Is Immigration Off the Table in Election 2008?
OAKLAND, California - These days, while you can still pick up a newspaper or turn on a radio or television gabfest and read, hear and see the issue of immigration batted around, it has become less of a hot-button political issue in the United States.
The shift has happened largely since the U.S. economy hit tough times, with four-dollar a gallon gas a reality in many places and home foreclosure filings continuing to climb.
Nevertheless, on May Day, tens of thousands of immigrant rights supporters marched and rallied in more than a dozen cities across the United States, hoping to reinvigorate the debate over immigration and inject the issue into Election 2008.
This year’s turnout paled in comparison to the outpouring of support on May 1, 2006, when more than a million people ‘came out of nowhere’ and garnered the attention of the public and of media outlets throughout the country.
Last year, immigration was frequently front page news: The media was closely following developments, anti-immigrant vigilante-type groups were forming, border watching efforts were increasing, and state legislatures and city councils were crafting a spate of laws and local ordinances aimed at immigrants.
On a nearly nightly basis, television and radio talk show hosts, such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck, and the Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, were fanning the flames against undocumented workers, conflating them with terrorists and claiming they were bringing diseases into the country. Against this backdrop, the Southern Poverty Law Centre documented a dramatic rise in hate crimes against Latinos.
And, as Republican Party candidates were beginning to toss their hats into the ring to run for the party’s presidential nomination, immigration took centre stage. Earlier this year, huge portions of the Republican Party candidates’ debates was devoted to which candidate would be tougher on immigration — with most claiming that mantle.
The lack of progress in national legislation coming from Congress, however, did not deter local entities from taking action. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) recently issued a report that found that ‘States introduced an unprecedented 1,562 laws regarding immigration, of which 240 became law in 2007. In the first three months of this year, more than 1,100 bills were introduced in the 44 state legislatures that were in regular session.’
The report also found that most of the proposed, and signed, ‘bills address[ed] law enforcement, employment, driver’s licenses and other identification, for both legal and unauthorised immigrants.’ Similar to last year, ‘the number of immigration-related measures demonstrates states’ willingness to respond to the public’s concerns in a time when Congress won’t,’ the report pointed out.
Veteran labour journalist David Bacon recently reported that in mid-March, Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour signed into law ‘the farthest-reaching employer sanctions law of any on the books in the U.S.’ According to Bacon, SB 2988 ‘requires employers to use E-Verify,’ an electronic system recently developed by the Department of Homeland Security, which ‘by the department’s own admission, is not a complete record…[and] its accuracy is unknown.’
Bacon, author of ‘The Children of NAFTA, Labour Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border’ and the forthcoming book ‘Illegal People — How Globalisation Creates Migration and Criminalises Immigrants’, pointed out that according to the Mississippi law, employers will be ‘absolved from any liability for hiring undocumented workers so long as they use the E-Verify system,’ while it will ‘become a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job.’
The law states that anyone caught can face a jail term of one to five years and a fine of up to 10,000 dollars.
In addition to state and local efforts, the Justice Department has cranked up its arrests and prosecutions of immigrants. According to a Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) report, in January this year alone, the government reported 4,739 new immigration prosecutions — 21.6 percent more than the previous month.
‘When monthly 2008 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (32.7 percent),’ TRAC reported. ‘Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 140.8 percent from levels reported in 2003.’
Against this background, how will immigration issues play in Election 2008?
‘Folks are staying away from the immigration debate, it’s a touchy subject,’ said Luis Gutierrez, executive director of the Chicago-based Latinos Progresando. ‘Some don’t want to talk about it, unless it’s ‘build a fence’.’
Despite concern over other issues, ‘Immigration will be on the table everywhere, for both Republicans and Democrats,’ David Bacon told IPS.
In the past, all three candidates for the presidency — Democratic Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain — have opposed draconian measures and supported moderate immigration initiatives.
In 2006, Obama and Clinton supported a bill, sponsored by McCain, which offered undocumented immigrants legal status on conditions such as learning English. All three also have supported a border fence.
After opponents accused McCain of supporting amnesty for undocumented workers, the Arizona senator reversed his position on the need for ‘comprehensive’ legislation and became a believer in ’securing the nation’s borders first’ before dealing with other aspects of the issue.
While ‘McCain might not want to’ place immigration issues at the forefront of his campaign, ‘the issue will certainly be pursued by state and local Republican Party candidates, and a host of GOP [Republican] surrogates will try to drag him into the fray,’ said Bacon. ‘McCain will have to walk a very fine line because of the GOP’s strong anti-immigrant base.’
The Democratic Party and its state and local candidates will confront a different dynamic. While party leaders will try to steer clear of discussing the issue, ‘conservative candidates will be motivated to talk tough on immigration in order to get elected, and progressive Democrats will want to talk about common sense solutions to please their base,’ Bacon pointed out.
Last December, the Pew Hispanic Centre reported that 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters call themselves Democrats or say they lean toward the Democratic Party, while just 23 percent support the Republican Party.
Latinos make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population and 9 percent of the eligible electorate, although ‘If past turnout trends persist, they will make up only about 6.5 percent of those who actually turn out to vote’ in November, Pew said. However, Latino voters could make a big difference in such swing states as New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado.
Over the past few months, much of the talk about the Latino vote has revolved around why a majority of Latino voters supported Clinton over Obama. The Latino vote — excluding for the most part Florida’s Republican-oriented Cuban exile community — has been up for grabs in the past. But in the most recent election cycle, when many Republican officials and surrogates insisted on pounding undocumented workers, Latino voters began flocking in greater numbers to the Democratic Party.
