McCain's Forked-Tongue Express-GOP's Hot Topic
MIKE CARTER, Associated Press Writer
February 2, 2008
PHOENIX(AP) -- The protesters gather every morning before dawn, monitoring the entrance to a fenced compound called the Macehualli Work Center. They are trying to shut the place down. They wave placards and take photos of anyone driving in to pick up the day laborers who congregate there. They want nothing less than to save America from what they call "the invasion."
The protesters are members of Riders USA, United for a Sovereign America and The Minutemen. They find a common bond in their frustration with the government, and their desire to restore respect for US immigration laws. They say that many immigrants have killed members of law enforcement and have not been examined for disease.
"We're the Wild West," protester Craig Tillman says with a smile.
The Wild West is actually a rather ordinary-looking, heavily commercialized artery called Bell Road. Mexico is a three-hour drive south of here, but Bell Road and places like it are where the worlds collide, one culture grinding against the other. And in the home state of Sen. John McCain, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, that clash has driven a wedge straight through the Arizona GOP.
The party is controlled at the district level by activists who detest McCain for his sponsorship, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), of a comprehensive immigration bill that among other things would have rewarded illegal immigrants with a pathway to citizenship.
"We do not consider him a Republican at all," says Rob Haney, a party chairman in McCain's home district. The candidate's bus, the Straight Talk Express, should be renamed, Haney says: "We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He'll lie about anything."
Said John Acer, a lawyer who, like Haney, showed up last weekend at a meeting of the Republican state committee in Glendale: "He's despicable. Dishonest. Duplicitous." And so it goes, on and on, all these Republicans who wince at the mention of McCain's name, and who can think of few things worse than having the state's senior Republican senator ascend to the White House.
McCain's in-state problems reflect his national quandary as he tries to convince Republicans that he's one of them.
"It's scary," says Mary Torres, 39, who works at a thrift shop.
They don't want little L.A.'s in Arizona," says co-worker Barbara Gutierrez, 40.
"A lot of people are going to other states. Even Canada," Torres said.
"Less controversy. Less pressure," Gutierrez said.
Max Romero, 41, proprietor of John's Olde Barber Shop -- a Hispanic-oriented business with "peluqueria" stenciled on the front window -- says that most of his customers are more focused on the Super Bowl than on Super Tuesday. But he makes a prediction about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.):
"I think that light-skinned brother's going to win. Because Oprah backs him up. The senator for us, McCain, he just seems so senile. He don't make no sense. Homeboy's young."
In the parking lot, men congregated around the back of a pickup truck, apparently hoping to get hired. More men gathered on a distant street corner. The day laborer center where the protests are held was vacant. The demonstrations have effectively shut the place down, scattering the workers.
A state law that took effect Jan. 1 heightens penalties on business owners who hire illegal immigrants. The consequences have yet to play out, but some proprietors on Bell Road say business is down as Hispanics either save their money or flee the state, to points unknown. Some people worry that crime will spike. And people are frightened.
The manager of a liquor store, a Palestinian man who gave his name only as John, said the crackdown on employers is going to have terrible consequences among the Hispanics who live in the area. They'll do "crazy stuff," he predicted.
"They're not going to go back to Mexico!
Down the road on a side street next to the McDonald's where the protesters have gathered, Tillman said he'd never vote for McCain, or for any of the Democrats.
Barb Heller said she fears what amounts to an annexation of parts of Arizona by the Mexican government: "The president of Mexico is saying that wherever there is a Mexican, that's Mexico."
She showed up for Saturday's protest with a surgical mask around her neck. Illegal immigrants don't pass health tests before getting jobs like legal immigrants. They might be working right there at McDonald's," she says. |
