MyDD :: Anti-Immigrant Wedge in CA-50

Anti-Immigrant Wedge in CA-50

by Words Have Power, Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 01:53:40 AM EST

Republican politicians are rushing to embrace immigration and anti-immigrant positions as key wedge issue in the 2006 election and, they hope, beyond.

In San Diego County, State Senator Bill Morrow held an immigrant bashing rally on the same day he announced that he would be running to fill Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham's seat in 2006. Morrow's rally included speeches by Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and Orange County's Minuteman Project founder, Jim Gilchrist.

What is remarkable about Morrow's rally and the anti-immigrant movement in general is the nature of the participants in these events. While many event involving Gilchrist tend to attract skin-heads and neo-nazis, the "public forum" held in Carlsbad last week attracted a crowd that was decidedly middle and upper middle class.

The group with whom the anti-immigrant message seems to resonate the most is white, middle age and relatively affluent. At the Carlsbad event the crowd arrived in big late model cars and SUVs (many foreign) and was well dress and groomed. Most undoubtable lived in homes that were valued well above the median North County home price of nearly $700,000. What exactly this group feels that immigrants, legal or illegal, are going to take from them is beyond me.

San Diego Union Tribune columnist, Ruben Navarrette, attended the Carlsbad event.

"Morrow's minions kept a tight rein on who was let into the event and who wasn't. They tried to identify those sympathetic to tighter immigration restrictions, and they made up excuses about how the "fire code" didn't allow them to let in more people.

Then the minions waved in other folks whose names, they said, were on the "VIP" list. When I asked how someone got to be a VIP, I was told that it was by volunteering with Morrow's office or otherwise being a supporter.

Not surprisingly, when Morrow asked the crowd of about 450 how many of them thought that illegal immigration was a crisis, all but four or five people quickly raised their hands."

Morrow's "forum" was a tool to energize his base and demonstrate his intention to use immigration as an issue to define himself as a candidate. Do politicians such as Bill Morrow care or even consider the human and social damage their issue pandering causes? Navarrette doesn't think so.

"...Morrow wants to go to Washington, and he seems to think that illegal immigration will get him there.

Selling influence is one thing. But in my book, it's what Morrow is doing - bashing immigrants for political gain - that's the real scandal."

Democrats beware. Bill Morrow is coming to your neighborhood with his message of fear and hate. If you're not ready, he is going ride that message to Washington.

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Immigration is a difficult issue in California (none / 0)

It is a big mistake for Democrats to characterize the anti-immigration sentiments with Tancredo, Gilchrist and Nazi skinheads. They are the lightning rods, but the issue cuts much deeper than that.

A large part of the problem is the confusion and hysteria over illegal immigration and immigration.

You are just kidding yourself if you think this issue doesn't cut deep and wide. Over 50% of native born hispanics favor increased restrictions on immigration. Immigration puts a big strain on our education and health care systems and lowers wages dramatically.

I rarely agree with David Brooks, but this editorial warrants careful consideration, Two Steps Toward a Sensible Immigration Policy:

The problem is that we make it nearly impossible for the immigrants to come here legally. We issue about 5,000 visas for unskilled year-round labor annually, but the economy requires hundreds of thousands of new workers to clean hotel rooms and process food. We need these workers but we force them underground with our self-delusional immigration policies. As Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute says, "It's very hard to enforce unrealistic rules."

So it doesn't matter how many beer-swilling good old boys appoint themselves citizen border guards, we're not going to get this situation under control until we understand this paradox: The more we simply crack down, the more disorder we get. The only way to re-establish order is to open up legal, controllable channels through which labor can flow in an aboveground, orderly way. We can't build a wall to stop this flood; we need sluice gates to regulate the flow.

Instead of a knee jerk reaction against the Tancredo reactionaries, Democrats need to develop a sophisticated message. This just might work:

Smart people understand this, and there has been an important change in the immigration debate. Among practical people, it's no longer pro-immigrant folks against anti-immigrant folks. It's no longer law-and-order hawks versus amnesty doves. Practical people understand the only way to establish law and order is to create a temporary-worker program and step up enforcement to make sure people use it.

In the Senate there are two bills, which if combined would get us a long way toward a solution. The McCain-Kennedy bill has an effective temporary worker program. The Kyl-Cornyn bill has tough border security provisions. As Jacoby notes, the sponsors of both may come to realize the two bills are not rivals. They complement each other.

This reform won't satisfy people who want immigrants to disappear. But most Americans just want to know the system is under control, and this will do it.

The answer to illegal immigration hysteria isn't engaging in a framing war, it's developing a solution that works to solve very real and very serious problems.

by Gary Boatwright on Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 05:43:58 AM EST

It's not just in Cali... (none / 0)

The R's are rolling out the wedge issue for 06. They are trying it out in the Va. Governor's race right now.

by sndeak on Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 07:14:37 AM EST

This is a Toxic Political Cocktail (none / 0)

Both parties benefit from illegal immigration and neither one wants a real solution. They are both trying to game the political system for brownie points from their constituency.

That's why I like the idea Brooks had of combining both proposals. Put it on the table and see how everybody votes. Right now the whole issue is all talk and no walk. Both sides are trying to demonize each other and neither one is serious about voting on a real solution. The best thing Democrats could do is take Brooks advice and demand a vote on the combined solution.

They could take the high moral ground, remove a wedge issue from the table and maybe even accomplish something on one of the most contentious issues of the day. Of course that would require overcoming their passion for mediocrity and taking a stand on something.

by Gary Boatwright on Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 08:15:34 AM EST
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