Thread: PA: Immigration a hot-button issue in Lehigh Valley

Immigration a hot-button issue in Lehigh Valley
Crackdown: GOP hopefuls take harder line than McCain.
By Scott Kraus | Of The Morning Call
August 3, 2008

When Sen. John McCain visited Bucks County in May, the largest cheer at his town hall came when a woman complained about having to pick between English and Spanish on a customer service line.

That could explain why area Republican congressional candidates are promoting a hard line against illegal immigration, stressing border security and urging a crackdown on those now here illegally.

It's a position that sets them apart from McCain, who as the presumptive Republican presidential candidate favors more border security but maintains that those in the country illegally should be offered some legal path to citizenship.

''Based on the contacts to my office alone, I would have to say after the energy issue…illegal immigration is the issue my office hears the most about,'' said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District. ''This is an issue people are clearly paying attention to.''

Some pollsters dispute that, but it hasn't stopped Dent, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta and other GOP congressional candidates such as Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-6th District, and to a lesser extent Bucks County hopeful Tom Manion from stressing tough anti-amnesty stances.

Their Democratic opponents? If they do discuss the issue, it's reluctantly. Although all want better border security, most don't list immigration in the issue section of their Web sites. Barletta's opponent, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-11th District, and Bucks County's U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-8th District, have adopted anti-amnesty positions.

Republicans in particular think pushing for stronger border security and a crackdown on illegal immigrants will resonate with conservative ''Reagan Democrats'' facing a tough economy, said Frank Parry, executive director of America's Voice, a pro-immigrant group.

Tough talk about deporting illegal immigrants probably has the support of only a small but vocal minority, Parry said, but it is unlikely to hurt candidates in Pennsylvania because there are also few Hispanic voters.

''There's not a lot of downside and they [Republicans against illegal immigration] figure this will be a way to define the Democrat as soft,'' Parry said.

Immigration has had a high local profile, fueled by Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli's frequent national TV appearances, Barletta's crackdown on illegal immigrants in Hazleton and debates on the issue in Allentown, where a growing Hispanic community has led to cultural angst.

Last week, it returned to front pages in the region in a different, more human context, with the arrest of a group of white youths in Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, charged in the beating death of 26-year-old illegal immigrant Luis Ramirez.

The ongoing attention places illegal immigration on the radar of a wider range of voters, said Brookings Institution fellow Audrey Singer, even in a state such as Pennsylvania that hasn't seen the major influx of immigrants of states such as Texas and Florida.

Pennsylvania's Hispanic population has risen 41 percent since 2000, outpacing most other demographic groups, according to the Pennsylvania State Data Center, but remains at a relatively low 556,000.

''There is this kind of bigger sense of something in the air,'' Singer said. ''Part of it is that there are more immigrants than there ever have been before, and they are in more places than they ever were.''

William Gheen, president of the conservative American Legal Immigration political action committee, said the illegal immigration issue could make a difference to some voting groups.

''All candidates have to do is connect with the true public sentiment on this issue,'' Gheen said. ''And the true public sentiments are enforcement [of existing immigration laws] only.''

But Parry disagrees. Former Sen. Rick Santorum hit Democrat Bob Casey Jr. hard of the immigration issue in 2006, to no avail.

Franklin & Marshall political scientist G. Terry Madonna said that except in pockets of eastern Pennsylvania, the issue is not atop voters' lists of concerns. A recent Quinnipiac University poll confirmed that, with illegal immigration barely registering among voters' top issues.

''Two years ago, maybe,'' Madonna said. ''Not now. Energy, the economy, the war. All sorts of other problems have crept in.''

A July 24 study by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that despite short-term gains during the Bush administration, the Republican party is losing badly with Hispanics, and that just 6 percent believe the Republican Party is more concerned about their needs than Democrats.

The same study showed Barack Obama with a wide 66 to 23 percent lead over John McCain among Hispanic registered voters, despite the two maintaining a similar stance on immigration.

That bears out David Vaida's sense that many in the Lehigh Valley's Hispanic community possess a strong skepticism of the Republican Party, and likewise, McCain.

Vaida, an attorney with an office in Allentown, said Hispanic voters tend to lump McCain in with other Republicans whom they perceive as using the illegal immigration issue to beat up on Hispanics.

''A large chunk of the Hispanic community got really turned off to the Republican Party…because they were perceived as condoning language and an approach that was unreasonable,'' Vaida said.
http://www.mcall.com:80/news/local/all- ... 4245.story

350 MILLION AMERICAN CITIZEN - WANT THE 50 MILLION ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS AND ANCHOR BABIES DEPORTED;

MCCAIN IS TRYING TO GET VOTES; OBAMA IS DREAMING IF HE THINKS THE SLEEPING GIANT IS NOT WAKING UP.

WHEN DEPORTATION IS ACCOMPLISHED 100 PERCENT; THEN AND ONLY THEN SHOULD AMERICANS AGREE TO ADMISSION INTO THE COUNTRY AGAIN.

SHUT ALL EMPLOYMENT DOWN FROM IMPORTING PEOPLE

LET'S SEE WHAT JOBS THERE ARE THAT AMERICANS WILL NOT DO.

Tough talk about deporting illegal immigrants probably has the support of only a small but vocal minority, Parry said, but it is unlikely to hurt candidates in Pennsylvania because there are also few Hispanic voters.

Perry has obviously NOT spent much time Pennsylvania. Not in Hazleton, not in Shenandoah, not anywhere within PA borders.

Moron.