Posts on Immigration

There's has been a lot of in-fighting and finger-pointing in Republican circles since the election as they try to figure out what went wrong and who is to blame.  While some have been blaming the Religious Right and suggesting that the GOP needs to dump them, others have been saying that is recipe for disaster.

Now comes Richard Land to the rescue, saying that the party has to stick with its anti-gay, anti-abortion agenda ... but should kick out the "nativists" if it wants to win future elections:

"If the party's going to eject anyone, it should be nativists" who urge draconian measures against immigrants, Land said. Social conservatives should be seen as the base.

...

Young and old, "evangelicals and Mormons voted their values," Land said.

Land said abortion must remain at the core of the future GOP.

"They can't win with just pro-life votes. But without them they are doomed to electoral oblivion for a generation.

"Evangelicals made up 38 percent of (John) McCain's raw vote. Try replacing those votes with centrist policies," he said.

I suspect that rather than solving the GOP's problems, this is just going to add yet another round of finger-pointing, blame-shifting, and acrimony to the mix.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Bob Barr, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, and Chuck Baldwin would be joining together for an anti-immigration press conference organized by the Minuteman during the Democratic Convention in an attempt to inject the issue back into the presidential campaign.

So how did it go?    

A rally by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps featuring Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr drew just a few dozen people.

Held at a Denver park a few miles away from the Democratic National Convention, the rally was more of a picnic, where even some counter-protesters shouting obscenities at the anti-illegal immigration activists failed to stir much emotion.

…

Even Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican who launched a short-lived presidential bid earlier this year largely based on his call for an immigration overhaul, showed up late to the rally wearing a golf shirt and loafers and started his remarks by quipping, "I'm like yesterday's news."

Tancredo added, though, that the public interest in immigration issues has been understated by the media and even his own political party.

"I don't care how many times people tell me this issue is no longer important, that voters don't care about it anymore, it's still out there," Tancredo said.

Maybe so, but many of the anti-illegal immigration activists seemed unconvinced the topic would influence this fall's campaigns.

After independent presidential candidate Alan Keyes addressed the group, he was surrounded by supporters — who asked about abortion.

Minutemen organizers insisted the rally was a success, and that the immigration debate hasn't faded.

The reason nobody showed up, said Minuteman President Chris Simcox, was because the media, the Republicans, and the Democrats are colluding to keep the issue out of the campaign and away from the public eye. But Simcox is undaunted:

"This is a national movement," said Minuteman President Chris Simcox, who said membership was either holding steady or increasing across the country. "This is just the beginning."

Republicans are calling on President Bush to pardon two Border Patrol agents sentenced to prison for shooting an illegal immigrant as he fled towards the border, saying failure to do so will be "the worst black mark” on his presidency: "'We are calling on President Bush to take this opportunity to show this Christian charity that he always talks about,' said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) during a news conference in his Washington, D.C., office. Rohrabacher joined Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) in decrying a federal appeals court decision Monday that uphold the prison terms for former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean."

In case you thought the anti-immigrant fever of 2006 had broken, restrictionist think tanks are still promoting restriction, states are still passing immigrant crackdowns, and  there are still plenty of hard-core cranks across the country. A story from CBS 13 in Sacramento, California featured one man ennobled by his passion for confronting day laborers with a trailer-mounted billboard saying “DEPORT THEM ALL.”

[Davi Rodriguez] drives the sign up and down the streets of Sacramento where day laborers wait for work, sometimes videotaping the reactions and uploading them to YouTube. Workers we talked to say they feel harassed, and they're losing jobs.

(The CBS 13 site has video of the report.)

Harassment of day laborers is a common tactic of local anti-immigrant vigilantes. Rodriguez’s billboard directed viewers to go to the website of Save Our State, the group that wrote the blueprint for local immigration crackdowns in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and dozens of other cities. Two years ago, Save Our State founder Joseph Turner described his method of “saving” California from becoming a “Third World cesspool”:

"With as little as five people you can shut down a day-laborer center," says Mr. Turner, because employers will be too intimidated to stop and hire them. Contractors have been deterred from hiring from these sites during the protests and in several days that followed. Home Depot declines to comment on Mr. Turner.

