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Article Launched: 8/14/2006 12:00 AM


Lawmakers personalize immigration issue
Politicians hit up the history books to debate immigration
By Lisa Friedman, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

WASHINGTON - From tales of Italian and Irish grandparents landing at Ellis Island to a reminiscence about a father who fled czarist Russia to find refuge in America, members of Congress are shaking the history from their family trees. In an attempt to personalize the ever-polarizing debate on immigration policy, dozens of lawmakers in the past several months have publicly invoked their heritages.
While the stories underscore the deeply personal nature of the issue, analysts also say that trotting out immigrant credentials has been a useful tool for politicians of both parties as they seek to sway public opinion in the high-stakes immigration debate.

"You can make any point with it," University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato noted of the many immigrant-ancestor stories emanating from Washington.

"Most of them came legally, so people who oppose (citizenship for illegal immigrants) can say, `My people did it the right way.' Then, people who want the immigration bill say, `This is what America is based on, immigration,' " Sabato said.

Indeed, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., as well as the panel's leading Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont -- both supporters of a measure legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants -- said their own parents' struggles highlight the need for legislation that offers illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.

"My own family is Exhibit A," Specter said in a recent Senate floor speech. "My father came to this country in 1911 when he was 18 because the czar wanted to send him to Siberia. He preferred Pennsylvania, so he came to the United States."

Of the estimated 12 million immigrants now in the United States illegally, Specter said, "This situation is a test of our humanity as a nation and the values in which we believe in the United States."

Among Southern California lawmakers, both Reps. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, protested in the names of their parents a House version of the bill criminalizing illegal immigrants.

"As the daughter of immigrants, I am offended by this bill," Sanchez said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers who favor deporting illegal immigrants or forcing them to leave the United States by eliminating jobs and benefits refused to be outdone in the heritage department.

"I never knew my grandfather, because he died at 25 years of age, literally working himself to death, possibly on buildings like the Twin Towers," Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., said during the House debate in December.

A descendant of Ellis Island immigrants himself, Gingrey said, "I certainly share the compassion and the intense feeling with regard to our love in this country of immigrants, and we do welcome them."

But, he added, "As we all know, the times unfortunately have changed drastically, and what we are trying to do with regard to border security is not just to protect our own citizens, but to protect every person who comes to this country legally seeking a better opportunity."

Added Oklahoma Republican Rep. Ernest Istook, "As the grandson of immigrants, I have a deep and personal appreciation for the desire and courage it takes to leave your home in search of a better life. My parents were born in Hungary, and they came to America legally through Ellis Island.

"I welcome and embrace those who come here and do so legally, but entering our country illegally is different, very different," he said.

For now, legislation addressing border security and illegal immigration is at a standstill. The House and Senate are holding hearings throughout the country.

While the Republican-engineered hearings have largely been designed to run out the year's legislative clock to avoid voting before congressional elections on legislation that legalizes undocumented immigrants, they also have included their share of pathos and personalized tales.

At a Senate hearing in Miami last week, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cried as he talked about his Italian immigrant father.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., called Pace's statement "enormously moving" and said, "We just hope our colleagues in Congress can hear it."

Meanwhile, CNN's Lou Dobbs, a high-profile advocate for a hard line on illegal immigration, wrote an editorial excoriating the Senate for having "no shame in continuing to try to blur the line between legal and illegal immigration."

The hearing, he wrote, was an "insult to the nation's top general."

Ira Mellman, a Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform that advocates a hard line on illegal immigrants, said he doesn't think politicians' family stories change any minds.

"Everybody just about has a personal story about immigration in their history, and we are all beneficiaries of having made that decision in the past. But it doesn't dictate what the policy ought to be today," he said.

Most lawmakers, Sabato agreed, are preaching to their own choirs on legal and illegal immigration.

"There are good stories on both sides, so which stories do you pick?" he asked. "The ones that support your position."