IS IMMIGRATION a radioactive issue for presidential candidates in 2008, as controversial as gun control or gay marriage were in 2000 and 2004? Democrat Chris Dodd thinks so. "People do demagogue on it, and it's ugly," he said at a meeting earlier this month with the Globe editorial board. If his party isn't careful, he said, "I think we end up getting smacked around."
Candidate Hillary Clinton also apparently thinks so. The question of whether she supports drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants tied her in knots for weeks, until she was rescued by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who dropped his push for a licensing plan in Clinton's home state. This freed her to give a resounding one word answer - no - when asked in the next debate to clarify her view.
Republicans have their own difficulties on the issue. John McCain, who won the New Hampshire primary in 2000, admits his cosponsorship of the Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill hurt him politically. "It disappoints me so much," he said last summer. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose conservative Christian views extend to charity for "the stranger who resides with you," finds that many natural allies abandon him on this issue.
Important constituencies in both parties are tugging in opposite directions. Among Republicans, business interests want a ready supply of cheap labor, but social conservatives want tough sanctions for lawbreakers. Among Democrats, the labor movement worries about illegal workers depressing wages, while social liberals want immigrants and their families protected.
The anger and anxiety about illegal immigrants in the country is real, and it isn't just among nativists who can't abide the news that salsa is now more popular than ketchup, or that for the first time Rodriguez has become one of the top 10 American surnames. Liberals and Democrats need to admit that, too. The collapse of immigration reform in Congress has made the candidates chary of the issue. But it is precisely this lack of leadership that feeds the anger, as voters see the situation festering and not being addressed.
The candidates need to show some leadership, and now. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had a strong moment in the Nevada debate when he explained why he signed legislation granting licenses to undocumented immigrants in his state, and how that reduced traffic fatalities and the number of people driving uninsured. Similarly, some candidate might require that undocumented workers get on a track to citizenship and learn English - but also get serious about eliminating the waiting lists for citizenship and for English as a Second Language classes.
Only a comprehensive approach to immigration, including better opportunities for people living in Latin America, will reduce pressure on the border. In the meantime, political gridlock only makes things worse.
