Posted on 10/03/2004 9:47:51 PM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
Fed up with what they say is the Bush administration's failure to address a growing illegal immigration problem, a small group of conservatives has launched a series of radio ads seeking to convince voters to oust President Bush from office.
Last week, a group called Friends of the Border Patrol began a series of ads on KABC-AM in Los Angeles blasting Bush for "playing politics with national security."
The group plans on running the same ads in Arizona starting this week, before the Oct. 13 presidential debate in Phoenix, and in the following weeks in Nevada and New Mexico, a spokesman for the group said.
While California is generally considered to be safely in the Kerry camp, New Mexico and Nevada are seen as swing states that could go to either candidate in what is expected to be a close presidential race. Ron Prince, the chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, said that he believes that Bush could lose Arizona as well.
In Nevada, three recent polls conducted in that state showed Bush with a five-point lead, 49 percent to John Kerry's 44 percent. In Arizona, recent polls show Bush with an average 10-point lead over Kerry, 52 percent to 41.3 percent. Kerry is leading Bush in New Mexico ---- barely ---- 46 percent to 45.5 percent.
A spokesman for the Arizona Republican Party said Friday that he expects that the radio ads will have little effect on the presidential race in that state.
"We've come a long way from being a battleground state," said Colin McCracken, communications director for the Arizona Republican Party. "The president's support in Arizona is overwhelming, and very little is going to change that."
Friends of the Border Patrol was formed in August to support the work of rank-and-file U.S. Border Patrol agents and to protest what the group sees as the federal government's obstruction of the job those agents perform, according to the group's executive director, Andy Ramirez.
He said the impetus for forming the group and airing the radio ads came during a July 24 rally at the Temecula Border Patrol station. The rally was held to protest a Border Patrol administration decision to halt a series of sweeps of Inland cities that ---- in just two weeks in June ---- had netted nearly 500 illegal immigrants.
Ramirez said he and Prince "just looked at each other and realized ... we've got to do something about this."
Prop. 187 author
Prince is best-known as the co-author of 1994's Proposition 187, an initiative that would have denied public benefits to illegal immigrants. He has been a consistent critic of President Bush for not taking stronger action on immigration reform. About 60 percent of California voters approved Prop. 187, but in 1995, a federal appeals court overturned it.
Late last year, Prince and Ramirez backed a similar initiative, dubbed "Save our State," but they failed to gather the nearly 800,000 signatures necessary to put the measure before voters in November.
While they are concerned about the economic effects of illegal immigration, they say their biggest worry is that terrorists can slip across the porous U.S. border with Mexico.
"I think it's more important to defend my nation than to be walking in lockstep like a good little Republican just because he is president," Ramirez said.
Because it is generally conceded that California's electoral votes will go to Kerry in November, Ramirez acknowledged that running the ads here is little more than a symbolic gesture, but that they still wanted to make the statement.
"We didn't want to ignore our base," he said.
Possible swing states
It is in the Southwestern swing states of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico where the group plans on investing most of its efforts and advertising dollars, Ramirez said.
Highest on the agenda is Arizona. Prince said he has raised about $20,000 of the estimated $25,000 cost of the radio advertising campaign he plans to run in Arizona before the Oct. 13 Phoenix debate. He plans to spend another $25,000 for advertising in Arizona between the debate and Election Day, as well as about $10,000 in both Nevada and New Mexico.
Even those relatively small states could tip the election, Prince and Ramirez note. If Kerry were to win all the states won by Al Gore in 2000 and carry either Arizona or Nevada, which went to Bush in 2000, Kerry would win the election. Arizona has 10 electoral votes, while Nevada has five.
New Mexico, with five electoral votes, is being included in the ad push, they say, because it is a border state and considered "in play," even though polls show it to be leaning toward Kerry. Gore won it in 2000 by just 303 votes.
Prince said that voter resentment in those states toward Bush and his immigration policies could provide Kerry with just enough votes to make the difference and cost Bush re-election.
"With this contest, where both Kerry and Bush are standing on the edge of the cliff, just one little push could make the difference," Prince said.
An unpopular stance
The pair say they know their efforts are costing them support and friends in Republican political circles, but that they feel so strongly about the immigration issue they are willing to help elect Kerry to get their message across to the Republican Party leadership.
"This is bigger than being a Republican or a Democrat . We need a new commander in chief that will protect our borders," Ramirez said.