‘I don’t think immigration is off the table,’ Bacon told IPS. ‘There will be continued raids, immigrant families will continue to suffer, and the potential firing of thousands of workers will make it hard to look the other way.’
Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His column ‘Conservative Watch’ documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the U.S. Right.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
Yes I remember May 1,2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOe5uYFcXzY
I welcome all fellow laborers into the country .
Just go through the proper channels.
I guess that makes me a racist huh?
Maybe we should just give MS13 a big group hug.
Of course we don’t want to punish the real criminals (the employers)
Rather than enforce any laws already in the books they want to force us ALL into a Real ID .
Easier to round up political enemies that way.
Who does this author think he’s kidding? Any and all of us with the ability to read and think know the real reason immigration is off the table of Political discussion. The reason is simply because the continutation of the open borders policy has been accepted as a fact; no politican of either of the major parties really believes anything will be done to properly “regulate” immigration, much less to staunch the flow of immigrants entering without visas. The only issue of interest at this point is how much longer people will have to wait for an amnesty, and in the alternative, better perhaps to craft an ongoing perpetual amnesty.
So, the truth is, it’s no longer about “Immigration”, it’s simply about continued “Migration”.
workreno wrote: Of course we don’t want to punish the real criminals (the employers)
Right!
It’s off the table because we are too concerned about lapel pins, a gas tax holiday and Rev. Wright. After we deal with the most serious issues, we can get down to the real concerns — if there’s enough time.
Open borders, are you kidding, the USA is by far the hardest country to immigrate to, I’m a Resident alien, I’ve been through the immigration procedure, it’s the most painfull experience and the most humiliating of the 15 or so countries I’ve lived in. It took 2 hours to get permanent residence in Spain, France sent me it through the post after filling out a simple form. Here in the States it’s 6 months of being insulted, mistreated and generally made to look small. It is of course what small people do in an effort to increase their stature.
Not many people want to come to the USA unless they have to through marriage or something. If Americans travelled more they would see why, how many Americans exist in trailers that most other countries wouldn’t keep their dog in.
This illegal immigration stuff is a scam to get you off the real subjects, like decent employment, a decent health service and decent living standards.
The issue that isnt. I do not believe that illegal immigrants deserve to be villified. They are, for the large part, simply trying to earn money for their children and themselves. They undertake an arduous, expensive and sometimes dangerous journey because, in many cases, American and Transnational corporations have ruined the local economies.
This is, in the main, a whipping boy used to stir up the bigotry asnd hatreds of the poor to distract and to create a false issue for the far right to rally around. The problem is illegal employers frankly and really easily swayed voters. When workreno notes,
“I welcome all fellow laborers into the country .
Just go through the proper channels.”
I am certain that he fails to understand the process, which can take many years to complete, or the dire situation of these poor campesinos. It is very hard for someone to wait for seven or more years when he is unable to put bread upon his table.
The hell with our borders, let all the gangs ,drugs and everything else ,and everyone in. until the government starts working for us the American people again (i with hold my support)
Simple low cost fix. Don’t build a fence just arrest the owners of companies that hire illegal immigrants. What would it take 2 or 3 cop cars with 4 cops in each cover all the exits and walk in with an notice of arrest. Send him up for 5 years would put a real quick stop to it.
What we got going in this country is not an “illegal alien” problem, but more like a refugee crisis. We have millions of completely indigent, completely uneducated, unskilled individuals pouring over the borders. Our corporations are gladly accepting them. It’s basic slave labor, which our corporations love. They are criminals.
I went to get my driver’s license the other day, and it took me three visits to the DMV to prove that I live here. (I’m a citizen, but from another state.) An illegal in line merely had to sign a paper saying that she had no social security number and was rapidly granted a license. If I want health care I have to pay for it. The illegal doesn’t. Is that right?
I’ve also been through the immigration process in this country. It’s humiliating. I went through the process in a couple of other countries as well. I never liked it, but at least I was following the laws.
Everything is off the table in election 2008. This is why any vote for a Demok/Repuk is a wasted vote.
We’ve always let drugs into this country. Go back and find out how Reagan used crack to fund his illegal war in Central America. Undocumented immigrants are not bringing drugs into this country. They are hard-working, law-abiding people who are trying to survive and support their families. If we want to solve the “problem” of immigration, we need to get our dirty hands out of other countries’ business - our “national interests” that we go to war over, happen to be the resources on other people’s land.
The scariest thing that is happening now is that Halliburton has gotten into the business of building detention centers. When detaining human beings becomes profitable, we are heading down a slippery slope from which we we may never regain our footing.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=26108
Why is is that the only people Americans have compassion for are non-Americans?
Americans having compassion for non-Americans? Maybe in the bizarro world.
“The hell with our borders, let all the gangs ,drugs and everything else, and everyone in.”
Immigrants, documented or undocumented, are most law abiding and friendly people in the country. In two many cases to be a coincidence when traveling in the US, it was always Mexican immigrant laboroers who pulled over helped get my truck out of a ditch, the gringos just sped on by.
Shankari’s comments are good. This is a refugee crisis, and it will continues until we have an economic system noursihing food, shelter and employment are basic human rights.
ladybug - “Americans having compassion for non-Americans? Maybe in the bizarro world.”
Give me a break. Americans obsess constantly over foreign people (Mexicans, Iraqis, Africans, Israelis, and anyone with an H1B visa) while people in their own country are allowed to rot.