Thread: Illegal workers hot topic in 4th

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/ne ... 777028.htm

Poll says issue ranks third with voters
By Steve Lannen And John Stamper
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS
Even though voters in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District are thousands of miles from the Mexican border, a poll by a Washington immigration think tank suggests that immigration issues will weigh heavily on the minds of Northern Kentuckians in the upcoming election.

The poll, sponsored by the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, also shows U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., with a lead of five percentage points over Democrat and former congressman Ken Lucas, although 21 percent of the 500 likely voters surveyed Oct. 6-7 remain undecided. Davis led Lucas 40 percent to 35 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The Center for Immigration Studies asked voters nationally and in 10 battleground districts with tight congressional races what issues loom large as they decide which candidates to support Nov. 7. In the 4th District, immigration ranks third, behind "Iraq/terrorism" and "health care/prescription drugs."

Thirteen percent of district voters surveyed said it is their most important issue, and an additional 44 percent said it was one of their top three issues.

An additional 31 percent said immigration was important, but not in their top three. Only 10 percent said it wasn't important at all.

Taxes, education, moral issues, jobs/economy and taxes ranked below immigration.

This follows a national Pew Research Center poll released recently that suggests most voters aren't thinking too much about the immigration issue. In that poll, 24 percent of voters named immigration as a key election issue, compared with 51 percent who cited Iraq and 37 percent who cited terrorism.

However, the Pew poll suggests immigration is much more likely to be an important issue for Republican voters, who dominate in the conservative district that stretches along the Ohio River from Louisville's suburbs to the West Virginia border and comes as far south as northern Scott County.

"It's one of the top issues we hear about repeatedly, especially out in the rural areas outside of Northern Kentucky," said Justin Brasell, campaign manager for Davis. "I don't think you have to be a border state to be concerned about it -- and clearly people are."

Immigration came to the national forefront last spring when immigrants held a series of protests as the U.S. Senate considered a border-enforcement measure already passed by the House that would have criminalized immigrants remaining in the United States without papers. It also would have provided no opportunity for a guest-worker program, something President Bush wants, or allowed an undocumented worker to eventually become a citizen.

In the 4th District, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raided homebuilding sites in May, arresting and later deporting several workers in Florence. Across the river in Ohio, Butler County sheriff Richard Jones has also gained a lot of attention for his get-tough stance on immigrants and criticism of the federal government's perceived inaction.

Davis and Lucas have sparred publicly over immigration issues, although the two men have fairly similar stances.

Davis has tried to portray Lucas as "soft" on immigration by claiming in a television ad that he voted to give benefits to illegal aliens. However, the vote actually affected only immigrants in the country lawfully.

The distinction is important, since the Center for Immigration Studies' poll shows that 54 percent of respondents in the 4th District are much more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to deny jobs and benefits to illegal immigrants.

"It doesn't look like there's much support in Kentucky's 4th for increasing immigration or any sort of legalization," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Lucas has criticized the most recently passed immigration bill in Congress, which calls for a 700-mile fence, as being too weak. He called the measure "bubblegum and bailing wire" and suggested that Congress doesn't really want to address meaningful reform.

Both men oppose amnesty or any other path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and support border-strengthening measures.

The candidates' only contrasting stances are on a possible guest-worker program for farmers. Lucas supports such a program; Davis does not.

"We oppose any expansion of the existing guest worker programs until we secure our borders," Brasell said.

While seemingly popular in the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati, that position is unpopular with some farmers, many of whom have had a hard time finding laborers to work the fields this year.

Tighter border security this summer, along with more workers flocking to construction jobs in post-Katrina Louisiana, has probably contributed to the shortage, said Rick Alexander, executive director of the Commodity Growers Cooperative in Lexington.

He predicts tobacco will be left in the field or lost to bad weather because of delays and lack of manpower.

Right now, the H2A visa program is the only legal way to get immigrant workers. The program needs to be more flexible and eliminate red tape that causes delays, said Jess Burrier, who is using the program for the first time this year in Harrison County.

Burrier said he is "extremely disappointed" with those in Congress who talk about building walls or deporting people.

If anyone is really informed about the issue, Burrier said, they would know that food and other commodities will rot in the fields without immigrant labor.

"Let's hope it's just hard-core rhetoric and they're really informed," Burrier said. "Sending the Mexicans back and building a big wall isn't going to fix the fact that we just don't have enough labor to meet our needs in this nation."


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Reach Steve Lannen in the Herald-Leader's Georgetown bureau at (502) 867-1354 or e-mail slannen@herald-leader.com.

If anyone is really informed about the issue, Burrier said, they would know that food and other commodities will rot in the fields without immigrant labor.

Its pretty sad to realize that our country is addicted to the cheap labor. Its all about money, plain and simple.