Thread: Frustration over immigration spills into politics

Rob Christensen, Staff Writer
Scott Lowerre says he has nothing against Hispanics. In fact, he takes part in a church outreach program that tries to connect Hispanics to local congregations.
But Lowerre, 45, a two-way radio salesman from Winston-Salem, said he is fed up with a wave of illegal immigration into the United States. That is why he was one of about 50 people who showed up at a forum in Winston-Salem last week dealing with the issue.

"It's driving down wages," Lowerre said in an interview. "It's costing us a lot of money. These people have a different view of life. There are different standards of hygiene. I guess, the word is, they are not assimilating very well."

Such anger over cultural differences -- as well as concerns about national security, jobs and the breakdown of the immigration system -- is helping make illegal immigration a potentially powerful issue in midterm elections.

Immigration has rarely been an important political issue in North Carolina. The great immigrant waves of the 19th and early 20th centuries largely bypassed the state. But in the 1990s, North Carolina had the nation's fastest-growing Hispanic population. Although precise numbers are hard to come by, informed estimates suggest about 300,000 of the roughly 650,000 Hispanics in the state are here illegally.

The issue of illegal immigration is being debated at every level of government, from the U.S. Capitol to local courthouses. In Cabarrus County, a move is afoot to deny county contracts to companies that hire illegal immigrants. In Forsyth County, an influx of Hispanic children is being blamed for school overcrowding. In Raleigh this spring, the legislature is expected to pass a law making it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses.

"It is the issue of this year," said Republican U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, a potential candidate for governor in 2008. Myrick is pushing for a law to deport illegal immigrants convicted of drunken driving.

The immigration question has placed North Carolina's two Republican senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, in a political vise. They are caught between party activists demanding tough new immigration restrictions and a business community dependent on a ready supply of workers from Mexico and elsewhere.

To fix or to punish

The influx has heightened cultural, economic and, in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, national security concerns.

Sixty-one percent of the 800 North Carolinians polled last year by a Raleigh-based conservative think tank thought illegal immigration was a serious problem. Support was strong for a tougher line against immigrants, including such steps as barring them from obtaining driver's licenses and deporting those guilty of misdemeanors. The poll, conducted for the Civitas Institute, had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

Marisol Jimenez-McGhee, advocacy director for El Pueblo, a Hispanic advocacy group in Raleigh, said the Latino community understands that the immigration system is broken and that, as a result, state and local governments are facing financial burdens. But she said the system needs to be fixed without punishing people just trying to better themselves.

"It will be a huge issue in 2006," she said. "The frustration level is so high in North Carolina. The change has become so rapid. There has been a level of discomfort. The face of our community has changed. People running for office find the immigration issue is one that has an immediate response, one that can drive some of their constituents, unfortunately."

One of the most vocal critics has been U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, a Farmville Republican. For the past two years, Jones has been warning that the influx of immigrants poses grave security risks.

Jones has sponsored numerous bills to restrict illegal immigration -- by hiring more border guards, for instance, and by supporting state militias' efforts to guard the country's borders.

"We have 16,000 coming over the Mexican border into the United States each week," Jones said last week. "We don't know who they are or what their intent is. I'm more concerned about terrorists coming from Mexico than Iraq."

If it were up to Jones, all the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants -- critics say it's more like 15 million -- would be required to return to their native lands.

Jones is part of a coalition headed by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, that pushed a bill through the House in December to increase the penalty on businesses that hire workers who are in the country illegally. The coalition includes Myrick and Reps. Howard Coble of Greensboro, Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk, Robin Hayes of Concord and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton. All but McIntyre are Republicans.

Myrick attached an amendment to the bill requiring deportation of illegal immigrants found guilty of drunken driving. It was named after Scott Gardner, a Gaston County schoolteacher killed in July by a drunken driver from Mexico who had five previous drunken-driving convictions.

The House approved the bill despite strong opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many business groups that regard the bill as punitive. The battle now moves to the Senate, which is expected to vote on immigration legislation in March.

Bush out of touch?

President Bush, who has courted Hispanics' votes since he was governor of Texas, has voiced reservations about the House bill. Although citing the need for greater border security, he has pushed for a "guest worker" provision to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country up to six years before being required to return.

