march for their rights last year. “We are working every day to integrate.”

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) called Schwarzenegger’s remarks “abhorrent” and said he should visit her district in East Los Angeles.

“He would find Mexican Americans proud of their Mexican roots, but who call themselves American, speak English and aspire to the American dream, just like him and his family,” she said.

Romero, however, praised Schwarzenegger for having compassion for undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children. The governor said in the conversations that it would be “almost impossible” to send millions of illegal immigrants back home.

“Some have families,” he said. “The children that were born here are American citizens. So how do you split that family up? So it doesn’t make sense.”

Torres, the former advisor, said the governor needed to learn more about the Latino community.

“We take solace in this one thing -- that those comments were made in April and that they will not be made again, in public or in private,” he said.

anna.gorman@latimes.com