This follows Arizona’s determination to pass its own immigration law, followed by the justice department’s decision to sue Arizona in order to block this law. This culminated in last week’s ruling in favour of the justice department by an Arizona district court judge.
The judge blocked key provisions of the controversial law that would have made it a crime for undocumented immigrants to work and would have mandated warrantless arrests of all suspected illegals. It would have also required police officers to investigate the immigration status of any individual they suspected of having entered the US illegally and to detain individuals arrested for even minor non-detainable offences if they were without papers.
The ruling has ratcheted up tensions and fired up a debate on the cable channels and in the blogosphere that is bound to affect both policy and politics. Democrats and Republicans alike are cogitating over the impact the debate will have on the November midterm elections and which voters it will galvanise.
Races are already being called on the basis of the immigration debate and its impact. Democrats expect it to help their senate candidates in California, Florida, Illinois and Nevada, most of them states with crucial Latino voting blocs. Republicans envisage an outpouring of support in Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri.
Republicans argue that public opinion is on their side, with polls showing that a vast majority of Americans support the Arizona law and oppose the justice department’s decision to take it on. Their framing of the issue suggests that Arizona had no choice but to take matters into its own hands given the administration’s failure to fight illegal immigration. This position is supported by the introduction of Arizona-type bills in 17 other legislatures across the country though only Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah are expected to sign them in to law next year.
Democrats are hoping that a number of factors might make votes gravitate in their favour. They suspect that administration’s decision to challenge the Arizona law, albeit indirectly via the justice department, will drive Hispanic voters towards them. In 2008, Obama won 67 percent of the Latino vote, the hysteria of the cable channels and conservative talk radio combined with a Democrat push for immigration reform might help up this percentage in November.
Some of the more optimist pundits argue that taking on immigration reform would help redraw the entire electoral map by energising the Hispanic vote in the south and thus reversing the Republicans’ hold over the south. The tea leaves are difficult to read on this but whether the southern strategy can be overturned or not, it does seem that putting immigration reform on the front burner can only help the Democrats.
The issue is a divisive one for the Republicans and the heat would be felt. Conservative activists have long opposed immigration reform, even blocking George W Bush’s attempt at reform. At the same time there are many Republicans who fear losing their seats if they lose the Latino vote. Democrats are hoping that this friction between the party and the grassroots might help them.
The political implications are many and yet the immigration issue currently remains a legal one. The Arizona case is expected to end up before the Supreme Court where the principal issue will be one of federal authority versus that of states in making immigration law, the administration’s argument being that federal authority trumps state authority.
Irrespective of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the power of the immigration debate and the need to reform will remain unquestionable. There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who are the mainstay of the workforce in large sectors of the economy. So much so that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has formed a group that has brought together mayors and CEOs of firms ranging from Boeing and Disney to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation to lobby Congress for immigration reform.
The real question is whether the Obama administration is interested in trying to harness this power by putting immigration reform on its autumn agenda. If it does it might yet be able to bend political momentum in its favour in time for the midterms.
Lets Start with that THESE ARE THE ONLY FACTS youtube.com/watch?v=7Lxx1FZNCu0&feature=related http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/economic-and-political-power-immigrants-latinos-and-asians-all-50-states http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/new-fbi-data-confirms-falling-crime-rates-arizona http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_15425614 http://www.azfamily.com/video/localn…ml?nvid=369691 http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_15425614
E-Verify! That’s E-Verify? Remember this abbreviation for this very efficient employer immigration enforcement program. E-Verification original dreamed up by President Bush’s supervision to identify illegal labor in the workplace and strip them of jobs. It’s a free, Internet-based system operated by the Department of (HS) Homeland Security in partnership with the (SSA) Social Security Administration that uses information from the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9). It’s intended to screen current employees, not impending hires. The program, known as E-Verify has become was contentious because of errors in the databases, which now has been resolved by revising with new photo-tools and other improvements. But the business realm is still broadcasting E-verify as inaccurate, as with the open border promoters who see it as a menace to illegal workers being rejected from jobs. From the beginning of the Obama government, it was Sen. Harry Reid who unapologetically tabled E-Verify, sinking E-Verify to a voluntary process. If Republican Sen. Jeff Session of Alabama had found enough votes in the Senate, he would reward E-Verify to the American working man-woman as a permanent tool. Instead thanks to the commitment of Democrat Sen. Harry Reid dedicated to special interest groups; it was blocked and only enacted as a voluntary tool. It has convinced me that Arizona would not have been overrun with an illegal alien invasion had E-Verify become a mandatory law. There would have been no necessity for state Senator Peirce, or Governor Brewer signing the SB1070, police enforcement law. The reckless success of Senator Harry Reid, a strong advocate of Amnesty for foreign nationals has claimed his shameful price on behalf of businesses that hire in volume illegal workers; expressly on the backs of hard working blue and white collar workers, while 8.5 million illegal aliens still hold jobs. It’s my suggestion that if you have countless numbers of illegal households in the state of Nevada, you are beholding to these people. IN MIDTERM ELECTION ALL SANCTUARY CITIES AND STATES WITH A HONOR SYSTEMS FOR VOTING, MUST BE SCRUTINIZED FOR ABSENTEE BALLOTS AND THE VOTING BOTH FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS VIOLATING FEDERAL LAW? During the great real estate building boom period of 2000 to 2007, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens moved into the Nevada state, Capturing jobs from American workers in the construction industry, as a low wage group. Now with the current meltdown of the housing industry, hundreds of thousands of illegal workers have turned to public welfare to support their large families. For the past five years, E-Verify has been accessible on a voluntary basis, but now with the fury and frustration is growing amongst the people, against those in Washington of both political parties. Coast-to-coast, about 144,000 companies at more than half a million work sites use E-Verify and it is escalating. To lesser extent Sanctuary Cities have turned their back on the American labor otherwise they would not be setting up labor shelters such as Home Depot. For now, there’s no indication that Congress plans to make E-Verify required for every employers; New, transitory or stable jobs. The numbers of business owner using E-Verify, today would have intensified, if Sen. Harry Reid hadn’t eclipsed it as a voluntary basis. Two things that can suffocate the annexation of America by foreign nationals and that would make illegal workers and families flee from every state. 1. Make entering the United States a felony, with a mandatory prison term as Mexico does. 2. Revisit E-Verify as a perpetual tool for every business, factory or office nationwide, with a punishment for non-users, a hefty fine, confiscation of business assets and time in prison. With these laws implemented no business owner is going to risk his freedom or loss of his company. Without the possibility of employment, illegal alien workers would begin en-masse to exodus the US. There are more citizens and legal residents, and then the open border people and we should start pushing through these laws. NOW! TODAY! Get on the phone now and demand from Washington E-Verify, MANDATED at 202-224-3121. Bombard all state and federal Senators and Representatives to build the Real, double border fence and no bloody AMNESTY of any kind. Join the millions of patriotic Americans at the pro-sovereignty website. NumbersUSA. Investigate all corruption in the Capitol and at state level by the facts, not lies at Judicial Watch. Attn: Another intoxicated slaughter on the highway today of a nun by an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT. Deported and returned several times.