As Turner explained then in another interview, this is all a way of expressing himself as a “proud nationalist”:

"I believe this country is superior and I believe our culture is superior to all others," he declared.

He sees illegal immigrants as the pre-eminent threat to that culture.

When Prince William County, Virginia enacted a crackdown on undocumented immigrants last year, county supervisor John Stirrup complained of “economic hardship and lawlessness” in the affluent D.C. suburb, warning of “a downward spiral, similar to the patterns to be found in the Third World countries these illegal immigrants left.” This spring, news media began to report on an exodus of immigrants and “deserted” businesses that cater to Latinos. Corey Stewart, chairman of the county board and a major backer of the crackdown, called it a “stunning success.”

Now Prince William is finding its anti-immigrant fervor may be giving it a bad reputation—an unfortunate image in the midst of a housing crisis that has hit new suburban developments the worst. From the Washington Post:

In May, the median price of a home in the county was $256,124, compared with $375,000 in May 2007, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Three hundred more homes were sold this May than a year ago.

Even so, [Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis] said it's going to be a "slow cure," in part because the county's actions to curb illegal immigration have "damaged its image as a good place to do business."

[Resident] Katherine M. Gotthardt said she thinks it's a waste of time and money for police to check the legal status of arrested criminal suspects. She would rather see the county invest in fire department staffing, affordable housing and schools.

"They don't seem like they are committed to education and social services," she said. "It's going to take them a long time to climb out of this. The perception is that we are backward."

Stewart, the board chairman, assured residents concerned about the county’s general development that "We are moving swiftly toward the Prince William that people expected.” Stewart is thinking big, hoping to ride the immigration issue to a higher office, but his vision of a Prince William without immigrants may be in conflict with the economic vitality that other residents “expect.”

No surprise here: "Eagle Forum PAC supports the outspoken Hazleton mayor in his 11th Congressional District race against incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorski. 'I am happy to endorse Lou Barletta,' said Eagle Forum founder and president, Phyllis Schlafly. 'Lou's championing of the illegal immigration issue has been truly inspiring. His fight to protect his community from the crime and overcrowding caused by illegal aliens highlights the need for stronger enforcement of our immigration laws.'"

From the Alamogordo Daily News: "A presentation by Bob Wright, president of the Patriots Border Alliance, was heard by nearly 60 attendees at the Eagle Forum monthly meeting at Margo's Mexican Food in Alamogordo Tuesday afternoon."

Yesterday—Cinco de Mayo—John McCain announced a new Spanish-language section of his campaign website and plans to speak at the National Council of La Raza convention this summer in an effort to win Hispanic voters. While the Republican Party alienated many Latinos with the rise of the talk-radio-fueled anti-immigrant politics that halted debate over immigration reform, the GOP nominee hopes they will look past that:

McCain stressed his candidacy should be a natural fit for many Hispanics, whom he described as patriotic, loyal, family-oriented and appreciative of the GOP's opposition to abortion rights and support of small businesses.

"Everything about our Hispanic voters is tailor-made to the Republican message," McCain said.

And indeed, McCain once seemed “tailor-made” to reach out to Hispanics, as he was the standard-bearer for comprehensive immigration reform, but over the course of the Tancredo-inflected primary, McCain took himself in for an alteration, caving to demands from right-wing activists and converting to an “enforcement-first” position. By shifting to the right, he may have saved his campaign for the GOP nomination, but it’s not clear how he can continue to mollify the anti-immigrant crowd while reaching out to Hispanics.

Indeed, within hours of his announcement, WorldNetDaily was linking McCain to conspiracy theories about “reconquista” and “Aztlan,” asserting that the National Council of La Raza is “a radical Hispanic lobby tied to the movement to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. that was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848.”

Prince William County, Virginia did something this week to address social and financial problems stemming from its recent crackdown on immigrants. What exactly it did is not entirely clear:

Washington Post headline: “Pr. William Softens Policy on Immigration Status Checks.”

