Republicans attack Barnes' immigration record

By: SHANNON McCAFFREY
Associated Press
10/25/10 5:01 PM EDT

ATLANTA — As he seeks a second shot at the governor's mansion, Roy Barnes has staked out a hard-line stance on illegal immigration — a very different position, Republicans say, from where he stood back when he was in office.

The Democrat says he would back an Arizona-style immigration crackdown law, which would require police enforcing other laws to question people about their immigration status if the officer has reason to doubt it, as long as there were protections against racial profiling.

And Barnes is running a campaign ad on jobs that promises "to take care of our own."

The GOP calls him a recent convert on the issue. In a new ad, the Republican Governors Association says Barnes once backed drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants and likens the former governor's views to those of President Barack Obama.

News accounts from September 2001 suggest Barnes was open to considering drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants and was awaiting results from a study from the Department of Motor Vehicle Safety.

"We've got to work this out," Barnes said at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce convention.

In early 2002 — amid a backlash from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — Barnes backed away from the idea after talking to law enforcement and others, according to a news account.

Barnes said Monday he never supported licenses for illegal immigrants and was merely studying the issue.

"I wasn't ready to go that far, and we didn't go that far," he said.

Barnes added that he continues to support recognizing international drivers' licenses for those in the country legally.

Advocates of tougher laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration say Barnes has not been a friend.

"I would say without equivocation or hesitation that Roy Barnes has a terrible record from a pro-enforcement point of view," said D.A. King, head of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, a group named for a teen killed when his family's car was struck by one driven by an illegal immigrant.

Barnes' Republican rival, Nathan Deal, made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his 18 years in Congress, although he had limited success in pushing through what he proposed.

Deal was an early sponsor of legislation that would deny automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the United States. Seen for years as a fringe issue, it is an idea that's recently gained momentum.

As part of the federal deficit reduction act in 2005, Deal led the charge to require those seeking Medicaid benefits to provide identification, a move designed to halt illegal immigrants from tapping the taxpayer-funded benefits.

Georgians who feel similarly about the issue have made headway in the past few years. In 2006, the state adopted an illegal immigration bill that at the time was considered among the toughest in the nation.

In 2007, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss was booed at a meeting of the state GOP when he voiced support for President George W. Bush's immigration bill, which critics said would lead to granting amnesty to people who came into the country illegally. Chambliss, who was running for re-election, quickly had a change of heart.

Barnes has clearly tried to position himself on the issue in a way that will appeal to more conservative voters.

"If there's a nail driven, a wire connected or concrete poured by local or state government it'll be by a legal Georgia worker," he says in a television ad promoting his jobs plan.

Beyond the driver's license flap, Republicans point to a trade mission Barnes took to Mexico in 2001, when he told then-Mexican President Vicente Fox that the presidents of Georgia's 35 colleges and universities were authorized to waive out-of-state tuition for up to 2 percent of the student population.

"We encourage them to use that discretion, particularly toward Mexicans," Barnes said.

Barnes never mentioned illegal immigrants, but Deal said it was clear what he meant: "'Send us more of yours and we will educate them,'" Deal said of Barnes' comments. "It's pretty obvious that at least some would be illegal."

Barnes said Monday the mission was about improving trade relations and that he was making the point that Georgia would be hospitable to legal immigrants from Mexico, who are vital to the state's economy.

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