Some area Republicans, however, say that because of the overwhelming support for Bush within the Republican Party, they don't expect the ads to have much of an effect.
"I haven't heard anything but a strong commitment from conservatives of getting the president elected," said San Diego County-based Republican political consultant Scott Barnett.
"He is the first president who actually understands Mexico, (that) people are coming here from Mexico because they want better lives," he added.
Guest-worker program
Ramirez said the group is upset with the president for his support of a guest-worker program that would allow foreign citizens to come to the United States for temporary work, an idea touted in the Bush campaign platform. The guest-worker program would also allow illegal immigrants already in the country to sign up.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said last week that Bush proposed the program, in part, to fill an economic need.
"The temporary-worker program matches willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no (available) American workers can be found," he said.
When asked how the government would determine whether there are no Americans willing to take those jobs, Lisaius said that the details of the program are still being worked out with Congress.
Lisaius said the program would also make America safer because it would require that those illegal immigrants who join the program register with the government, making it easier to track their whereabouts. It would also require that workers return to their county of origin once their yet-to-be determined time limit has elapsed.
Ramirez disputed Lisaius' assessment.
"They can claim it's a guest-worker program, but Americans are not fooled ---- it's amnesty," he said.
Matricula consular
Another sore point with the group is the Bush administration's successful efforts to cut a portion of a bill now before the House of Representatives that would have barred American banks from accepting as identification a document issued to Mexicans in this country by the Mexican government.
On Sept. 14, the Associated Press reported that after the Bush administration opposed that part of the bill, which would have banned the use of the "matricula consular" by U.S. banks. Congress then voted to strike the wording from the bill.
One nationally recognized conservative figure who wants to remain anonymous said last week that he believes the illegal immigration issue represents a threat to Bush's chances of re-election.
"The unrest is widespread amongst conservatives," said the man, who served as a campaign consultant on Ronald Reagan's 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns.
But those Republicans who oppose the president's policies on illegal immigration ---- including him ---- are afraid to publicly denounce Bush, he said.
"They don't want to take the heat from the Republican establishment, don't want to be seen as being disloyal," he said.
Fear, he said, also underlies the Bush administration's failure to take a stronger stand on illegal immigration ---- fear of losing votes, he said.
"They are scared as hell of the Hispanic vote; it's all about the election," he said.
The 2000 U.S. Census reported that 38.8 million Latinos live in the United States. A 2002 update by the Census Bureau estimated that in just two years that population had increased by 9.8 percent, about four times greater than the rate of growth for the population as a whole.
In 2000, 62 percent of Latinos voted for Gore. According to a July poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, Kerry is projected to garner the same 62 percent of the Latino vote, Bush 32 percent.
Businesses ignored
Ramirez said many conservatives are also mad at Bush because of what they see as his administration's failure to crack down on those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
"Every single company that hires illegal immigrants should be fined," Ramirez said. "This is all about cheap labor."
Prince said big-business interests have pressured Bush into laying off companies that hire illegal immigrants.
"In the old days, (political) patronage was all about providing jobs. Now, it's about campaign contributions from business interests," he said.
In the 2004 Republican Party platform, it states: "There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties against employees and employers who violate immigration laws."
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said in a recent interview that the number of companies investigated nationwide for hiring illegal immigrants has increased significantly. However, federal records show that the number of fines issued against companies for the practice has plummeted.
The records show that in 2001, 141 companies across the country were hit with fines, 15 of them in California. By 2002, those numbers had dropped to 73 and one, respectively. In 2003, 15 companies in the United States were fined, none of them in California. And as of May 2004, just one company ---- in Maryland ---- was fined. May was the most recent month for which statistics were available.
The former campaign consultant to Reagan said he believes that Bush is not coming down harder on illegal immigrants out of a need to satisfy big-business interests.
"They want more cheap labor. All they are interested in is their profits," he said.
The ads pound the same point: "We believe the president wants illegal immigration. Why? Because illegals work cheap; that's the bottom line."
The cost of cheap labor
But the price that America pays for that cheap labor is too high, the ads go on to say: "You can't keep the borders open and the terrorists out."
Jack Orr, a San Diego County-based political consultant, said Monday that he was unaware of the radio advertising campaign against Bush. He added that while he has heard people within the Republican Party complain about Bush's guest-worker proposal and other immigration policies, he has not heard anyone say they would go so far as to vote against his re-election.
"This is certainly misplaced at best, and at worst, it's bad timing," Orr said.
