McCain courts Fla. Hispanics

Miami Herald ^ | 16 Sep 2008 | BETH REINHARD AND MARY ELLEN KLAS

[BGHater]

Speaking to a predominantly Hispanic audience considered crucial to winning Florida, Republican John McCain vowed Monday to make immigration one of his ''first priorities'' if elected president and accused Democrat Barack Obama of spiking reforms in Congress.

McCain spearheaded a bill in 2006 -- reviled by the right wing of his own party -- that would have allowed illegal immigrants to earn citizenship. Obama supported the overall goal but backed controversial amendments that would have limited a guest worker program.

''The fact is that Sen. Obama proposed amendments that would have killed the legislation. I fought for it,'' McCain told more than 350 people at a town hall meeting.

McCain leveled the same charge in ads running in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, which Obama called ''dishonest'' in an interview Sunday on Spanish-language television.

Once pummeled for backing what critics tarred as ''amnesty,'' McCain has talked little about immigration during the general election campaign. He did not raise the issue Monday in Jacksonville, reliably Republican turf where he began a two-day tour that wraps up Tuesday in Tampa.

But Orlando offered a different audience. Central Florida is home to a fast-growing Hispanic community coveted for its political independence, unlike the staunchly Republican Cuban-American voters who have dominated Miami-Dade politics.

[kabar]

You make it sound like he is proposing a full bore no questions asked amnesty a la 1987. If you read on you see borders must be secured first. And then there is a very strict protocol including back of the line, civics, penalties, and deportations of criminals.

I suggest you read the "one-time" 1986 amnesty bill and you will find the same kinds of protocols, which are in some ways even stricter than what McCain proposes, e.g., you had to be here for five years, i.e., before Jan 1, 1982 to even apply. You also had to learn English, pay fees, and anyone with three misdeameanors or a felony was not eligible.

Read Ed Meese's take on the 1986 amnesty bill and not repeating the same mistake again.

Given the current process it may be more than 10 years before some are citizens. Many will never make it.

Citizenship really isn't the issue as much as allowing the illegals to gain legal status in this country, i.e., they can stay and work here as well as sponsor their families to join them legally. And if you read McCain's website, there will be no "second class" citizens of this country. Once you legal the status of most of the 12 to 20 million illegals, it is game, set, and match for the US of A.

[Calpernia]

>>>Because they never define what securing the border actually means, it has little substance.

THAT is bullcrap. Duncan Hunter has defined down to the last grain of sand what he means by secure the borders. Duncan Hunter has never played word games.

[kabar]

The 1986 amnesty bill [which was sold as a one-time affair] also had provisions to crack down on employers who hire illegals. They just weren't enforced. The supporters of the bill said that 1 million would apply for amnesty. The real number was 2.7 million and the process was rampant with fraud.

The big issue is really what to do with the 12 to 20 million illegals already here. If they are legalized, they can sponsor 66 million to more than 100 million more LEGAL IMMIGRANTS thru chain migration, i.e., family reunification. If that happens, then this country is finished. Amnesty is forever.

[cll]

“If these are American citizens, why are they being referred to as “Hispanics”???

“And why is he talking to them about immigration”?

I don’t understand that either.

The majority of the audience was Puerto Rican, who are American citizens by birth. The Puerto Ricans in the north like in Chicago and New York have jumped on the immigration bandwagon for fear of having their power diluted by hispanic immigrant groups. But up north Puerto Ricans are heavily democrat. Down south the growing Puerto Rican population is more conservative, business-like and educated and are leaning Republican and they certainly don’t care for illegal immigration either.

[cripplecreek]

If they had been Cubans it wouldn’t make much sense either. Cubans get fast track treatment just for setting foot on American soil so their path to citizenship is secure.

[Norman Bates]

There will be no chain migration. I’m sure taking that off the table will be part of the agreement for precisely the reason you state.

[kabar]

I suggest you take a look at McCain's official website. He is not taking chain migraion, i.e., family reunification, off the table. It was in the 2006 and 2007 bills. Here is what what McCain says:

"In addition, the program will provide a system that is fair, humane, realistic, and ensures the rights of the individual and families will be protected.

Ensure that families are reunited.

Address in an expedited manner the status of individuals brought here illegally as minors through no will or intention of their own.

Eliminate the Family Backlog. John McCain will commit to clearing out the backlog of individuals that are waiting legally outside of the country, some for up to 20 years, for their green card number to become available.

[TomGuy]

Duncan Hunter has defined down to the last grain of sand what he means by secure the borders.

Duncan Hunter?
I doubt he will have much say in a McCain administration. We are discussing McCain, not Hunter.

