Posted on 03/08/2007 9:12:33 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Immigration reform is a predicament wrapped in a dilemma.
While it is common for issues to separate Republicans and Democrats, immigration is an issue that opens yawning divides within each group.
"We are engaged in a struggle for the soul of the party," Mel Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee, told me.
Martinez said Republicans must back more than border security if they are to survive politically. The party, he believes, must back legislation that will lead to the "regularization" of illegal immigrants already in this country.
Alex Castellanos, media strategist for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, sees it differently.
"Of primary importance to Republican voters is that we are at war and our borders are porous and it is petrifying," Castellanos told me. "How do we not lock our borders at night?"
Both Castellanos and Martinez are loyal Republicans, both are Cuban-Americans and both came to this country as children. But they divide over immigration.
Martinez, who is also the junior senator from Florida and the first Cuban-American to serve in the Senate, said the issue is unifying in one respect: It is uniting Hispanic voters against the Republican Party.
"Hispanics share a language, but not much else," he said. "But I believe this issue has galvanized the Hispanic community like no other issue has. This is a moment in history, a moment in time. An emerging class of Americans view it personally and passionately, and the political outcome will be very long-lasting."
There is another wrinkle: A number of big businesses depend on the cheap labor that illegal immigration provides, and the Republican Party risks a lot when it risks crossing big business.
"We need guest workers, because the business community depends on workers from other countries because they can't get the workers here," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, told me recently.
They not only risk (once again) being portrayed as weak on security and soft on crime, but there is also a split within the union base of the party: Younger unions with Hispanic memberships that are likely to gain from a guest-worker program oppose older unions that believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs from American workers.
But the Democratic uproar has been drowned out by the roar emanating from the Republicans, some of whom feel the party is at a historic crossroads on the immigration issue.
Matthew Dowd, who was a senior strategist to George W. Bush in 2000 and his chief strategist in 2004, has said that if Republicans are to win national elections in the future, they must increase their share of the minority vote. And the Hispanic vote is the most fertile ground.
"Hispanics are more like European immigrants of the early 1900s or late 1800s," Dowd said. "They are like the Irish: They start out Democratic, but as they become part of the economic mainstream, they become much more valuable to Republicans."
President Bush, a former border-state governor who speaks Spanish and campaigned on creating a more sympathetic immigration system when he ran in 2000, favors a law that includes a guest-worker provision instead of a law that just addresses border security.
In 2006, Republican Sen. John McCain joined with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sponsor such a bill. It failed, but the two will soon introduce another version.
The greatest political implications are for McCain, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination against Romney, who is pushing border security, and Rudy Giuliani, who has been sympathetic to immigration in the past but is not taking a high-profile role on the issue at the moment.
Monday, I interviewed top strategists for all three campaigns.
Castellanos, working for Romney, said America had to make its borders less vulnerable to illegal aliens. "This is not a slap at Hispanics; that does not mean you put the torch out on the Statue of Liberty," he said. "People come here and are productive. But there is a legal way to do that."
Rick Davis, CEO of the McCain campaign, said, "If you are an Hispanic today, you are registering Democratic. The outcome of the debate on immigration is very important to the future of the Republican Party."
Davis said that in 2004, Bush got more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. But in 2006, after the controversy over immigration, Republicans running for Congress got only about 30 percent.
"There is a message there and it isn't good," Davis said.
Michael DuHaime, executive director of the Giuliani campaign, tried to wend his way through the minefield. "I think this is an issue that is going to be talked about, but in a much larger, broader context," he said. "It is a key issue, but there are other much larger and broader issues, like cutting taxes and cutting spending."
Democrats may face considerable and conflicting pressure from organized labor if immigration reform comes up for a vote in Congress.
The fast-growing Service Employees International Union endorsed the Kennedy-McCain bill last time around. The AFL-CIO and Teamsters opposed it.
The possibility exists of a Democratic Congress and a Republican president joining forces to pass immigration reform and to sign it into law before the November elections next year. If that happens, both parties are likely to seek credit from Hispanic voters.
"We need to secure the borders and we need a guest worker program that works," Schwarzenegger said. "It all depends on how you present the thing."
A mine field might not be a bad idea. Cheaper than a wall.
Bump. They should also try to assimilate, too.
Martinez, who is also the junior senator from Florida and the first Cuban-American to serve in the Senate, said the issue is unifying in one respect: It is uniting Hispanic voters against the Republican Party.
Funny, I know lots of LEGAL hispanics and they all despise illegals. They call them 'oaxacans' (spelling) and it sounds like they are spitting when they say it.
"The party, he believes, must back legislation that will lead to the "regularization" of illegal immigrants already in this country."
So that's why they're pimping rudy for president.
So now the GOP will be the War & hold the line on taxes party. And what else?
Mr. Martinez, the people would back "regularization" if they could trust you and the rest of the yahoos in Congress to secure the border. YOU are not trustworthy.
Could there be some racism in play there? Oaxaca is a poor state in southern Mexico with a large Amerindian population (compared with Mexicans of European and mixed Amerindian/European descent).
Are your Mexican/Mexican descended acquaintances light skinned or mestizos?
at play.
"Martinez said Republicans must back more than border security if they are to survive politically. The party, he believes, must back legislation that will lead to the "regularization" of illegal immigrants already in this country".
How about the "DEPORTATION" of ILLEGAL ALIENS/IMMIGRANTS/MIGRANTS/STEALTH BORDER CROSSERS!!!!!! How about these scum-bag politicains quit worrying about the survival of their parties, and start worrying about the survial of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.!!!!!!
Rudy Giuliani, who has been sympathetic to immigration in the past but is not taking a high-profile role on the issue at the moment.
Michael DuHaime, executive director of the Giuliani campaign, tried to wend his way through the minefield. "I think this is an issue that is going to be talked about, but in a much larger, broader context," he said. "It is a key issue, but there are other much larger and broader issues, like cutting taxes and cutting spending."
But remember, we should vote for Giuliani, because even though he's wrong on most issues that matter to us, he's a real leader......
I know where Oaxaca is, have been there. My friends are all just regular Mexican descendants. They aren't racist. They are full of diversity, isn't that the key word? They have caucasian and black friends, most are firefighters and their wives, and that is definitely a diversified bunch.
So now we are putting the 'racist' tag on Americans of Mexican descent too? All because they don't like illegal immigration either.
Simply amazing!
Has anybody noticed how the pro-Rudy folks seem to avoid any discussion that doesn't start with one of their own pro-rudy media pieces?
Does that make sense?
If the Republican party had taken this issue to task decades ago, this wouldn't be a problem because there would only be a small fraction of the "Hispanic voters" than there are now.
They made their bed, now let them lie in it.
Anyone who votes for lawbreakers based on a shared ethnicity is probably never going to vote conservative anyway.
What do you guys and gals think of the following compromise solution regarding the illegals already here?
They would be offered a MODIFIED permanent residency with no possibility to become citizens or have the right to vote. Additionally they would not have the right to sponsor anyone else here.
Of course before doing this the border would need to be shut down to illegal migration.
The thing that I like about this is that:
1. it would freeze the problem where it is. With any "path to citizenship" or even permanent residency, we would get flooded with tens of millions of new LEGAL immigrants (all the relatives that they would sponsor over)
2. it would constitute a meaningful and appropriate punishment for coming here illegally, so it satisfies the "fairness" aspect vis-a-vis those that wait and do it right.
3. it constitutes a practical solution, whereas the "deport them all" is highly unlikely to ever happen.
4. it avoids the economic dislocation of thousands of businesses if they were indeed deported
I look forward to your comments.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.