World

Republicans See Edge on Immigration Issue

by urbano411 | November 11, 2007 at 09:05 pm

619 views | 6 Recommendations | 6 comments

The GOP may soon find itself regretting the choices that are being made on the road to 2008. The internal conversation among Latinos is to seperate themselves from the immigration debate and turn this into a full out Latino Civil Rights Movement. It is apparent that what started out as a Homeland security issue has little to do with potential terrorism and everything to do with Latinos Civil Rights. The GOP's single focus on the southern border as a security breach, is flawed in its lack of balance for equal safety at the ports or other borders. Dems should not be jumping for joy either since Latinos are becoming aware of their future power and will not readily march behind one party with blind loyalty. Hispanics will need to focus on how their vote will directly impact their communities and find leaders that will represent those interest regardless of political affiliation.

Rudolph Giuliani, the front-running Republican candidate for president, has at least two good reasons for proposing a ban against driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

One is Sen. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic contender for president. In a recent debate, she stumbled over a question about driver's licenses for "undocumented workers" and eventually endorsed the idea, providing a clear line of attack for Giuliani.

The other is the political landscape of the 2008 presidential contest, where immigration could drive votes in key states the way gay marriage did in 2004.

Among voters who call immigration a "very important" issue in the next election, polling indicates that Giuliani holds an advantage over Clinton in a theoretical match-up. And for most of the Republican field, being against any form of illegal immigration has been a winner.

The senator from New York easily trumps the former mayor of New York on all of the most important issues that voters cite -- the economy, health care and the war in Iraq, but not immigration. Among Republicans, Giuliani has been criticized for not being tough on illegal immigrants when he was mayor.

So volatile is the question of what to do with the more than 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. that Democrats like Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois call immigration "the new third rail of politics." On state and local levels, there is ample evidence of a backlash against illegal immigration, and Republicans are hoping to leverage that discontent into votes next November.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Brian A Kennedy

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:04 on November 12th, 2007

urbano411, good analysis -- thanks for this.

joellerose

at 05:37 on November 12th, 2007

I don't quite get your point. It is the southern border, after all, that 12 to 20 million illegals have crossed. A country loses its sovereignty if it can't decide and enforce who comes in.

urbano411

at 12:09 on November 12th, 2007

That is the point Joellerose. You have given in one sentence what the debate should be framed as. However, that is not the political campaign rhetoric. Instead they are wrapping it up into homeland security conversation to avoid offending the voting Latino population. We are not concerned with members of enemy organizations coming in thru the southern border when the northern border has been breached several times and receives no attention. Our ports remain gravely unprotected and yet this is simply a side bar conversation in the Homeland security debate which has become a debate about 'A country losing its sovereignty if it can't decide and enforce who comes in.' The who in this case is simply 'Latin Americans'. But no one wants to call a spade a spade. Instead we are bombarded with both sides of the aisle playing with semantics and not facing a delicate issue. Until the adults can address these situations as adults, we will continue to see childish behavior.

I am more concerned with a solution for this particular problem and hate to see it being treated so politically correct so that we don't offend anyone. How can we solve it if we don't describe it correctly.