Guest Column
Immigration issue rerouted to state level as national interest wanes
By Howard Witt
Chicago Tribune
March 23, 2008
Houston - Illegal Immigration, a hot-button populist issue that many experts
had expected to top the nation's political concerns this year, has largely
vanished from the presidential campaign amid waning interest from voters and
mounting delays in constructing a 670-mile border fence between the United
States and Mexico.
Moreover, primary results and opinion polls in recent months indicate that
the Republican Party's emphasis on a crackdown against illegal immigrants
may be driving many Hispanic voters-a crucial electoral bloc in November's
election - into the Democratic fold.
"For any candidates anywhere in the country, I don't think it's demonstrated
that combating illegal Immigration is an issue that controls people's
votes," said David Hill, a leading Republican pollster in Houston who has
termed illegal Immigration a "dud issue" for his party. "Immigration is
unlike health care or the economy, both of which have a more intimate impact
on people's lives."
At the presidential level, the three remaining contenders have little to
debate on the topic. Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all
essentially agree on the need for an overhaul of U.S. Immigration law that
would combine increased border enforcement with a new guest-worker program
and measures to permit the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already
in the country to eventually apply for citizenship.
At the presidential level, the three remaining contenders have little to
debate on the topic. Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all
essentially agree on the need for an overhaul of U.S. Immigration law that
would combine increased border enforcement with a new guest-worker program
and measures to permit the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already
in the country to eventually apply for citizenship.
Members of Congress tried and failed, in 2006 and 2007, to enact such
Immigration reforms, some of them co-sponsored by McCain and Democratic Sen.
Edward Kennedy. The initiatives were derailed by strong grass-roots
opposition to provisions that many conservatives regarded as amnesty for
foreigners who have broken American Immigration laws.
Now, however, anti-Immigration activists, chagrined that their issue is
sputtering at the national level as American voters turn their attention to
the faltering economy, are resigning themselves to the likelihood that the
next occupant of the White House, either Democrat or Republican, may well
try to resurrect an Immigration compromise.
Instead, they are redoubling their efforts to pass laws at the state and
local level that aim to identify and isolate illegal immigrants; deny them
jobs, apartments or public services; and restrict the use of Spanish or
other languages by government agencies or officials. More than 1,500 such
laws were introduced last year in state legislatures across the country. In
the first two months of this year, 350 more Immigration-related measures
were put forward.
"You have to expect reversals or lulls in this business, and this may be
another lull," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative
Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. "But in no way does this
suggest that the moment has passed and it's all over. It's still a big issue
at the state level, and it will still be an issue in congressional
elections."
Others are fine-tuning their message, emphasizing what they regard as the
economic harm illegal immigrants cause.
"Immigration this year is probably less an issue of national security,
though it will continue to accelerate to be an economic issue," said Bob
Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "We have
certainly taken the tack of explaining how having 12 million illegal
immigrants in the country is displacing jobs, costing localities extra
social service money and compounding an already deteriorating economic
situation."
For their part, Immigration reformers say the victory of the more moderate
McCain over several Republican primary rivals who favored strict Immigration
crackdowns proves that the campaign against illegal immigrants has
backfired.
"The whole point of the hard-core anti-immigrant stance was to galvanize
Republican voters and turn them out," said Cecilia Munoz, senior vice
president of the National Council of La Raza, a leading Hispanic civil
rights group. "It did not galvanize the voters who were the intended
targets, but it sure galvanized Latino voters. We have tripled our electoral
turnout this year."
Those who advocate normalizing the status of illegal immigrants also are
pleased that the controversial plan to construct 670 miles of new fencing
between the U.S. and Mexico by the end of 2008 has run into obstacles and
delays. Fence critics hope that the next administration in Washington will
rethink the $1.2 billion project.
All three presidential candidates voted for the fence law in Congress,
although Clinton and Obama seemed to back away from the idea during the
primary campaign in Texas, where the fence is bitterly opposed by many
property owners whose lands lie in its path and face potential condemnation.
Some of those Texas landowners have managed to block or delay federal
surveyors in court.
Meanwhile, a 28-mile test section of "virtual fencing" in Arizona-a complex
network of cameras, radars and sensors deployed on towers along the
border-recently was criticized by the Government Accountability Office, a
watchdog arm of Congress.
The pilot project "resulted in a product that did not fully meet user
needs," Richard Stana, a GAO official, told a House subcommittee last month.
He also said the project's design "will not be used as the basis" for future
development of virtual fences and that deployment would be delayed up to
three years.
Officials of the federal Department of Homeland Security, which is
responsible for building the fence, disputed the GAO report and insisted
that the virtual fence is working as intended.
Critics disagree.
"The reality is this isn't a problem that's going to be solved by real
fences or virtual fences," said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration
Policy Center, a pro-Immigration Washington think tank. "The answer lies in
coming to terms with the fact that we have very limited avenues for people
to come to this country legally, so as a result we have an enormous
undocumented population."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-immigration-fence_wittmar24,1,4645522.story
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