Thread: Illegal immigration remains key issue for GOP presidential hopefuls

By JAMES ROSEN
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Published Saturday, January 7, 2012

WASHINGTON - When it comes to illegal immigration, Republican presidential candidates are railing like it's 1999.

Listening to the GOP White House aspirants, you wouldn't know that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is down, attempted border crossings are at a 40-year low and President Barack Obama has deported undocumented workers at almost twice the rate as his predecessor.

With slight variations, the top candidates back mass deportations, tough state enforcement laws and extending the 675-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and they oppose giving most illegal immigrants a path to legal residency.

"Border crossings are at a historic low, deportations are at a historic high, yet every Republican presidential candidate says the first thing we have to do is secure the border," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington group that wants immigration enforcement to focus on serious criminals and national security threats.

The issue will likely heat up in the next two weeks as the White House aspirants campaign to win South Carolina's first-in-the-South GOP primary Jan. 21.

Illegal immigration has long been a hot-button topic in South Carolina, where Sen. Jim DeMint was lionized among Republican activists for his leading role in killing 2007 reform legislation he branded as amnesty.

Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh mocked Sen. Lindsey Graham as "Senator Grahamnesty" for his efforts to pass the measure, and the Seneca Republican has since adopted harder positions on illegal immigration.

Now, a federal judge has blocked a S.C. immigration-enforcement law that was to have taken effect Jan. 1.

Sharry, other pro-immigration advocates and Hispanic lawmakers criticized former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney last week for vowing as president to veto the Dream Act, a bill that would provide legal residency to illegal immigrants who attend college, serve in the military and entered the country before the age of 16.

Charlie Black, a North Carolina native and prominent GOP consultant who ran President Ronald Reagan's winning 1980 campaign, is now advising Romney.

Black acknowledged that Romney's hardline immigration stance runs counter to Reagan, who granted the nation's last broad amnesty, and to Black's support for comprehensive reforms providing a path to legal residency.

"That's the right thing to do, but I'm not running for president and Romney is," Black said. "He's entitled to his own view, and I support him."

Other influential Republicans have warned about reversing the inroads Reagan, President George W. Bush and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain made among Hispanics, the country's fastest-growing demographic group with 21.7 million eligible voters - almost three times the 7.7 million in 1988.

"The Republican Party has to discuss [immigration] in as humane a way as possible," McCain told CNN last month. "We have to have empathy, we have to have concern and we have to have a plan."

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove and former House Republican leader Dick Armey have also warned against alienating Hispanics.

Their advice has not been heeded.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's calls for mass deportations and opposition to any leniency helped him in Iowa, where he came within eight votes of defeating Romney.

Romney and other rivals pilloried former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for saying in a November debate that undocumented workers who've been in the country for decades should be given a chance to gain legal status.

Under attack, Gingrich issued an "immigration fact sheet" detailing his past tough stances. He flew to South Carolina and declared his support for the state's beefed-up enforcement law, now enjoined by a federal judge.

An MSNBC poll last month of likely voters in South Carolina's presidential primary showed them split over a key issue, with 46 percent backing and 48 opposing "limited amnesty for some illegal immigrants."

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Good for Romney and all the candidates who support enforcing our laws, recognizing state authority to enforce our laws as well as new ones of their own, and securing the borders.

But deportations up, illegal immigrants down

thestate.com
By James Rosen
Sunday, Jan. 08, 2012

WASHINGTON — When it comes to illegal immigration, Republican presidential candidates are railing like it’s 1999.

Listening to the GOP White House rivals, you wouldn’t know that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is down, attempted border crossings are at a 40-year low and President Barack Obama has deported undocumented workers at twice the rate of his Republican predecessor.

With slight variations, the top GOP candidates back mass deportations, tough state enforcement laws and extending the 675-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. They also oppose giving most illegal immigrants a path to legal residency.

“Border crossings are at a historic low, deportations are at a historic high, yet every Republican presidential candidate says the first thing we have to do is secure the border,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a Washington group that wants immigration enforcement to focus instead on criminals and national security threats.

The issue likely will heat up in the next two weeks as the White House candidates campaign to win South Carolina’s first-in-the-South GOP primary Jan. 21.

Illegal immigration has long been a hot-button topic in South Carolina, where U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a Greenville Republican, was lionized among Republican activists for his leading role in killing 2007 legislation he branded as amnesty. Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh mocked South Carolina’s other U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, as “Senator Grahamnesty” for his efforts to pass the reform measure, and the Seneca Republican since has adopted harder positions on illegal immigration.

