Thread: Immigration ads accusing Democrats of leniency

COX NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - Some feature Latino men crossing barbed wire fences and wading through water in the dead of night. Others allege crimes - including vehicular homicide - committed by illegal immigrants.

And still others accuse Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, of wanting to give benefits to people who broke the law to enter the United States.

Immigration political ads - on television, radio and on the Internet - are becoming a staple of this year's election, and most accuse Democrats of coddling illegal immigrants.

In Michigan, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is attacking Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow with a Web site - www.muchasgraciasdebbie. com - that has a picture of Stabenow wearing a sombrero with the words "No Problema" coming out of her mouth. It claims that she advocates Social Security benefits and voting rights for illegal immigrants. The site features the red, white and green colors of Mexico's flag and plays a song known as the Mexican Hat Dance.

An ad by Republican candidate Randy Graf in Arizona's 8th District shows a little blonde girl in pajamas walking through a house toward the door with a voice-over that says the border is an open door to thousands who cross illegally, including those bringing drugs, criminals and possibly terrorists. Graf says in the ad that he fears for the safety of his family and that of all Americans.

In the Tennessee governor's race, Republican Jim Bryson is airing an ad featuring a woman whose parents were killed in a car crash allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had been arrested 16 times before.

The woman says, "As our governor, Jim Bryson will punish and deport illegal aliens who commit crime."

The immigration issue is also playing a role in local races across the country, which has led to some unusual advertisements. In Buncombe County, N.C., a group of Republicans put up two billboards over the summer that featured a Mexican flag flying above an upside-down American flag. The signs read, "Had Enough?"

Brooks Jackson, director of the Political Fact Check project at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said that immigration is a major theme in campaign ads this year and that the most common accuse Democratic candidates of supporting amnesty or benefits for illegal immigrants.

One of the most common claims - that a candidate supports giving Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants, has been used in at least 29 attack ads, and is a mischaracterization of a vote on a measure that would have prevented immigrants from getting credit toward future Social Security benefits from taxes paid before they have legal permission to work, Jackson said.

Some ads have upset Latino groups.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee removed an ad from its Web site in August after Hispanic groups complained that it likened illegal immigrants to terrorists. The ad included pictures of Osama bin Laden, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and what appeared to be Latino men crossing a border fence.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 914320.htm

I think trying to cripple the American economy via boycott, and attempting to shut down an airport with a pro-illegal march IS TERRORISM. The ads are RIGHT ON.