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."
People shouldn't vote because of common people group (race) anyway.
The problem is, and I know they don't care about this, but it's my bed too.
As for permanent residency, personally would have a sort of visa thing, with the aliens having to renew their visa every 1 to 5 years--so their residency has to be approved. However, it should be fair. If they've lived here for twenty years, have a family here, and then find themselves out of work right before their time for renewal, they shouldn't be deported. If they've just recently arrived and haven't worked much at all, then deporting them would be fair.
For some crimes, they should be immediately deported (but not for ones such as minor traffic tickets, jaywalking, etc.).
Sort of a rough idea.
P.S. A bit old, but personal opinions on Illegal/Legal Immigration.
Duh. The GOP got alot fewer from EVERY demographic, numbn*ts.
Prolly lost a good number BECAUSE of the parties perceived weak border position.
True.
Comment 32 references you. Just a heads up.
There is also an existing class of Americans known as citizens. These U.S. citizens also view it personally and passionately, and the political outcome of an amnesty 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.
A number of big businesses depend on the cheap labor that breaking the law provides, and the Republican Party can kiss big campaign contributions goodbye if it dares to expect big business to operate in a legal manner.
George W. Bush didn't need legislation to regularize the banking in an effort to 'regularize' the Mexican illegal aliens.
He just directed the FDIC to form a task force that resulted in reducing the ID requirements to allow Mexican illegal aliens to use Mexican Matricular Consular cards as a form of valid ID.
Then, the banks set up office in the Mexican consulates so that when Mexican illegal aliens applied for an ID, they were told how to use their Matricular Consular cards to open bank accounts, take out home and auto loans, apply for home loans. IOW, the whole works.
See: New Alliance Task Force:
2006 Finalist
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of Chicago
Award Sponsor
Innovations in American Government Awards
Without access to banking services, even small necessities, like paying rent, incur high costs. For the "unbanked," payments are often made with an expensive cashier's check and paychecks cashed through predatory services that charge high fees. It is difficult and dangerous to save money when it must be kept at home, increasing the incentive to consume and placing the purchase of houses, cars, and even most large appliances out of reach. For 75 percent of Mexican immigrants living in the United States--and nearly one third of immigrants from all Latin American countries--these difficulties are part of daily life.
As in other immigrant communities around the country, the large Hispanic community of Chicago, composed of recent documented and undocumented immigrants, faced such financial problems. Most were without banking services, paying high premiums to predatory financial businesses such as check-cashing services. Then, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stepped in.
The FDIC branch in Chicago initially intended to fulfill one part of the 2001 "Partnership for Prosperity" agreement between the U.S. and Mexico. The agreement urged the U.S. to seek alternatives to the high-cost wire transfers to Mexico that many immigrants used to send money to families back home. Joining with the Mexican Consulate of Chicago, the FDIC created the New Alliance Task Force (NATF).
It was clear to members of the NATF that wire transfers were only the symptom of a larger problem: lack of access to financial services. Drawing on a coalition of 65 people from banks, mortgage industry representatives, community organizations, federal bank oversight agencies, and other government agencies, the NATF sought a comprehensive solution.
Four major working groups targeted specific problems; they addressed access to financial education, bank products and services, mortgage products, and social products. Each group developed specific strategies as well as programs to implement them.
In some cases, these solutions required dramatic change. Many immigrants lacked identification, which is usually required to open up even basic checking accounts. The NATF helped to sell the Matricula Consular card, issued by the Mexican consulate, as a valid form of banking identification. Partner banks began to accept income tax records to substantiate loan applications.
Other solutions employed common sense. Many in the immigrant population were suspicious of both banks and government presence in their lives. The NATF worked to overcome this by positioning bank representatives in the Mexican Consulate. As new immigrants waited in line for their identification cards, they heard about the benefits of banking.
The NATF's comprehensive programs helped nearly 160,000 immigrants to open bank accounts. Many thousands more received financial counseling, mortgage assistance, and other forms of support.
The success in Chicago has already prompted the FDIC to bring the NATF's innovations to other districts. Programs are underway in Charlotte/Raleigh, Boston, Austin, Kansas City and Los Angeles. More FDIC districts are scheduled to adopt similar initiatives.
Contact Information
Luke W. Reynolds
Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection
1333 S Mayflower Ave., Suite 450
Monrovia, CA 91016
(626) 359-7152 ex. 4115
lureynolds@fdic.gov
You're right. The Country will slowly degenerate into a third world, socialist swamp perpetually governed by Democrats...and this will happen no matter how tough our President otherwise is on the WOT.
I believe we should give amnesty to these poor CRIMINALS or INVADERS.
This should be a 2 week amnesty to get the heck out of our Country.
The ones who ignore this amnesty should be buried in a tent city jail and fined $10,000 or buried elsewhere.
All aiders and abettors of these CRIMINALS or INVADERS should get 1 year in a tent city jail and a $10,000 fine for each CRIMINAL aided.
Those in government should be the first ones charged.
Notice how Blumenthal juxtaposes Tancredo's speech with the part about Miami/3rd world to the young hispanic woman's discouragement to Norquist's warning.
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