Immigrants and Politics Blog

[KR: Michael Jones-Correa sent out this story on the Latino Politics mailing list. Unlike in 1996, when the Clinton administration made it a priority to make significant headway on the backlog following a surge in applications for naturalization, it does not look like the CIS in 2008 will be speeding up naturalization approvals before the November election.]

Immigration Chief Quits Amid Citizenship Surge
BY SARAH GARLAND
New York Sun
March 14, 2008

The director of an embattled federal immigration agency will step down from his position, leaving the agency in limbo as it struggles to wade through a flood of citizenship applications before the presidential election.

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[KR: Interesting story out of Riverside, where a local lawyer has filed a suit to clarify whether being born in the Panama Canal Zone counts as a “natural born” citizen. The Founders certainly did not have an American empire in mind when drafting such language, but as noted in the latest biography of Alexander Hamilton, they may have had him (and other foreign-born leaders) in mind when inserting the natural-born language.]

McCain’s citizenship faces legal challenge
By Michael R. Blood
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2008

LOS ANGELES – John McCain has been called an American hero. But is he a natural-born citizen?

A federal judge in Riverside County has been asked to determine whether the Republican presidential candidate, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, meets the legal test to qualify for the nation’s highest office.

The Constitution requires that only “natural born” citizens hold the presidency, a term on which the Founding Fathers didn’t elaborate.

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[From IB: “.. Two articles, one on academic views of immigration in the context of the Presidential elections from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, and a (short) overview of the presidential candidates’ views of immigration. Perhaps not that much new for those following this carefully, but both are a nice snapshot for students you might be teaching.]

Academics: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i28/28b01001.htm

Candidates:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/03/17/where-clinton-obama-and-mccain-stand-on-immigration_print.htm

[KR: Sent by Irene Bloemraad. The new Arizona law on employer verification may push unauthorized immigrants not only to neighboring states, but also to Canada. One interesting tidbit here is that unauthorized immigrants in Canada cannot enroll their children in school or access health services.]

Firm helps Mexicans get jobs in Canada
Workers are needed, wanted, as long as they follow rules
By Gabriela Rico
The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
March 14, 2008

Never mind the jobs Americans don’t do.

A new Tucson business, playing off the state’s new employer-sanctions law, is linking Mexican workers here with high-paying jobs that Canadians aren’t doing. Canada’s labor shortage has created a unique opportunity that a recently opened Tucson business is capitalizing on. The mother-daughter operation, Consultantes Canadienses LLC (Canadian Consultants), specializes in connecting displaced Mexican workers with jobs in Canada.

“My country is going through a crisis,” said Margaret Cid, a native of Toronto. “I have employers telling me, ‘I just want someone who shows up.’ ”

So Margaret Cid and her mother, Carmen Cid, who are Canadian citizens and legal U.S. residents, created a step-by-step guide for how to apply for a job, obtain a visa and get settled in Canada.

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[Posting from Irene Bloemraad on a story that appeared in the New York Times’ Week In Review section. Good summary of the issues rise and fall–now, and in the past].

March 2, 2008
The Border and the Ballot Box
By DAVID LEONHARDT, New York Times

ON June 7 of last year, a bill to overhaul the nation’s immigration system — a bill supported by President Bush and the Democratic leaders of Congress — died in the Senate. It died mostly because of grass-roots opposition, and its downfall appeared to serve as an announcement of the issue’s new political potency. For much of 2007, immigration seemed certain to play a dominant role in the 2008 presidential campaign.

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[KR: Given all of the stories earlier in the year about whether Obama, a second-generation immigrant, was black enough to get African American support, it is perhaps surprising and ironic that he is losing the immigrant vote to Hillary Clinton. Below are links to news articles and opeds trying to make sense of why Obama is heavily losing among Latino and Asian American voters, with potential explanations ranging from name-recognition advantage, to better outreach by Clinton, to intergroup prejudice].

“Asians were a surprise,” said Bruce Cain, director of the University of California’s Washington Center. “It’s the first (presidential) election we have seen where Asian voters were a big factor. They are about 8 percent of the Democratic electorate…. The two major immigrant groups voted for Clinton as opposed to the candidate who has the immigrant background.”

