Asia-Pacific

Protests re-ignite US immigration debate

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-06 10:31

WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of demonstrators in more than 70 US cities turned out over the weekend in protest of a new Arizona immigration law, which has re-ignited the simmering national debate over immigration policy.

Arizona has enacted a law that demonstrators described as Draconian and racist, as the legislation requires police officers in the border state to question suspects about their immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion" that the individual may be staying in the United States illegally.

It would also require immigrants to carry documents proving they are legal.

The law's supporters counter that the federal government has failed to protect US borders and that state lawmakers had little choice but to enact the measure, pointing out the March killing of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz, which authorities linked to drug runners crossing into the United States from Mexico.

US President Barack Obama vowed to overhaul the nation's immigration policy in the run-up to his election, and his reforms would include a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

The proposal is a controversial measure to many on the right, as well as a number of legal immigrants who waited in line for years and paid thousands of dollars in lawyers' and paperwork fees.

Many undocumented workers, in contrast, argue they make significant contributions to the US economy and have earned legitimacy.

Darrell M. West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the protests will put pressure on elected officials to take action on immigration because Latinos are a large and growing voting bloc.

"No one really likes the status quo and there are increasing calls for the federal government to take action in this area," he said.

Congress chimed in on the debate on Thursday, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a measure that would heighten border security and provide a path to citizenship to some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

A USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday found that Americans placed nearly equal importance on the two sides of the immigration debate, with around four in 10 Americans rating "controlling US borders to halt the flow of illegal immigrants into the US" as extremely important for lawmakers to tackle this year.

Thirty-six percent said "developing a plan to deal with the large number of illegal immigrants who are already living in the US" is extremely important.

West said immigration reform will be contentious, but not implementing reform would also spark controversy, adding that enacting an immigration overhaul would help Democrats with Hispanic voters.

Republicans, on the other hand, "have done poorly in California because the party has taken such a hostile position against immigrants," he said.

John Fortier, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said he doubted a serious immigration debate will take place before the November Congressional election, as it would prove more quarrelsome than the partisan brawl over health care.

Such legislation would be unlikely to pass and many moderate Democrats would not want to see the issue emerge.

"The problem for the GOP is that the demographics of America are changing, and the Hispanic vote is growing and is generally a Democratic vote."

Former US President George W. Bush and Karl Rove, who served as chief political strategist under the Bush administration, recognized this and sought to attract Hispanic votes.

The effort saw significant success in Texas in 2000 and in the 2004 presidential elections, when Bush attracted about 40 percent of the Latino vote, he noted.

But the Republican Party is split on the issue, and a majority of Republicans fret over illegal immigration, as well as high levels of legal immigration, he said.

"Fifteen years ago I would have said that Democrats are as divided as Republicans on this issue. It is still something of an elite vs. mass issue, with elites of both parties favoring immigration and the more populist parts of the parties opposing it," he said.

"Unions, for example, were often against immigration as a threat to manufacturing wages. The picture is more complicated today as service unions have large numbers of Hispanics as members."

But while Democrats are less divided than they once were, they still will see significant white working class opposition to immigration, he said.

In the long term, Republican opposition to immigration reform may hurt them with the growing Hispanic vote, he said.

While there has been some talk that President Obama needs to raise the issue to boost the November turnout among Hispanics, Fortier believes the more likely outcome will be to energize anti-immigration voters in both parties, as well as independents.

"So I think Democrats will bring it up, talk about it a bit, in order to meet their promise to discuss it," he said. "But at the end of the day, they will say it is too hard to do and not address it before the election."