Ann Coulter on Latinos: 'America reaches el tipping pointo'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has sparked outrage after publishing a column in which she describe Latinos as a lazy underclass.

In a piece titled ‘America reaches el tipping pointo,’ Coulter goes on an extended tirade, blaming Latinos for the nation’s plight and placing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent loss largely on their backs.

Specifically, Coulter writes that the influx of ‘Mexico’s underclass’ and the ‘poorest of the world’s poor’ has so thoroughly changed the country’s political landscape that no amount of Republican outreach will turn the tides in their favor.

‘Perhaps the reason elections maven Michael Barone was so shockingly off in his election prediction this year was that… Barone has been assuring us for years that most of these Third World immigrants pouring into the country would go the way of Italian immigrants and become Republicans. They're hardworking, they have family values,’ she wrote. ‘Maybe at first, but not after coming here, having illegitimate children and going on welfare.’

But already, her words have drawn ire from many pro-immigration activists, not only based on the rhetoric, but on many of the facts she used in making her argument.

Roque Planas, of the Huffington Post’s Latino Voice section, wrote a detailed response to Coulter’s column, citing a number of sources that call into question the veracity of Coulter claims.

First, Planas argues that Latinos do not disproportionately claim welfare, as Coulter claims, but in fact use less than the government benefits allotted to them.

According to a study released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan group that works on fiscal policies to help low-income Americans, Hispanics made up 16 per cent of the population in 2010 but received just 12 per cent of benefits. In contrast, non-Hispanic whites accounted for 64 per cent of the population and received 69 per cent of entitlement benefits.