Vitter takes lead role in immigration battle
Sharp criticism gets national attention
Saturday, June 23, 2007
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- Bucking President Bush and Senate Republican leaders, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has emerged as one of the most impassioned opponents of immigration legislation being debated on Capitol Hill.

Decrying the plan as an "amnesty," Vitter has been a leader in the campaign to disrupt the fragile compromise that supporters say is designed to stop the influx of illegal immigrants while laying a pathway for an estimated 12 million undocumented workers to achieve legal status.

With a relatively small Hispanic population, immigration is not nearly the hot-button issue in Louisiana that it is in California, Texas or Florida. And Vitter's high-profile position is gaining attention beyond the state's borders as the little-known freshman senator gains national exposure for his opposition.

"It certainly does appear that Sen. Vitter is looking beyond Louisiana lately," said Thomas Langston, a political scientist at Tulane University. "His very public pursuit of Rudy Giuliani (for president) speaks clearly to his ambition to become a national-level player within the Republican Party."

Earlier this month, Vitter's attempt to kill the "amnesty" provision failed by a single vote in the Senate as he pointedly tangled with fellow Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

This week, Vitter pulled together a small group of fellow conservatives to build momentum against the bill, which is expected to resurface next week. At a news conference, he went so far as to criticize the beloved leader of the modern conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, who pushed the 1986 immigration reform that Vitter said gave an incentive to millions of others to sneak across the border.

Vitter plans to be at the forefront of a move next week to block the bill that Senate leaders had hoped to move before the Independence Day recess. He vowed to "use every procedural tool" in the Senate arsenal to derail the legislation when leaders attempt to bring it up, possibly Tuesday, before Congress adjourns for a week.

Politically, there is little downside to Vitter. Despite the influx of Hispanic workers to New Orleans to work in the cleanup and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, there has been little tension over jobs that has brought the issue to a boiling point in other parts of the country. In addition, few of those migrant workers are likely to be registered to vote.

In the 2000 census, Hispanic residents made up only 2.4 percent of Louisiana's population compared with 12.4 percent nationally. And while some of the most explosive growth has been in Southern states such as North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee, the trend appears to have eluded Louisiana.

"We're sort of removed from it," said Baton Rouge pollster Bernie Pinsonat. "He can probably do what he's doing because it's not even showing up on the radar screen in Louisiana."


Crying out for help

It's a big issue for farmers, including those in Louisiana, who rely on migrant workers for 75 percent to 80 percent of their labor. The agricultural sector has pushed for immigration overhaul as a means to attract workers to jobs most Americans aren't interested in taking. The current bill proposes a system whereby undocumented workers accumulate points toward earning legal status by, for example, working at farm jobs.

A study by the American Farm Bureau estimated that the shortage of workers costs American farmers $9 billion annually in lost crops.

"Right now, there are crops of asparagus rotting in Michigan because they can't find workers," said Austin Perez, head of congressional relations for the Farm Bureau. "If this bill does not move forward, there is zero chance of getting immigration reform this year. This bill isn't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction."

Polls suggest that most Americans would be receptive to finding a way to assimilate undocumented workers. A CBS/New York Times poll in May found that 62 percent of people thought illegal immigrants should be given a chance to keep their jobs and apply for legal status.

But Vitter has staunchly opposed any pathway toward legal status for those who sneaked across the border.

"In this year's bill, the federal government would forgive an entire class of lawbreakers," Vitter said. "As in 1986, they'd have to pay a few fines and take other, modest action, but they would never have to leave the country for a day and they would never have to spend one day in jail."


Clashing with president

Vitter's views have put him in direct confrontation with the White House. In the face of complaints from Bush that opponents are mischaracterizing the issue, Vitter said last month, "If the president wants to have an honest debate, he should start answering some basic questions about the bill" he developed with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The political risk of picking a fight with Bush has greatly diminished. The president's approval ratings are at an all-time low of 26 percent in a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Yet Vitter's position is causing his party leaders heartburn and possibly causing friction with party colleagues.

"He knows he is speaking to his base right now," said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Congress for the Cook Political Report. "But you are putting yourself in the line of fire in the Senate chamber. Digging in your heels like that doesn't make (Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell's job any easier."


Katrina connection drawn

Vitter is proceeding with the confidence of a man who believes he has a winning issue. He has cast the immigration bill as a referendum on the competence of the federal government. He says the bureaucracy has proven unable to enforce the existing immigration laws, and now proponents of the immigration bill want to pile on even more requirements.

Who is better positioned to question the capabilities of the federal government than a senator whose state saw its failures up close in the disastrous response to Katrina?

"I'd like to make just one observation," Vitter noted this week. "The bureaucracy that would be in charge of (enforcing the new law) is the same one in charge of the Katrina response in my state almost two years ago. I have no confidence that it will be done quickly, properly or competently."

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