Washington Times headline: “Prince William stiffens crackdown on illegals.”

Washington Examiner headline: “Pr. William softens illegal immigration policy.”

NBC 4 played it safe with “Prince William Votes To Change Immigration Enforcement.”

So what happened? As the Post and the Examiner report, the board of supervisors in this wealthy D.C. suburb, where police have been checking the immigration status of crime suspects, changed the policy slightly. Now the police only check the status of those arrested. (A proposal to check only those arrested and put in jail failed by a wide margin.)

While the Washington Times immigration coverage is always suspect, and the paper’s editorial page has been pushing the county to stay the course, in this case they do point to another change in policy: whereas before, local police needed “probable cause” that the person was undocumented (wonder what that means?), they now check everybody. Broadening the law, claimed the supervisors, would help protect them from lawsuits for racial profiling. But as Chairman Corey Stewart, leader of the crackdown, asserted, “This will increase the number of people who will have their immigration status checked.”

In any event, it’s hardly the “reconsideration” of the crackdown we were teased with in April.

Let's not get too excited about new management. AP story headlined "Immigration crackdown costs grow" (see here) printed as "Illegal immigration costs grow."

“Left unchecked, illegal immigration will almost certainly put our county on a downward spiral, similar to the patterns to be found in the Third World countries these illegal immigrants left,” Prince William County Supervisor John Stirrup wrote last year of his affluent D.C. suburb, as he promoted its police crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

NPR reported Monday on the effects of this effort to “drive out illegal immigrants,” as residents relocate out of fear and businesses catering to Latinos stand “deserted.”

Members of Prince William’s school board cited the immigration policy last month when they announced more than 600 students learning English as a second language had left in the middle of the year. The chair of county commissioners lauded that as proof of the policy’s success.

Hispanic soccer teams have also relocated out of the county, saying fans were afraid to show up at games. Even legal residents say they’ve moved out, concerned for relatives who are undocumented.

This exodus and economic slump fits the pattern of local anti-immigrant ordinances passed over the last few years in places like Valley Park, Missouri and Riverside, New Jersey. And there are more direct costs. Although the county has only just started its crackdown, the county executive is projecting a $500,000 budget overrun for enforcement of this law. Nevertheless, county supervisor Corey Stewart, urging his colleagues not to back down, called the program a “stunning success.”

While the title of NPR’s story described the crackdown’s consequences as “unintended,” it seems that deporting or driving away undocumented immigrants—along with documented residents and Hispanic businesses—was actually the point of the program. That’s how Tom Tancredo explained the purpose of these local anti-immigrant ordinances in a 2006 speech. By that measure, Stewart can call it a “success”—even if it’s the crackdown that causes the county’s downward spiral.

The Standard Speaker reports that Alan Keyes has chosen Hazleton, PA to make his major announcement because of the city's infamous anti-immigration policies ... and also that Keyes hasn't yet gotten around to reserving the space for his press conference: "He is planning a press conference at the Best Western hotel in Hazleton, Pa., the site reports. A representative of Genetti Best Western Inn and Suites on Route 309 in Hazle Township said, as of Wednesday afternoon, the Keyes campaign had not reserved space for Tuesday."

While the debate over federal immigration reform has been on hold, anti-immigrant activists continue to push for legislation on the state and local levels. At a recent hearing of the Maryland state House Judiciary Committee regarding several bills seeking to crack down on undocumented immigrants, one activist found her testimony that day cut short after she tried to distribute fliers to the committee depicting the chairman in a gaudy sombrero under the phrase “Wanted for Aiding & Abetting.”

The activist, Susan Payne, announced herself as the executive director of the new Maryland Coalition for Immigration Reform, but we remember her as the co-founder of Citizens Above Party, which had at least one other member. Last year, Payne was testifying to the state legislature over REAL ID, warning that her hometown of Gaithersburg—a wealthy suburb of D.C. best known for its New Urbanist planned villages—was “becoming the first authentic barrio in the county.” Payne is one of a few anti-immigrant activists in the state who seem to be quoted in the media again and again.

