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  1. #1
    Senior Member zeezil's Avatar
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    AZ: Immigration on voters' back burner

    Immigration on voters' back burner
    Amid economy, inflation concerns, hot-button issue cools somewhat

    By Daniel Scarpinato
    Arizona Daily Star
    Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.11.2008

    Illegal immigration dominated Arizona's political debate during the 2004 and 2006 election cycles, as voters passed half a dozen ballot measures aimed at toughening immigration enforcement and denying state benefits to illegal immigrants.

    But this year, with conservative border activists unable to garner enough signatures to make use of the ballot and as economic concerns dominate the agenda, immigration appears to have fallen by the wayside.

    There's only one immigration-related measure on the ballot this year, and it does the opposite of those previous ones — it actually weakens provisions of the state's employer-sanctions act.

    "The issue has mellowed somewhat," said Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University pollster and political scientist. Solop said that's due to a combination of factors, including the rise of other issues — such as the economy and gasoline prices — and fewer candidates who are running specifically on an anti-immigration message.

    "Certainly, with gas prices, mortgage issues, the strength of the dollar, people are wondering where their next paycheck is going to come from," Solop said. "There's a sense of insecurity that's influencing or casting a pall over our understanding of the economy right now."

    That has people such as Glenn Spencer, of the Sierra Vista-based American Border Patrol, struggling to find out where candidates stand.
    "It is very frustrating to me," Spencer said. "This hasn't been made an issue in the campaign partly because the right questions haven't been asked."

    Those questions, he said, include how presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama would secure the border — and what that phrase means to them.

    Michelle Dallacroce, founder of Phoenix-based Mothers Against Illegal Aliens, said the issue is still on voters' minds; it's just not garnering media attention. Candidates say that's evident when talking with voters in rural Arizona, where the border is an everyday reality.

    Perhaps no political race in the state has been more defined by immigration over the years than the recurring battle for control of Southern Arizona's 8th Congressional District, where incumbent Democrat Gabrielle Giffords is being challenged by Republican state Senate President Tim Bee.

    In Giffords' first race two years ago, she faced Republican Randy Graf, who waged his campaign with a strong anti-illegal-immigration message. While Giffords, too, talked tough, her more moderate positions on immigration and border issues won the election in a district that shares a 114-mile border with Mexico.

    This time around, less distance separates Giffords and Bee than separated Giffords and Graf. However, as Giffords touts her efforts to highlight the issue in Washington over the past year and a half, Bee criticizes what he says has been a lack of action by Giffords and her Washington colleagues.

    "They've failed to act," Bee said in a recent interview. "You have to have people who can bring people to the table. We haven't heard anything on this issue for almost a year."

    Giffords rejects that notion, pointing to an array of floor speeches and bills she has sponsored.

    She also stresses the work she says she's done in educating other members of Congress on the issue, such as leading a tour of a Nogales border station.

    But in the wake of a political blowout over immigration-law overhaul in the U.S. Senate last year, it's been impossible to get lawmakers to tackle immigration, she said.

    "Our immigration laws need to be overhauled. In Southern Arizona, we're in the thick of things," she said in an interview. "We've paid a heavy price for Washington's inability to update our laws."

    Both candidates have legislation to tout. But in an illustration of how state and federal policy can clash on this contentious issue, their signature immigration achievements have the two candidates debating over competing policies.

    Giffords recently sponsored the renewal of E-Verify, an online database that employers use to check the legality of workers. The bill passed the U.S. House late last month and is an essential element of legislation that Bee co-sponsored on the state level — a high-profile employer-sanctions bill.

    Bee is using his support of the bill in the state Legislature to underline what he says is his ability to bring opposing sides together for compromise. But Giffords has spoken critically about that legislation and eventually wants to override it with a federal program. And Bee has framed Giffords' recent support for E-Verify as a shrewd political calculation because she originally opposed renewing the program, citing complaints from the business community.

    "I'm not a fan of E-Verify," Giffords said, defending her position. "But something needed to be done before Congress adjourned and E-Verify expired in November. That would have been irresponsible."

    Bee said he's glad that Giffords now agrees with him — although her bill included provisions, such as a shorter renewal time and a government study, that she says are consistent with her original position. "I see that as a flip-flop," Bee said.

    On a defining — and often divisive — issue, Bee believes illegal immigrants should have to return to their country of origin in order to apply for citizenship. Giffords, meanwhile, has taken a position in line with that of McCain — that illegal immigrants should pay back taxes and a fine, learn English and be allowed to apply after briefly returning to their home country.

    Giffords said that if she's re-elected, she will continue pushing for a comprehensive bill — one that includes a border security measure coupled with a guest-worker plan and a citizenship plan.

    Bee is more inclined to support piecemeal legislation. But he said, "We need to have a temporary-guest-worker plan so that the people who are coming here to work have that in place so we can focus on the criminal traffic that is coming across the border."

    The candidates' views are not far apart on many points, which some observers say is a reflection of a political environment in which immigration has taken a lower profile.

    "There are other things that have pulled people's attention," said Jennifer Allen, director of the Tucson-based Border Action Network, an immigration-rights group. "There's a shift in the current."
    http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/252144
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  2. #2
    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    But you haven't done enough,Gifford.

    Bee is doing on the state level; give him a chance and change often the elected official.

    They will know the voters have control more then.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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