Now, a federal judge has blocked a S.C. immigration-enforcement law that was to have taken effect Jan. 1.

‘He’s entitled to his own view’

Despite the numbers and court orders, immigration has proven a hot-button issue that will not fade among Republicans.

Last week, for example, Sharry, other pro-immigration advocates and Hispanic lawmakers criticized Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney for vowing as president to veto the Dream Act, a bill that would provide legal residency to illegal immigrants who attend college, serve in the military and entered the country before the age of 16.

Even some key advisors to the former Massachusetts governor find themselves personally uncomfortable with the Republican’s stance.

North Carolina native Charlie Black, a GOP consultant who ran President Ronald Reagan’s winning 1980 campaign and now is advising Romney, acknowledged Romney’s hard-line stance runs counter to Reagan, who granted the nation’s last broad amnesty, and to Black’s personal support for comprehensive reforms providing a path to legal residency.

“That’s the right thing to do, but I’m not running for president and Romney is,” Black said. “He’s entitled to his own view, and I support him.”

While Romney used the immigration issue to skewer GOP rival Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, in an early GOP debate, other influential Republicans have warned about reversing the inroads Reagan, President George W. Bush and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain made among Hispanics, the country’s fastest-growing demographic group with 21.7 million eligible voters – almost three times the 7.7 million in 1988.

“The Republican Party has to discuss (immigration) in as humane a way as possible,” McCain told CNN last month. “We have to have empathy, we have to have concern and we have to have a plan.”

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove and former House Republican leader Dick Armey also have warned the GOP presidential candidates against alienating Hispanics.

Issue not clear-cut among GOP voters

Their advice has not been heeded.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s calls for mass deportations and opposition to any leniency helped him in Iowa, where he came within eight votes of defeating Romney in the Jan. 3 GOP presidential caucuses.

Romney and other rivals also pilloried former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for saying in a November debate that undocumented workers who have been in the country for decades should be given a chance to gain legal status.

Under attack, Gingrich issued an “immigration fact sheet” detailing his past tough stances. He also flew to South Carolina and declared his support for the state’s beefed-up enforcement law, now barred by a federal judge.

But the illegal immigrant issue is not clear-cut among S.C. GOP voters.

An MSNBC poll last month of likely voters in the S.C. presidential primary showed them split over a key issue, with 46 percent backing and 48 opposing “limited amnesty for some illegal immigrants.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide the issue later this year, taking up an early anti-illegal immigrant law passed by Arizona.

Deportations up, illegals down

Hispanic lawmakers and advocates find irony in the claims by DeMint, Romney, Santorum and other Republicans that Obama has been soft on illegal immigration.

The federal government deported a record 395,000 foreigners in 2009 and 387,000 in 2010, compared with 189,000 in 2001 and 165,000 in 2002 – George W. Bush’s first two years in office.

Also, the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has dropped to 11.2 million from its peak of 12 million in 2007, falling to 55,000 from 70,000 in South Carolina, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington policy group.

The number of people apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol while trying to enter the country illegally plummeted to 340,000 last year, a fifth its peak of nearly 1.7 million in 2000.

“It indicates that fewer people are trying to come over,” Sharry said. “It’s mostly because of the (poor) economy and because enforcement has become more effective.”

Still, state Sen. Larry Grooms, author of the S.C. immigration law now blocked in federal court, declined to credit Obama for stiffened enforcement. He said deportations are up only because enforcement was so lax under Bush.

“President Bush had a terrible policy of enforcing immigration laws,” Grooms said. “Republican and Democratic administrations have failed this country.”

The Bonneau Republican thinks the drop in the number of illegal immigrants is only temporary.

“It’s only a declining problem because of where our national economy stands,” he said. “It will become a much larger problem when our economy turns around.”

‘Pushing Latinos towards the Democrats’

But some analysts say the GOP attacks on illegal immigration are sabotaging a chance to cut into Obama’s political base.

A Pew Hispanic Center survey found widespread anger among Hispanic voters over Obama’s deportation levels and his failure to fulfill his 2008 campaign promises to pursue comprehensive reforms that would give a path to permanent residency or citizenship to some illegal immigrants.

Yet in the same survey, Obama trounced Romney and Texas Gov. Perry by 3-1 margins among Hispanic voters in head-to-head matchups.

“By being so anti-immigrant, the Republicans are missing a huge opportunity,” said Clarissa Martinez, who will direct get-out-the-vote efforts for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group based in Washington.

“They are pushing Latinos towards the Democrats.”

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/01/08/2...#storylink=cpy