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[KR: A reporter asked me a couple of days ago about immigration and the primary races, and wanted to know why McCain has been able to overcome that issue. Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal provides some possible reasons below. Whatever the explanation, it certainly turns the conventional wisdom of 2006 on its head — that immigrant legalization is a third-rail issue for a large part of the GOP base. The big question if McCain gets the nod is: Where will the anti-immigration voter go?]

McCain Gains as Furor Over Immigration Cools
January 29, 2008

CAPITAL JOURNAL
By GERALD SEIB

Six months ago, when Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign was left for dead at the side of the road to the White House, he seemed to have perished because he was in the wrong place on two important issues: Iraq and immigration.

Today, as Republican voters go to the polls in Florida to determine whether Sen. McCain has become the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination, it is worth considering how things have turned around.
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[KR: Apparently, the Minutemen organization is not deemed to be a group that advocates discrimination, and is thus allowed to participate in Adopt-a-Highway programs. Sounds like it could be resolved by the courts if the Minutemen sue to remain on I-5.]

Minutemen exit I-5, get new road to adopt
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
January 30, 2008

SAN DIEGO — Caltrans has given the San Diego Minutemen a new stretch of road to clean up for the Adopt-A-Highway program, moving the group that fights illegal immigration from Interstate 5 near the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint to a quieter, less visible state highway.

Caltrans officials say the change was made because of safety concerns.

Last week, members of the state Latino Legislative caucus warned Caltrans that the signs indicating the San Diego Minutemen’s stretch of freeway on I-5 could draw protesters to the busy area near San Clemente.

Caltrans workers removed the signs from the northbound and southbound lanes Monday night. The group’s new two-mile stretch of highway is located along California 52 in eastern San Diego County near Santee.

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[KR: A few scholars on Latino politics sent out a link to this story suggesting that portions of the Latino vote may still be in play based on the drivers license issue. Gil Cedillo, a consistent sponsor of a drivers license measure in California, endorsed Obama in mid January, but it remains to be seen whether this one issue can sway Latino voters given the other advantages the Clintons have with Latino voters. It will be interesting to see if this issue gets brought up in the Los Angeles debate on Thursday, and how the candidates respond. Given Obama’s bases of support, it is unlikely that a pro-license stance will hurt him with non-Latino primary voters, but perhaps time will tell.]

Obama takes big risk on driver’s license issue
Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, January 28, 2008

Washington — Sen. Barack Obama easily won the African American vote in South Carolina, but to woo California Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the red-hot issue of granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

It’s a huge issue for Latinos, who want them. It’s also a huge issue for the general electorate, which most vehemently does not. Obama’s stand could come back to haunt him not only in a general election, but with other voters in California, where driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants helped undo former Gov. Gray Davis.

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[KR: Did immigration have anything to do with the NV Culinary Workers Union (Local 226 of UNITE HERE) endorse Obama? It would seem so, based on this posting back in November by Politico’s Ben Smith, and this report on the Nevada debate where Obama said “yes” to drivers licenses and Clinton said “no”. Now, as Smith reports, UNITE HERE is running a Spanish language ad decrying the lawsuit against the caucuses on the Strip as suppressing Latino votes. Dolores Huerta, however, is solidly in the Clinton camp, although her claim that she knows no Latino worker who supports Obama seems like a stretch. Will be very interesting to see how union members, Latino or otherwise, vote in the caucus.]

Ad: ‘Hillary Clinton does not respect our people’

Ben Smith, Politico
January 17, 2007

The radio ad aired by one of Obama’s labor allies re-injects ethnicity into the Democratic primary contest in sharp terms.

“Hillary Clinton does not respect our people,” the ad says in Spanish (original and Clinton campaign translation after the jump), referring to the lawsuit that failed today to shut down special caucus sites on Las Vegas’ strip. “Hillary Clinton is shameless.”

“Sen. Obama is defending our right to vote. Sen. Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes, our community, and our people. Sen. Obama’s campaign slogan is ‘Si Se Puede.’ Vote for a president who respects us, and who respects our right to vote,” the ad says, according to a transcript provided by the Clinton campaign and confirmed in part by a union official.

On a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign, two of her supporters denounced the spot and demanded that Obama distance himself from it. They also said the Clinton campaign had no involvement in the lawsuit, which was filed by Clinton supporters and defended by Bill Clinton.

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