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McCain should get points for consistency in Florida and Iowa on immigration
[Commentary] DENISON — At one point in tonight’s Republican presidential debate on Univision, Lorena Lopez, editor of the influential western Iowa Spanish-language newspaper, La Prensa, looked at a mixed-race audience sitting in a Denison, Iowa, living room and said, “What?”
That “what” was Lopez’s reaction to a string of what she believed to be almost offensive posturing and invocations of the American immigrant tradition by the Republican candidates, some of whom she has seen up close in front of largely white audiences in western Iowa.
“I think they are posing because it’s not Anglo people they want to convince,” Lopez said. “Honestly I think they are just playing the place and the time.”
So are Hispanic voters buying a debate The New York Times later characterized as being full of “gauzy paeans to legal immigration and the values of immigrant voters?”
“I don’t think so,” Lopez said. “I think especially Hispanic people they know it was Republicans who don’t support immigration reforms.”
What’s more, Lopez said, Hispanics will remember that most Republican White House hopefuls balked at an earlier Univision debate in Florida — making tonight’s appearances something akin to attendance at an ex-brother-in-law’s funeral: grit your teeth and just be seen.
The immigration issue is far more than just political in Denison. It’s about work, family and life for thousands of people.
At a forum just hours before the debate at a storefront church on U.S. Highway 30 in Denison, an Ames immigration attorney, JoAnn L. Barten, told a crowd of about 25 Latinos that they can expect more and more government crackdowns on immigrants.
“The base of the Republican Party is ‘we don’t want to support immigration,’” Barten told Iowa Independent after that forum. “So it’s catering to that.”
She said the focus on Hispanic immigration is taking vital attention away from more serious security concerns.
“Rather than putting our resources toward al-Qaeda and other folks like that we’re focusing on an Hispanic woman who works at a packing plant because its very easy to enforce against someone like that who is vulnerable,” Barten said.
A white Republican from rural Crawford County who has served on a pro-diversity committee in Denison — Faces — said after the debate he doesn’t see a candidate in the GOP field he thinks can help build bridges between the Anglo and Latino communities in western Iowa, or the nation, for that matter.
“It did seem tonight’s answers were geared for tonight’s audience,” said Kenny Kahl, 24, an event organizer in Denison, who attended the debate focus group with Iowa Independent and La Prensa.
Kahl said he is considering switching parties so he can support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the Democratic caucuses.
He thinks Obama would be a president “very different from the norm” who could move the nation on key issues.
For my money, as a white reporter who has covered a number of stories in the growing Hispanic community in western Iowa, I’d say U.S. Sen. John McCain is the most consistent on immigration — and a Republican worthy of Latino consideration because he risked (and likely lost) his presidential aspirations on a comprehensive immigration reform package that included a reasonable plan for more enforcement and a path to citizenship, something both Hispanics and whites should have been able to swallow for the greater good in a state facing a severe workforce shortage.
“I think some of the rhetoric that many Hispanics hear about illegal immigration makes some of them believe that we are not in favor of or seek the support of Hispanic citizens in this country,” McCain said in the debate.
Earlier this year, I saw McCain stand in front of a northwest Iowa audience in Le Mars, peopled by hundreds of Republicans hostile to the Arizona Republican’s position on immigration. He never equivocated then even as his poll numbers plummeted in large part because of it.
Specifically, McCain supported a proposal that would focus more resources on the southern border and allow a long legal path to citizenship for those illegal immigrants who pay back taxes, accept fines and stay out of trouble with law enforcement.
The reality, McCain suggested in Le Mars, is that the nation’s economy depends on immigrant labor.
“There are some jobs in America that are not being done by Americans, and we know it,” McCain said in Le Mars. “I promise you, I have thought this thing through for years.”
McCain’s consistency contrasts with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney who in Denison this July was asked a question from a largely white, elderly crowd about immigration. Romney said then he supports securing the borders and an employment verification system to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs in the United States.
In the debate tonight, Romney reminded me more of an Iowa native we ran a feature story on a few years ago, a person who literally dressed up like the Statue of Liberty and wandered around, mint-green paint and all. Here is Romney tonight:
The Republican Party can connect with Hispanic voters, like other Americans, because there are some peculiar connections between our party and the Hispanic people. One, Hispanic Americans serve in the military and care about our military. We salute them for their service right now. And we’ll strengthen the military. If I’m president, I’m going to add at least 100,000 troops to our military. Secondly, Hispanic Americans are entrepreneurs and business people. And I know how to build our economy. I’m going to keep our taxes down and make sure that our economy grows and thrives. And, third, Hispanic Americans are family-oriented and people of faith. I’m going to strengthen America’s families. And so my platform, this Republican platform, connects with Spanish — Hispanic Americans from across the country.
One younger Hispanic, though, did find Romney to be fairly persuasive in the debate. Isaias Baltazar, 15, a sophomore at Denison High School helped Lopez translate the Spanish voice-over in the Coral Gables, Fla., debate back to English for me and others.
Baltazar said stylistically he could see Romney’s appeal.
“He wasn’t stumbling across his words,” Baltazar said. “I think he was flat-on straight.”
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