It's back: Immigration heats up

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It's back: Immigration heats up

By JOSH GERSTEIN & NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | 4/3/09 4:35 AM EDT Text
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Latino leaders pressure the W.H. to set a goal of signing an
immigration reform bill by the end of the year.
Photo: AP

Since taking office, President Barack Obama has seemed intent on
keeping the politically explosive issue of immigration on the back
burner.

He won’t be able to do that for long.

Latino leaders are pressuring the White House to set a goal of signing
a major immigration reform bill by the end of the year. Friction
between immigrant communities and local police seeking to enforce
federal law is increasing, prompting hearings on Capitol Hill and
scrutiny from the Justice Department.

And in less than two weeks, Obama will be in Mexico for a presidential
summit in which immigration issues will be on the agenda.

“I think, politically, [Obama] is in a tough spot, and he recognizes
that the public isn’t where he is on immigration,” said Steven
Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which bills itself as
a “low immigration” think tank. “If you are Obama, it’s a no-win
situation, and there is no reason to bring this issue up right now
from a political view. You can give a few speeches to the right groups
and then say, ‘What else is on the agenda?’”

With everything on his plate — from the economy to health care to two
wars — it’s easy to see why Obama is hoping to steer clear of the
issue. Immigration reform inspired furious debate in Congress when
President George W. Bush tried to push through a “comprehensive”
approach that would have allowed most of the estimated 12 million
illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

Obama dealt with the immigration issue briefly at the White House on
March 18 when the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met privately with the
president. Lawmakers said he promised a high-profile event on
immigration in the next month or two — but said he did not agree to
commit to getting immigration reform passed this year. Instead, he
said he’ll support efforts to have Congress take up the issue this
fall.

“He didn’t make a commitment to sign it before the end of the year,” a
senior administration official involved in the discussions said.
“Presumably, if you’re launching the legislative debate in the fall,
that’d be a pretty tall order. His commitment is to get this
started.”

The official, who asked not to be named, said Obama proposed a process
similar to that used on health care. He suggested “some kind of public
event followed by a lot of conversations with stakeholders on the
issue to get the policy right and the strategy right,” the aide said.
The White House plans “close consultations” with the Hill on
legislation but does not intend to offer up an Obama-branded proposal,
the official said.

Obama also committed to assign a White House point person on the
immigration issue but has not yet done so, the aide said.

Bush’s approach called for a “path to citizenship” that would have
allowed immigrants already here to apply to stay, as long as they paid
any penalties and fines and stayed out of trouble with the law. Obama
endorsed a broadly similar approach during the campaign.

Even as Latino groups and others seek to bring the issue back into the
spotlight, the political reality is that the economic downturn might
make this a particularly difficult time to clear the way for
immigrants to stay in the United States.

The recession and rising unemployment rates are likely to undercut the
already shaky public support for legalization of illegal immigrants.
Business leaders are diverted by more immediate issues of corporate
survival. And a surge in drug-related killings and assassinations in
Mexico could stoke public fears that any immigration-related measure
might cause that violence to migrate north, even though advocates
insist reform would make Americans safer.

Asked whether the ailing economy would increase public resistance to
immigration reform, the administration official said, “You might be
right if the debate is about generosity versus being harsh to
immigrants. ... It’s not about whether we’re nice to immigrants or
not. It’s about whether we’re doing a smart thing for the economy.”

While Obama aides insist the immigration issue is a priority, it has
not been part of the “education, health care and energy” mantra that
has dominated the president’s rhetoric since he offered up his budget
plan in February. Latino officials were delighted last month when, in
response to a question at a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif.,
Obama gave a lengthy and detailed statement in support of
comprehensive immigration reform. However, he ignored the part of the
question about when he planned to move on the issue.

The emotion the immigration debate inspires was on clear display on
Capitol Hill on Thursday as two House subcommittees conducted a
hearing on local efforts to detain illegal immigrants. One very high-
profile drive, conducted by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County,
Ariz., with help from a cooperation agreement with the federal
government, is now the target of a Justice Department investigation
into possible civil rights violations.

Julio Cesar Mora, a 19-year-old Arizona man who is a U.S. citizen,
complained that he and his father, who holds a green card, were pulled
over and detained for three hours during one of the sheriff’s
immigration raids. “They patted us down and tied our hands together
with zip ties like we were criminals,” Mora complained.

Another witness, Ray Tranchant of Virginia, described the death of his
16-year-old daughter and a friend in a car accident caused by an
illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and had been arrested before.
“Instead of being deported, he stayed on the streets of Virginia Beach
to drink and drive and subsequently killed these two beautiful girls,”
Tranchant said.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told the Latino witnesses their plight paled
in comparison to what had happened to Tranchant. “I don’t know how to
impress to you what looks like an inconvenience to you compared to the
very sacred life of this man’s daughter,” King said.

However, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) insisted the enforcement
efforts were actually leading to more crime.

“Those drunkards and those rapists and those murderers do most of
their drunkenness, their murdering and their raping in the very
immigrant community in which they reside. And you know who wants to
get rid of them? The very immigrant community that lives there, but
they cannot call the police,” he said, insisting that comprehensive
immigration reform was the only real solution.