Thread: Emanuel Now a Backer of Immigration Action

APRIL 10, 2009
Emanuel Now a Backer of Immigration Action
Comments (26)

By LAURA MECKLER
WASHINGTON -- As the White House gears up to push an immigration overhaul, advocates are finding they have an unexpected ally in White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Mr. Emanuel has long been a voice of caution on easing rules for immigrants, fearing such a position could hurt Democrats at the polls. That stance has antagonized Hispanic lawmakers and activists, who favor a clearer, easier path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants.

But as chief of staff, Mr. Emanuel has taken concrete steps that are sending a different message. He pushed hard for Congress to act fast on a children's health-insurance bill, including a provision lifting Clinton-era restrictions on benefits for legal immigrant children. He has also arranged for members of the Hispanic media to get special briefings by White House senior officials every two weeks. He did the first one, and put other aides on notice that they were expected to do the same.

"You don't get to say no," he told colleagues at a senior staff meeting early in the administration.

While Mr. Emanuel once predicted that comprehensive immigration reform wouldn't be considered until the second term of a Democratic president, he now says conversations on the issue will begin this year to lay the groundwork for possible action in 2010. The issue is also likely to arise next week when President Barack Obama travels to Mexico to meet with President Felipe Calderón.

For his part, Mr. Emanuel said his views haven't changed, though people may be viewing him in a new light now. In any case, he said, his job now was to represent the president's views.

"It doesn't matter what Rahm thinks," he said in an interview. "It matters what President Obama thinks."

Janet Murguia, president of National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic rights advocacy group, recalled arguing with Mr. Emanuel over immigration issues when they both worked in President Bill Clinton's White House and he looked to protect the president from seeming soft on illegal immigration.

At the time, she said, she was pushing to restore aid for legal immigrants that had been cut off in the 1996 welfare overhaul, and he was arguing that no action was needed. She also recalls disagreements over how strongly to push enforcement provisions aimed at stopping illegal immigration. Mr. Emanuel was advocating a tougher crackdown.

Those arguments continued after Mr. Emanuel was elected to Congress, and were heightened in the run-up to the 2006 election, when he led the successful Democratic effort to take control of the House, she said.

According to widespread reports at the time, Mr. Emanuel urged Democrats who were seen to be most vulnerable in the election to vote in 2005 for a bill that would increase enforcement against illegal immigration. Mr. Emanuel said he simply gave his political advice to members who asked for it, and he noted that he himself voted against the bill.

"There's no more brilliant political strategist than Rahm," Ms. Murguia said. "He was shrewdly trying to lay out vehicles that would provide Democrats cover on this issue."

Ms. Murguia said she began to see a change in Mr. Emanuel's thinking about a year ago, when he approached her to begin strategizing on immigration in the event a Democrat was elected president in 2008. After Mr. Emanuel was named Mr. Obama's chief of staff in November, they spoke again, and Mr. Emanuel said he had read the numbers and seen the impact of the Latino vote.

Mr. Obama, who pledged during his campaign to act on immigration, won with strong support from Latino voters. While Democrat John Kerry won 53% of the Hispanic vote in his 2004 run, Mr. Obama took 67% in 2008.

While Mr. Emanuel was in Congress, it was part of his job to protect vulnerable Democrats running in conservative districts. The president has to run nationwide, where several swing states have large Latino populations, including Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.

"I think Rahm's wearing a different hat right now," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who headed the Senate committee to elect Democrats when Mr. Emanuel headed the House effort. "Here he's representing the whole country and the president. And I think he's adapted very well."

Not everybody is sold.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), who publicly tangled with Mr. Emanuel over the 2005 immigration enforcement bill, said he was hopeful that Mr. Emanuel would have become more sensitive to Hispanic issues in his new job but that he hasn't seen any evidence of improvement, on immigration or other issues.

"I have this immense faith in human beings and their ability to change and form," he said, explaining that he had put his faith in Mr. Emanuel to adapt. "Sometimes it's just misplaced."

http://online.wsj.com

While about two thirds of the Latinos supported Obama nineteen twentieths of America's Blacks did and a much higher per centage of American Blacks are citizens or legal immigrants and negatively impacted by illegal immigration.

"Here he's representing the whole country and the president.

No, he is NOT representing the whole country.....ONLY Obama!

The American people have repeatedly told the Gov't that they don't want Amnesty and they want our Gov't to enforce our laws. Period.

The Gov't has decided it doesn't like our answer and is doing all it can to override our decision. I remember reading what Lou Dobbs said some time ago about our Gov't putting Amnesty into effect piecemeal, and that is precisely what they are doing.