Thread: A Look At Immigration Among Hispanic Voters

A look at immigration issues among Hispanic voters

By Juan Castillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, October 13, 2008

Time was when politicians tended to make their appeals to Latino voters with a one-issue-fits-all approach: immigration.

But Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are emphasizing a broad range of topics — jobs, the economy, health care, education — as well as immigration as they court Hispanic voters, who loom as a potential swing vote in November's presidential election. Their more expansive approach is pragmatic, for Latino concerns mirror those of voters at-large.

"It's the same issues that are important to everybody," said Sylvia Camarillo, a longtime Travis County Democratic Party activist. "It's almost becoming not (about) racial or cultural issues anymore, it's just social issues in general."

At least once they're in the voting booth. But when it comes to getting Latino voters to the polls, immigration is still a potent motivator.Asked to rate their biggest concerns, Hispanic registered voters ranked education, the cost of living, jobs, health care and crime ahead of immigration in a nationwide survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Yet Pew also found that the immigration issue has become more importantto Latinos since the last presidential election. In that interim, federal authorities dramatically stepped up enforcement of immigration laws and Congress considered a comprehensive immigration reform bill as well as a separate measure to criminalize illegal immigrants. Both failed.

"Immigration matters in this election, in part, because we think it's driving a lot of energy on the part of Latino voters," said Cecilia Muñoz, a senior vice president with the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group.

With a few differences, Obama and McCain have taken similar stances on immigration. Both favor securing the borders and giving potentially millions of illegal immigrants already here conditional means of gaining legal residency.

McCain bucked his own party when he co-sponsored comprehensive immigration reform legislation in 2006. He abandoned the proposal and now says the borders must be secured before he could consider such a bill again. Obama has vowed to press for reform his first year as president, if elected.

Muñoz said that in the council's polling, Hispanics rarely say immigration is their top issue but do identify it as their biggest motivator to vote.

"It operates as a threshold issue the way reproductive rights does with some women voters," explainedMuñoz. "It determines who the good guys and the bad guys are."

Muñoz says most Hispanics, like most Americans, support laws that allow illegal immigrants in good standing to become legal U.S. residents. But not all agree.

"I know some Latinos that are very adamant about the folks who are here illegally and feel strongly that they shouldn't be," said Hector DeLeon, 61, of West Lake Hills, a leader in state Republican political circles who is supporting McCain and also supports immigration reform.

Often, the feelings are linked to cultural and economic tensions between Mexican American citizens and illegal immigrants. For instance, a Pew Hispanic Center survey in 2007 found that while 82 percent of foreign-born Latinos think that illegal immigrants benefit the economy, only 64 percent of native-born Latinos do.

Protests led to registration

Hispanics are notoriously underrepresented at the polls.

About 47 million strong, they make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population but only 9 percent of eligible voters. Many are ineligible either because they're not yet citizens or not yet 18 years old. And Latinos vote in smaller percentages than their Anglo and African American counterparts.

But there are signs that registration of eligible Latinos is rising, boosted in large part by the wrenching immigration debate.

An estimated 1.1 million Latinos ages 18 and older became naturalized U.S. citizens since the last presidential election, said Jeffrey Passel, an expert on immigration and a demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center.

What struck Passel is that 85 percent of that growth occurred after May 2006, a date that coincides with the end of nationwide protests advocating new immigration laws and pathways to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. "Today we march; tomorrow we vote," became the rallying cry as millions took to the streets.

A national alliance of community and voter mobilization groups that sprang from the demonstrations has been working for two years to register 500,000 new immigrant voters and to get 1 million immigrants to the polls this November.

Last month, the alliance said it had registered 372,000 new Latino and Asian immigrant voters and was optimistic it would reach its goals.

"We hear again and again that some of our newest voters feel passionately that they want their voice in this process," saidRafael Collazo with Democracia U.S.A., a Miami-based partner in the We Are America Alliance.

Immigrant advocates say that new citizens and first-time voters are driven by crackdowns against illegal immigrants — which they consider threatening even to family members with legal status — and the Republican-led attempts in 2006 to make illegal immigration a felony, which ignited the mass protests.

"When the political pundits begin to assess what transpired in the 2008 elections, the role of immigration will be one of the most important explanations," said Paco Fabián, communications director with the immigrant advocacy group America's Voice,referring to both the political issue and the infusion of new immigrant voters.

A turnaround

Two major questions for Hispanic voters are how to regard McCain's zigzag stance on immigration and whether he can bring his fellow Republicans around to views more in keeping with his own.

"John McCain has always been a champion on this issue," said Hessy Fernandez, McCain's national Latino outreach director.

