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WASHINGTON – Top Democratic elected officials and strategists are engaged in an internal debate over toughening the party’s image on illegal immigration, with some worried that Democrats’ relatively welcoming stance makes them vulnerable to GOP attacks in the 2008 election.
Advocates of the change cite local and state election results last week in Virginia and New York, where Democrats used sharper language and get-tough proposals to stave off Republican efforts to paint the party as weak on the issue.
A number of New York Democrats won local elections in part by opposing a plan by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and in the presidential campaign, in which party front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has struggled to explain whether she supports the Spitzer plan.
In Congress, a group of conservative Democrats, led by freshman Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, introduced legislation last week calling for more Border Patrol agents and a requirement that employers verify the legal status of workers. The proposal does not include measures to create a path to citizenship for millions of illegal workers, which in the past have been supported by Democrats nationally.
With polls showing wide-ranging discontent with the government’s handling of immigration, some Democrats are arguing that there are areas in which the party can toughen its image without moving too far away from its traditionally pro-immigration leanings – such as supporting heightened security at the Mexico border, opposing benefits for illegal immigrants and pushing for harsher penalties against businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
“If Democrats turn a blind eye to the public concerns about immigration, it would be a mistake,” said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who won re-election last year in his conservative district by taking a hard line against illegal immigration while backing what he said were practical ideas for dealing with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. “If Democrats are seen as strongly supporting the protection of our borders and not supporting a vast array of welfare benefits for people here illegally, and combine that with a responsible approach toward earned citizenship for those who have been in our country for a number of years, then it can be a winning issue for Democrats.”
The internal debate has grown emotional in recent days, boiling over Friday during a tense encounter on the House floor between Rep. Joe Baca of California, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
The caucus was upset because some House Democrats had backed a Republican measure protecting employers who impose certain English-only rules – the latest in what Baca said were a series of frustrations with the party leadership’s approach to immigration.
“We’re tired of people trying to scapegoat the immigrants or Hispanics as a platform,” Baca said. “Republicans have done it, and Democrats have followed … because they’re afraid they’re going to lose their elections. But we got elected to represent all communities, not to vote based on whether we’re going to get re-elected.”
The party’s difficulty comes in the wake of the Senate’s defeat this summer of a major immigration overhaul that would have created a path to citizenship for illegal workers.
The issue has proved vexing for Republicans as well, with the party’s conservative base pushing for measures to choke the border.
President Bush, meanwhile, backed the Senate bill, and his former political adviser Karl Rove has long supported a moderate stance on immigration as part of a strategy to attract Hispanic voters to the GOP.
But Republicans have made clear their intention to make the issue a central focus once again. One GOP official said last week they already were planning TV ads targeting Clinton on the driver’s license issue.