McCain has never defined what he considers secure the borders to be, other than having the governors certify that their borders are secure.

Thus, your 'bullcrap' remark is 'bullcrap'.

[Calpernia]

The conversation you posted to me was about McCain’s promise to Duncan Hunter with a defined understanding of what secure the border meant in their conversation.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2083493/posts?page=52#52

[robert david]

Oh, so in your eyes, Hispanics can’t be real Americans.

[TomGuy]

The conversation you posted to me was about McCain’s promise to Duncan Hunter

Try reading with your glasses on, maybe.

I did not post #52. I did not post anything regarding Duncan Hunter.

[Ebenezer]

``The president has to do something to give it credibility, so people take it more seriously.''

Better yet, the people of Puerto Rico have to take the status issue more seriously by choosing only between statehood or independence in a plebiscite. Then would the results have credibility before the White House and the Congress.

[AuntB]

“About two-thirds of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who enter this country are Hispanic. Almost all of the 500,000 to one million illegal aliens who enter this country each year are Hispanic. In 1965 Hispanics made up 1 percent of the residents of this country. Today they are about 15% and by 2050 they will be about one in three. The Hispanic population will nearly triple from 46.7 million today to 132.8 million in 2050.

The Republicans’ Hispanic Delusion Amnesty is not just wrong in principle, it’s bad politics.

Hispanic Family Values? Runaway illegitimacy is creating a new U.S. underclass. “

Don’t forget the legal entrants we allow from Mexico, by the millions. It will never be enough until they have it all.
Just listen to them, they’ll tell you, but some still don’t get it.

[AuntB]

“McCain courts Fla. Hispanics

Are these illegal aliens?

Or are they referring to American citizens?

If these are American citizens, why are they being referred to as “Hispanics”??? “

Why? Divide and conquer, class warfare, pandering. Identity politics at it’s worst.

That’s why.

[AuntB]

“Oh, so in your eyes, Hispanics can’t be real Americans.”

OMG.

The only person I’ve seen who can twist the obvious into a bigoted statement like that is Katie Couric about Palin.

Is that you Katie?

Yea, I can name a couple Mexican American border guards who are in PRISON who were real Americans. You know the ones we RACISTS defend!

Now. Anyone sneaking over our borders uninvited CAN NOT...I repeat CAN NOT be REAL American. Got It?

Hell no, you’ll never get it.

[Citizen Blade]

If these are American citizens, why are they being referred to as "Hispanics"???

The two are not mutually exclusive. There are millions of American citizens who are Hispanic.

[dennisw]

America loving country first? By legalizing illegal aliens?.......

McCain has a total disconnect on this. He has some wacko religious image of himself. He’ll save the third world (he did in fact adopt a Bangladesh girl)by allowing us to be inundated by them

How about more European immigration, like the people who made this great nation along with blacks. Instead we import people I can’t easily relate to

[dennisw]

“About two-thirds of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who enter this country are Hispanic. Almost all of the 500,000 to one million illegal aliens who enter this country each year are Hispanic. In 1965 Hispanics made up 1 percent of the residents of this country. Today they are about 15% and by 2050 they will be about one in three. The Hispanic population will nearly triple from 46.7 million today to 132.8 million in 2050.
_______________________

What insanity. Sickening. Hispanics are OK depending who they are but this a mass invasion and mass transformation of the US. We will end up like a Brazil

[Norman Bates]

Come on. No one is foolish enough to think we are going to bring in 40-80 million through chain migration. I don’t see it happening.

[kabar]

Come on. No one is foolish enough to think we are going to bring in 40-80 million through chain migration. I don’t see it happening.

That's the problem. You don't understand the impact an amnesty would have on our immigration numbers. You are not alone. Most Americans don't have a clue about our immigration laws and their demographic impact.

Here is Robert Rector's analysis of the 2006 amnesty bill, which was actually more restrictive on amnesty than the 2007 bill. Under Hagel-Martinez, anyone here less than two years was ineligible for amnesty. Under McCain-Kennedy, you just had to be here prior to January 2007 and you would get your Z visa within 24 houirs. Rector estimated that 66 million would come in under the 2006 bill [Hagel-Martinez] assuming there were only 10 million illegals receiving amnesty. Rector is with the Heritage Foundation and very well respected. His analysis of the welfare numbers provided the basis for welfare reform.

I have been working the immigration issue for several years as a member of a grassroots organization. I have lobbied on the Hill and at the state and local levels. I know the issue very well, which is why I am so alarmed and concerned about what amnesty will do to this country with the stroke of a pen. We need to change the existing laws to reduce legal immigration, but an amnesty will be the death knell for this country, at least as we know it.