Posted on Wed, Jan. 02, 2008reprint or license print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM ONLINE
Immigrant issue weighty
Presidential aspirants take a strong line
By Robert Morris - The Sun News

Tom Murray/The Sun News
Pronto Services owner Maria Casas (left) talks with customer Filiberto Sanchez Paz who has come in to get a check cashed. Casas' brother Andres Casas watches from behind the window.
For more election and political coverage, including our political blog, go to the Politics page on MyrtleBeachOnline.com. INSIDE


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Though it's 1,500 miles away, the Mexican border has never seemed so close.

With every broadcast presidential debate, every traded accusation that one candidate is softer than another on immigration policy, the border looms a little larger.

"The new litmus test for the Republican Party nomination is where you stand on illegal immigration," said state Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, an organizer of the Horry County chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a controversial group of illegal immigration opponents. "People are just angry because of a complete lack of faith in the federal government."

In recent months, illegal immigration has become an emotional and increasingly heated issue in the Carolinas, although different observers attribute the controversy to different sources. As the January debates in Myrtle Beach approach, the volume of the discussion is sure to increase.

Tough line

In 2007, there was no escaping the immigration debate, even on the Grand Strand.

In 2006 and 2007, a series of bills were proposed in Congress that would have strengthened border security while allowing various paths to citizenship for the estimated millions of immigrants illegally in the United States. When U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham threw his support behind the bills, conservatives in South Carolina revolted against any form of what they called "amnesty," launching Web sites and candidates devoted to Graham's ouster.

In November, Viers helped organize the formation of a chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Horry County. Though the organization has been decried by some civil-liberties groups as extremist, the first meeting at the Socastee library filled to overflowing with more than 150 people, and organizers have rented a 900-seat auditorium for the second meeting in January.

In North Carolina, a political battle has been in full swing over community college admissions for illegal immigrants. With his insistence that those students be allowed, term-limited Gov. Mike Easley has created a firestorm of opposition from all the Democrats and Republicans running to succeed him.

Following the lead of numerous jails in North Carolina, Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson said in early December he plans to apply for a federal grant to train jailers at J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Conway to screen violent offenders' immigration status. Those found to be in the country illegally will be deported.

In late December, the debate took a different direction when the S.C. Supreme Court upheld a state law granting workers' compensation to illegal immigrants, prompting a backlash of proposed legislation to bar such benefits. Those bills and a slew of others related to immigration are expected to be introduced through the legislature this year.

An old pattern

Illegal immigration has been on the political radar for years, but in the current presidential election it has taken on a whole new prominence, many observers agreed.

"The immigration problem is always an issue, but when we elect a new president, it seems to come up more frequently," said Maria Casas, who immigrated legally from Colombia 15 years ago and now operates Pronto Services in Myrtle Beach, a business that provides financial and language services to the Hispanic community.

Perhaps, Casas speculated, more Hispanic immigrants have now accumulated in the area, legally or otherwise, making the issue seem more pressing than in election cycles past.

Recently, she said, anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise, and she has endured mistreatment from store workers who she thinks mistake her coloring and accent for that of someone in the country illegally.

Opponents of illegal immigration say that even though Mexicans make up the majority of immigrants, their concerns are rooted in obedience to the law, regardless of race. Critics, however, attribute the fervor of the debate to a resurgence of S.C. racism.

"When I listen to Republican candidates' radio ads, it reminds me of the South in the 1940s and 1950s - just substitute Latinos for African-Americans," said David Canty, a longtime Democratic Party activist and Myrtle Beach attorney who represents immigrants in workers' compensation suits.

He also served on the board of a now-defunct Hispanic advocacy group.

Immigrants also make easy targets - like drunken drivers or felons or other groups without political clout - for politicians looking to score political points, Canty said.

"There's a tendency among legislators in any state to target an audience that can't fight back," Canty said.

The immigration debate is not at all new, points out Elaine Lacy, history professor at University of South Carolina-Aiken who specializes in immigration issues.

Since the early 1900s, waves of immigrants to the United States prompted similar attitudes, the same language of invasions and cries of unbearable cost to the country, she said.

"This isn't the first time that the fear of change that immigration brings has become a hot political issue," Lacy said. "This is a very old pattern."

When the country experiences a slowdown in the economy, immigrants have historically been blamed, Lacy said.

"The perception among the general population is that immigrants are taking jobs Americans should have," Lacy said. "People start looking around, saying, 'Who can we get rid of?'"

Immigration has been politically tied to the post-Sept. 11, 2001, national security debate, as well, but several observers pointed out that Canada, not Mexico, is the most likely point of illegal entry in this country by terrorists.

Divided by party

A mid-December Rasmussen poll showed how the issue plays out with voters in different parties. Immigration was the top issue for 24 percent of likely Republican voters, followed by the economy for 23 percent of voters, national security for 18 percent and the war in Iraq for 17 percent. The same survey of Democratic voters found the economy to be the top issue for 37 percent, Iraq for 33 percent and health care for 12 percent - with immigration not even making the list that Rasmussen released.

In the Republican debates so far, the fiercest attacks between candidates have arisen from the immigration debates, as candidates accuse each other of having offered "sanctuary" to illegal immigrants in their various jurisdictions. The candidates have sometimes seemed in a competition as to "who's going to talk the toughest on border security," Lacy said.

The Democrats have also taken up the question, though they have answered in far softer tones than Republicans have. For example, in an early December debate hosted by National Public Radio, most of the candidates agreed private citizens should not report people they believe to be illegal immigrants.

While the candidates agree on the need for border security, they have mostly expressed little desire to oust the illegal immigrants already in the United States.

When the debates come to Myrtle Beach, the immigration issue is likely to play a prominent role, said Katon Dawson, chairman of the state Republican Party, although it's not a sure thing. The networks are in charge of choosing questions for each debate, but Fox News has a policy against discussing questions before a debate, and CNN officials are still planning their questions.

Despite the storm of emotions it evokes, the immigration debate will only be one factor in the Presidential election, and likely not the defining one, Dawson said. The candidate whose single-minded focus was illegal immigration, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, has already dropped out of the race.

"I wouldn't say this is the immigration election, though early on it was looking that way," Dawson said. "But there has never been a single issue that more people are vocal about, more e-mails, more phone calls, more comments. The politician who is going to articulate a solution is going to garner a lot of votes from that."

Canty said he expects 2009 - after the inauguration - to be the year when an answer is hammered out.

At Casas' business, she said that immigrants, especially those here illegally, are concerned about the possible changes afoot, often asking what might happen.

"They want to know if they going to keep their jobs, are the police going to arrest them more frequently, are they going to be charged with more taxes," Casas said. "There's definitely going to be a huge change."



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For more election and political coverage, including our political blog, go to the Politics page on MyrtleBeachOnline.com.


More election coverage

TODAY | Immigration

THURSDAY | Health care

FRIDAY | Impact of Iowa caucus results in South Carolina

SATURDAY | Education

Contact ROBERT MORRIS at 626-0294 or rmorris@thesunnews.com.

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