Some GOP strategists think the president is out of touch.

"There is a disconnect between the elites in the party and the grass roots," said Marc Rotterman, a Raleigh-based GOP political consultant. "I think if the president does not deal with the crisis on the Mexican border, he risks alienating his conservative base -- those Reagan blue-collar Demo-crats who have helped create our electoral majority."

That seemed to be the case at the state GOP headquarters in Raleigh last week, when party activists gathered to watch Bush's State of the Union address. Although they cheered most of Bush's remarks, there was only awkward murmuring when Bush said "the economy could not function without" immigrants.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican national chairman, said last week in Raleigh that the country must deal not only with border security but ultimately "with the reason immigrants are coming here, and that is the economic magnet of jobs."

Bush was roundly criticized last week when opponents of illegal immigration held rallies in Charlotte and Winston-Salem. The modestly attended rallies were designed to put heat on Dole and Burr to support the tough restrictions in the House bill. Several speakers warned that North Carolina's two senators were more attuned to corporate interests that finance their campaigns than to rank-and-file citizens.

Dole said she is undecided what legislation she will support, but said it should include beefed-up border security, more agents, greater technology and more facilities for deportations.

"We want to do this without crippling vital components of our economy," Dole said. She said she met last week with N.C. Farm Bureau representatives, who stressed the importance of foreign workers in harvesting the state's crops.

Burr said he favored stricter border security but also said illegal immigrants should be given an opportunity to work for legal status -- for both economic and national security reasons.

Amnesty bill is out

"The outrage is over amnesty," Burr said Friday after meeting with tobacco growers in Raleigh. "There will be no amnesty bill that passes the U.S. Congress, and there will be no amnesty bill that the president asks for. The question is what we need to do to get people documented legally.

"That probably means some period of time where they are allowed to be in the country working with the full intent of them returning home at the end of the period. It is unreasonable to believe that we can ask 11 million people to leave the country and re-apply. That would only suggest that they will never apply and they will stay undocumented."

The complexity of the issue could be seen at the Golden Corral restaurant in Winston-Salem, where the foes of illegal immigration met last week. Half the restaurant's employees were Hispanic, including all but one of the kitchen workers, according to the restaurant manager.

With 365,000 employees, North Carolina's restaurant industry is the state's second-largest private employer, after agribusiness.

"There wouldn't be enough people to staff the restaurants" without strong Hispanic involvement, said Paul M. Stone, head of the N.C. Restaurant Association.

"We believe in a policy matching willing employers with willing employees," he said. "We also believe in securing our borders. People already in the country, working hard and who don't have criminal records, they should have the opportunity to continue to work in the U.S. and be a contributing force both in the economy and in the community."

But Myrick says she hears from business people who think their competitors get unfair advantages by hiring illegal immigrants, paying them lower salaries and no benefits.

Although the Hispanic community has little political clout in North Carolina, it has been attempting to make its voice heard. At the Charlotte anti-immigration event, Hispanic protesters holding signs such as "Immigrants Build America" greatly outnumbered those attending the rally.

Jimenez-McGhee of El Pueblo said immigration reform is needed. The question, she said, is whether new laws will find ways to better integrate Hispanics into the community or whether new measures will make life so difficult that illegal immigrants will be forced to return to their native lands.

Bush out of touch?

Some GOP strategists think the president is out of touch.

Although they cheered most of Bush's remarks, there was only awkward murmuring when Bush said "the economy could not function without" immigrants.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican national chairman, said last week in Raleigh that the country must deal not only with border security but ultimately "with the reason immigrants are coming here, and that is the economic magnet of jobs."

"Out of touch"?

Bush is Out of His Mind.

Mehlman--"must deal with the reason immigrants are coming here, and that is the economic magnet of jobs".



You fool, it's the "economic magnet" of a Wackident opening the borders and sayin' "ya'll come, we gonna match ya up with a willin' employer so you can take some job away from an American Citizen....you's our friends, now...wink wink....we're sick and tired of those costly all pride-filled idealistic American Workers always wantin' more more more".

"Out of touch", you say?

The man is a bona fide T R A I T O R!

And I'm a fourth generation Republican that voted for this maniac TWICE, before I figured out that irrefutable FACT.