Proving the stopped clock theory, Ron Paul talks sense on this issue:>Immigration key for GOP candidates
By JANE NORMAN
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 16, 2007
Washington, D.C. - Iowa may be 91 percent white, but illegal immigration has emerged as a key issue for Republican presidential candidates campaigning in the state.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., has made it his main campaign plank, and other Republicans have zeroed in on Iowans' worries over illegal immigration and border security as they jostle for support in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
"That's the hot issue right now," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University.
Iowans are also far more aware of the impact of immigration as a rising Hispanic population has spread far beyond border states, Goldford noted.
Iowa has an estimated 114,700 residents of Hispanic origin as of 2006, a 39 percent increase since 2000, according to the census.
The Des Moines Register is exploring the candidates' positions on issues most important to Republicans in advance of the Iowa GOP's straw poll on Aug. 11 in Ames.
The competition to look tough on immigration comes after a bill overhauling immigration policy stalled in the Senate in late June, despite the backing of President Bush and a bipartisan coalition of senators.
Members of the public, enraged that the bill would allow those in the country illegally to eventually become citizens, deluged Congress with phone calls complaining it was "amnesty," and both liberals and conservatives backed away.
Tancredo publicly referred to the bill as the "McCain-Ken-nedy Amnesty Bill," referring to co-sponsor Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
In a June debate in New Hampshire, Massachusetts ex-Gov. Mitt Romney said he objected to the new "Z" visa authorized in the bill that would allow eventual citizenship.
"Every illegal alien, almost every one, under this bill, gets to stay here," Romney said. "That's not fair to the millions and millions of people around the world that would love to come here, join with family members, bring skill and education that we need."
"We need to end illegal immigration," Rudy Giuliani said in June, proposing tamper-proof identification cards and stronger enforcement at the border.
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas voted in favor of bringing the Senate bill to a final vote, but then a few minutes later voted against it.
Brownback said he wants a combination of secure borders, work site enforcement and a guest worker program.
"This is not yet the right way," he said. "We should let the topic rest for now while we work diligently to secure our borders."
Two more ex-governors in the field, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, both have emphasized border security and workplace enforcement. Thompson wants immigrants in the country legally to carry a tamper-proof ID card, and employers to be forced to verify that employees carry the card.
Huckabee said his No. 1 priority is a secure border. Then he wants unauthorized immigrants to register with the government and receive guest permits and IDs, and pay a "significant" fine. They would have a choice of deportation or a "rigorous process" to achieve legal status.
"They must not be allowed to cut in line ahead of those who have followed the rules," Huckabee said.
Tancredo said very strict enforcement should be enacted in the workplace and elsewhere and then foreigners will stop trying to enter the country.
He has introduced a bill that would bar children born to unauthorized immigrants in the United States from becoming citizens and prohibit state universities from granting in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrants.
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, another immigration activist, touts his work in pushing the Secure Fence Act, which passed Congress last year and authorizes double-layer fencing, increased surveillance and additional security measures on the Mexican border.
Drug smuggling has been curbed by a similar steel fence near San Diego, Hunter said.
Goldford said Tancredo and Hunter have "made everybody else look moderate."
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas also supports ending "birthright citizenship." He said the Senate bill was a compromise of laws and sovereignty, and he is the only candidate to call for an end to welfare benefits, medical care and public education for those in the country illegally.
If former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee gets in the race for the nomination, as expected, it looks as though he won't be siding with McCain and Bush on immigration, either.
A South Carolina crowd in late June greeted Thompson with applause when he sharply criticized the Senate proposal.
"The American people are saying, 'Fool me twice, shame on me,' " Thompson said, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Register staff writers Tom Witosky, Jon Roos, Jason Pulliam and Erin Jordan contributed to this article.< |