But Payne doesn’t seem to have trouble finding allies among legislators: Del. Warren Miller is calling on his colleague Joe Vallario, the committee chairman depicted in the sombrero, to resign for interrupting Payne. “I would suggest he move to another country and run for office there,” said Miller.

(Susan Payne with flier. Photo from Maryland Thursday Meeting.)

Some GOP strategists are hoping that a John McCain nomination will bolster the party’s appeal to Hispanics after many Republicans jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon over the last few years. From the Washington Times:

Two years ago, Republicans fought over immigration and hemorrhaged Hispanic voters. Now they are poised to nominate the one man who can rebuild the Hispanic voter coalition that pushed President Bush twice to victory, the architects of that coalition say.

"I think the only candidate that Republicans have running for president who could retain those votes is in fact Senator McCain," said the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., president of Esperanza USA, founder of the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and a key player in helping Mr. Bush connect with Hispanic voters during his two runs for office.

While McCain did push for comprehensive immigration reform, in his quest to win over the right-wing base he largely abandoned his principled position, as even Cortes admitted. His new “image,” as the AP reports, is enforcement-only:

"He's focusing on enforcement, and in this community, enforcement means deportation, and that means separating more families, and more racial profiling and more of the incredible hardship that is affecting not just immigrants, but native-born Latinos," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza.

It appears McCain plans on walking a tightrope through November, with immigrants and the Hispanic community on one side and the Minuteman wing on the other. His own party may not be too helpful: while the GOP primary-caucus election in Texas on Tuesday may be pro forma, McCain will share the ballot with two anti-immigrant resolutions:

The first measure asks if local, state and federal officials should be required to enforce U.S. immigration laws "to secure our borders." Given the ongoing uproar over illegal immigration, the outcome seems pretty clear.

"I would be shocked if it didn't pass," said Kathy Ward, chairwoman of the Collin County Republican Party.

The second referendum, also related to illegal immigration, calls for legislation to require voters to show photo identification.

The measures won’t become law just yet; rather, they’re a way for the Republican Party to drum up support for anti-immigrant legislation later on:

"We generally look at things we believe the base of the party holds pretty dear," [Mary] Tschoepe [of the State Republican Executive Committee] said. "It gives us a big stick to take to the Legislature. We can say, 'Ninety-two percent of Republican primary voters think a voter ID in order to vote is an important issue. Let's get it done.' " …

Texas legislators are now studying an Oklahoma illegal immigration law that's considered the nation's toughest. People who shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants can be charged with a felony under the law passed last year.

“[O]n the pro-control side, the pro-borders side, the kooks and the racists are at the fringes,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies on CNN’s Glenn Beck show last week. “They're nuts, you know, living in their mother's basements.”

Krikorian, fellow guest Jim Gilchrist, and host Mike Brooks were complaining that the California Department of Transportation is moving the adopt-a-highway sign of the San Diego Minutemen to a less prominent area. But if these anti-immigrant commentators wanted to make the point that the anti-immigrant fringe is not part of their side of the debate, perhaps they would have been more convincing had they not been defending one of the most militant and radical vigilante groups in the country.

On this blog we’ve seen the San Diego Minutemen:

• on film aggressively harassing day-laborers,
• conducting an over-the-top protest of a Catholic church that offered breakfast to day-laborers (see photo),
• and ransacking a campground where a number of migrant workers lived—also on film.

A profile of the San Diego Minutemen by the Southern Poverty Law Center notes that the group was disowned for extremism by both major national Minutemen factions—including the Minuteman Project, founded by Gilchrist. But on CNN, Gilchrist said the dispute over SDMM was a matter of “those opposed to immigration law enforcement.”

CNN’s panel—composed of three anti-immigrant activists—was timely evidence for the importance of a new project from the National Council of La Raza to stop the increasing appearance of hate groups and extremists as “experts” in the immigration debate. Indeed, Gilchrist is listed on the site as a “suspect spokesperson,” a self-proclaimed vigilante featured as an immigration expert, and Glenn Beck is named as one of the prominent media hosts of extremism.