Tim Kaine May Not Be Latinos' Best Amigo

Kaine is no O'Malley. As a loyal Democrat with aspirations of higher office, the senator played it safe. Kaines remarks were focused on liberal talking points, i.e. how the turmoil in Central America had been fueled by Americans' demand for drugs, how we needed to show compassion to the refugees.

At the time, there was no criticism of President Obama and the administration for shipping many new arrivals out of the country and into harm's way, or for locking up women and children indefinitely in detention facilities.

This past January, when the Obama administration announced a new set of immigration raids to round up and deport those Central American refugees who had been released to family members in the United States with notices to appear before immigration judges, Kaine joined 21 other Democratic senators in signing a letter to Obama condemning the raids. Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Patrick Leahy of Vermont led the effort; Kaine followed.

I would expect more from Mr. Civil Rights Lawyer. Mr. Honduras. Mr. Yo Hablo Espanol. Just like you expect someone like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has made her name opposing income inequality, to fight aggressively for blue-collar workers.

And now the Clinton campaign has the chutzpah to present Kaine to Latinos as our best amigo, our brother from another mother. And we're supposed to swallow that ridiculous narrative, no questions asked.

This is the kind of disrespect you get when you're one of the cheapest dates in politics. Latinos rewarded Obama with 71 percent of their vote in 2012 -- after he had broken his promise to make immigration reform a priority, deported up to that point more than 1.5 illegal immigrants, divided hundreds of thousands of families and tried to avoid responsibility for all of it by claiming falsely that the majority of those removed were "gang-bangers" and other criminals when many were gardeners and housekeepers.

Now Latinos are in an even worse spot. Donald Trump is so overtly antagonistic toward Latinos that Hillary Clinton will inherit perhaps as much as 75 percent of the Latino vote.

Clinton doesn't even have to earn the Latino vote. It'll be conveniently served up to her because of her major qualification: the fact that her name isn't "Trump." So you can imagine how much respect she'll give Latinos, if she is elected president. Not much.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.