March 5, 2008 3:45 PM CST
Activists look to jump-start immigration debate for 2008 election

By SOPHIA TAREEN

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. - When village officials in this suburban Chicago community considered hardline anti-illegal immigration stances, like making English the official language, residents rallied in every public forum.

Council meetings overflowed with thousands. Neighborhoods were canvassed with fliers. Coalitions formed.

But months and many primaries later, activists fear the attention paid to illegal immigration reform has faded in Illinois and other non-border states, even in communities like Carpentersville _ where more than 40 percent of 37,000 residents are Hispanic.

In response, Midwestern immigration activists are renewing a call for action in the months leading up to the election. They're joining with academics from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin this weekend in Chicago to discuss how to again bring immigration reform to the forefront for the region's voters.

"All political candidates are avoiding the issue. They talk about getting the vote of immigrants and Latinos, but they haven't touched the problems of immigration reform," said Jorge Mujica, who's a leader of Chicago's March 10 Coalition. "Something has to happen. We are still here."

The free events to be held Saturday and Sunday in Chicago will cover topics including deportations and how to build more regional momentum for a third year of May 1 rallies to be held nationwide. Past marches brought hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in name of immigrant rights.

"Immigration reform may have faded from the public view, but certainly not from the day-to-day struggles of many people," said Judith Boruchoff, a professor of anthropology at Roosevelt University, which is helping organize the weekend's events.

The three leading candidates for president have somewhat similar views on illegal immigration reform.

Presumptive Republican candidate John McCain sponsored a 2006 bill that would have offered illegal immigrants legal status, on the condition they learned English, paid fines and back taxes and passed a background check. He supports a border fence and recently said securing borders is a chief concern. Both Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama voted for the 2006 bill and a border fence.

Experts following the immigration debate claim Republicans had hoped illegal immigration would become a wedge issue between the two parties in the 2008 presidential election. But activists say, and exit poll data suggests, it's backfired. Mitt Romney, a once leading Republican candidate with the most stringent views on illegal immigration dropped out of the race last month and immigrants, particularly Latinos, have registered and are predicted to vote in unprecedented numbers.

Still, the issue of immigration reform has not resonated with voters as some hoped it would and debate on the issue has faded, particularly in non-border states.

"A number of candidates have interpreted the fact that immigration is important that this is a good issue for demagogy, but that has fallen pretty flat with voters," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza.

Voters across the country overwhelmingly and consistently have named the economy as their number one issue, in exit poll data from Super Tuesday and subsequent primaries.

That's true even in Carpentersville.

Last year, the community about 40 miles northwest of Chicago embraced every public forum to duke out its issues with immigration reform. Carpentersville had experienced rapid change from a large influx of Mexican immigrants. In 1990, Carpentersville's population was nearly 17 percent Hispanic. Fifteen years later it had more than doubled to 41 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As attempts at federal immigration reform stalled and failed, village officials in Carpentersville considered an English-only ordinance and local laws prohibiting hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. The Village Board has passed a nonbinding resolution declaring English the town's official language, and an ordinance to ban employers from hiring or landlords from renting to illegal immigrants still is tabled indefinitely.

But Carpentersville voters heading to the polls last month didn't seem have immigration on their minds.

Beatrice Cobal, 46, an immigrant from Mexico, was happy to vote for Hillary Clinton in her first election. And she said immigration reform is low down on her list of priorities.

"When the economy is good, everything is good," she said in Spanish.

Judy Wille, 62, is an independent who has "Republican tendencies." She voted for McCain.

"My biggest issue was taxes," she said. "Then the economy and the war."

Jose Luis Gutierrez, who immigrated from Mexico in 1960 and lives in Carpentersville, voted for Obama. His biggest concern is the war in Iraq.

"We need a solution," he said.

In the months leading up to the general election, immigration activists and politicians say they're expecting the tone of the debate on immigration to shift, especially as the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees are chosen.

"In terms of Republicans, you'll see them galvanize that no matter what we want to do, we have to secure the border north and south," said Doug Booth, the head of the Kane County Republican Central Committee.

State Sen. Iris Martinez, a Chicago Democrat, said discussion of immigration reform is likely to increase.

"People know that we have to do something on it soon," she said. "The immigration question will be back in again."

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

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