The bipartisan McCain-Kennedy bill, which Obama also supported, would have tightened enforcement at the borders and in the workplace, created a guest worker program and offered the hope of legalization for millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S., if they paid fines and met other conditions.

It competed for a time with Republican-led legislation in the House to criminalize illegal immigrants.

The McCain bill engendered a backlash of its own — from GOP conservatives — and failed to pass the Senate in 2007.

"Many Americans did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts," McCain says on his campaign Web site.

Muñoz said Latino voters appreciate McCain for having stood up to his party but added: "I think they want to see him stand up now ... Even if his heart is in the right place, can he deliver comprehensive immigration reform?"

In fact, the Republican Party platform is sharply at odds with McCain's on immigration.

The platform emphasizes border security and opposes what it calls "amnesty," measures that would allow illegal immigrants already here to gain citizenship.

Many Hispanic advocacy groups view its language as harsh and a continuation of anti-immigrant antagonism that fired much of the 2006 debate in Congress.

By contrast, the Democratic Party platform calls for "comprehensive immigration reform, not just piecemeal efforts."

"I feel that (because) he's getting a lot of pressure from the Republicans, that McCain's becoming more and more anti-immigrant," said Mary González, 24, a St. Edward's graduate student who helped assemble immigration reform rallies at the University of Texas when she was an undergrad there in 2006.

But Michael Orona, a 22-year-old University of Texas student, said McCain's current position shows he respects the rule of law. A McCain supporter, Orona says illegal immigration hurts legal immigrants who are trying to find jobs.

"Opportunities (for them) are limited because there are such vast numbers who are here illegally and who are willing to do jobs for a lower wage," Orona said.

Cornerstones of reform

Speaking to National Council of La Raza's annual convention in July, Obama pledged to make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority in his first year as president.

Appearing before the same group later, McCain, in response to a question, said he would make more humane immigration policy changes a priority, too, but he did not give a time frame.

Like McCain, Obama supports more enforcement at the borders and in the workplace. But he also says that immigration raids are ineffective and cause hardships in Latino communities, where immigrant families, unauthorized residents and native-born citizens live together.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, about 14.6 million people in the United States are in families in which the head or spouse is an unauthorized immigrant, a figure that includes an estimated 3.1 million children who are U.S.-born citizens.

"For reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America," Obama says on his Web site. "Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should."

Obama cites five cornerstones of such reform on his Web site: creatingsecure borders, fixing the "dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy," cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, allowing undocumented immigrants in good standing to pay a fine and meet other conditions before going "to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens," and working with Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

"I think it's time for a president who won't walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform just because it becomes politically unpopular," Obama told the La Raza convention.

Where McCain and Obama stand

Comprehensive immigration reform

Both have supported it. In 2007 McCain co-authored a sweeping reform bill, which Obama backed. It did not pass, and McCain later abandoned the bill.

Border wall

Both voted for building 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

DREAM Act

Both co-sponsored failed legislation to allow certain undocumented students to attend college and potentially attain legal residence, known as the DREAM Act. McCain's campaign says he does not support amnesty or benefits for illegal immigrants. However, he told the National Council of La Raza in July that he would support the DREAM Act.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... immig.html

"I feel that (because) he's getting a lot of pressure from the Republicans, that McCain's becoming more and more anti-immigrant," said Mary González, 24,

It ain't anti-immigrant, it is pro-American and it is anti-illegals. Many of the legal immigrants I talk to, and I talk to all of them when I hear an accent, are livid about anyone coming here illegally getting amnesty, or excuse me, comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship.
I am getting sick of this political spin by groups that should not really be opening their mouths, which only proves they are traitors to the health and welfare of this country.

I think it's time for a president who won't walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform just because it becomes politically unpopular," Obama told the La Raza convention.

If majority rules, you lost......remember the knife cuts both ways. You can't endorse it one way and ignore it in another.

"Often, the feelings are linked to cultural and economic tensions between Mexican American citizens and illegal immigrants. For instance, a Pew Hispanic Center survey in 2007 found that while 82 percent of foreign-born Latinos think that illegal immigrants benefit the economy, only 64 percent of native-born Latinos do."

64 percent of native born Latinos feel that illegals benefit the economy. Well, I am tired of that game. That is an ethnic decision , not an American decision. I guess if I was Hispanic and owned property I could rent to illegals and all the attendant benefits I would think them beneficial to the economy---MY economy and screw the rest of America. I guess if I was president of a abnk or an ele ctric company and I was generating more power and more monetary interest and fees, I too would say they were benefical. And whu would I give a hoot about the 8-10 million americans who have no work????
You can bet your bippy that every tortilla and salsa company in America love them too. Jsut like the similar companies in Mexico, south and Central America.