While he doesn't anticipate the radio ads will have an effect in California, he said he believes they could affect the election in states such as Arizona and Nevada. And in a tight race, he said, it might even affect the outcome of the election.
"It could have the effect of handing it to John Kerry," Orr said. "I would say to those people mounting this campaign, be careful what you wish for."
They stuff a rental abode like tuna in a can since that is what they do in Mexico, so they are paying far less compared to what an average American would pay and yet they take at least the same if not more.
Who resorts to racism?
Link?
Citizens or residents alike.
The Bible never said be fruitful and live on the dole by thy neighbor.
They covet their neighbor's goods.
Matter of fact, they outright steal them.
I have no problem with legal residents here who go by the rules, pays their taxes and weights in lines like all the other legal ones to become citizens or to go home.
waits on lines...
They only weigh on buffet lines.
Incredible
A country that was first to put men on another world, the first time in human history, the greatest achievement in scientific exploration the world has ever known, is now invaded by the ignorant, and the uneducated that break our laws and pour in by the millions, unabated. We are now told it's impossible to stop it, it's too hard, it's not reasonable.
It's 2004. Our cities, instead of being clean, streamlined, and places where great things happen, the envy of the world, are now resembling the very countries we left behind, many years ago.
Even our language, the common thread that held this country together for so long, is now unraveling.
What a very sad state of affairs.
And bump to that post to get the thread back on track --- the consequences of a Kerry win. We need to think about those.
On the other hand, you yourself undoubtedly enjoy the benefits of our modern society in a vastly greater measure than you personally contribute to, unless you are a multi-millionaire. Supposedly we should call you an 'outright thief' since you don't pay as much as others do for the maintenance of roads and bridges, schools and parks.
If possible, ot would be great to also vote Bush the super majority he needs with judges needed to get a fair vote.
They know and they know they are here illegally.
We all know they take money that either belongs balancing a budget, being a tax rebate or paying for indigent Americans, not Mexican citizens.
I pay my taxes and was subject to all requirements of America in being a citizen here.
Illegals have no allegiance with home next door, they don't pay taxes, draw big parts of the dole and we have billions in debt in CA all due to paying for them.
We would be probably 9 billion in the black in CA if not for the illegal alien.
O'Reilly asked Bush about this during his recent interview. Bush responed with what amounted to a shrug of the shoulders saying that's the way it is. So much for majority rules and will of the people.
All of you that you pinged make me sick -- you would give up this Country to the UN by electing Kerry. It is a phoney argument to say that the Congress will stop Kerry -- how about Executive Orders? Guess you prefer to have a Democrat in the White House so people will listen to your whines. I will never forgive any of you on this side of the issue if Kerry wins. You are being used by the left and either you don't think about it or you enjoy it.
Some of you profess to be Libertarians and they are for open borders but that doesn't make you any difference -- it is all Bush's faults. Why don't you all just admit you really are Democrats and out yourself once and for all? Quit hiding behind your so-called conservative label because from what I see posted, you are not conservatives that I would want to know.
You people don't think and are blinded by one issue -- you have hated the Bush Family from the first day I set foot on this forum back at the beginning of 1999 and you have not changed one bit. You almost cost us the election in 2000 with your lies and distortions about the Bush Family and now you and your ilk are out to do it again. It is not going to happen this time -- we don't want a liar like John Kerry in the White House. Most of you are part of the "anybody but Bush" crowd which makes you Democrats IMO.
You all profess to support our military but yet for your own selfish reasons would put our military under John Kerry and have a Bill Clinton Secretary of State. What about what Kerry did to our military after he came back from Vietnam? Short memory some of you have or were you demonstrating against the war.
Your rhetoric doesn't match conservative credentials -- not by a long shot. You can take it to the bank that Tom Tancredo will not be supporting John Kerry but then you already know that!
Past Aztlan members have their foot in the door as a start: Ex-CA Lt. Gov. Bustamante, former CA State Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, State Assemblyman Gil Cadillo, State Sen. Joe Baca, and Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva -- all past Mechistas that won't renounce their ties.
Well, I'm sure President Kerry will seal our borders.
He is ostensibly a man of the Right, but he torpedoed the GOP in California.
Yeah, I believe their conservatives. <\sarcasm>
SInce California has ZERO chance of being a Bush state it is safe for these guys to do this...They are holding the feet to the fire of some like Asa Hutchison who claim to be republican and conservative...until Mexico comes into play
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