McCain goes west with pro-immigration ad
WASHINGTON -- In a new ad targeted at the battleground states of the West, John McCain presents himself as a champion of Latino immigrants, making particular effort to highlight his differences with other members of his party on the issue.
It is a message that threatens to disrupt the delicate balance McCain had sought on the issue by simultaneously defending of the contributions of illegal immigrants to American life while demanding secure borders to prevent the arrival of new ones.
"So let's from time to time remember that these are God's children. They must come into the country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them," McCain says in a clip from a Republican-primary debate in June 2007 in which he celebrated the sacrifice of Latinos, including those not yet citizens, to the US military.
Immigration has generally been presented as a zero-sum game for McCain: am embrace of legalization efforts supported by Latino voters could jeopardize his appeal to both members of his own party and the socially conservative, working-class white Democrats he is trying to woo. McCain has repeatedly attributed early problems he encountered with Republican-primary voters to his work on a failed immigration-reform bill.
McCain’s ad takes him back to those dark days of last summer. It conspicuously begins by noting the time and place of McCain’s remarks, demonstrating that his defense of immigrants began during a Republican-primary season when the position was an unpopular one -- hinting at a McCain campaign line that he has shown more political courage and risk-taking than Obama. A former McCain roommate, Frank Gamboa, made this case directly in a recent radio also airing in Nevada and New Mexico: "So when it comes to our values and understanding Latinos this election, I know for John it's not political; it comes from the heart."
The ad, scheduled to air in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, shows a slight shift of emphasis from McCain. It doesn't include the "secure our borders first" line that has become a crucial part of McCain's latest formulation on immigration reform: he would seek a version of his previous bill -- which included a temporary-worker program and a legalization process -- but recognizes that establishing a secure border would be necessary to gather the political will to do so.
The secure-the-borders-first mantra appeared to be McCain’s concession to the rebellion he encountered within his own party. He even repeated it this week before the League of United Latin American Citizens, where the emphasis on security was far less popular than one on legalization and his romantic portrayal of the American immigrant experience. This weekend, he is scheduled to join Barack Obama in addressing the National Council of La Raza, another Latino-interest group that has advocated for liberalizing immigration laws.
Mr. McCain if you lived in the real world you would know that the illegal are the cause of most of or problems. From crime, economy, traffic jams, over crowed schools, etc.
Is anyone in the McCain campaign actually listening to what, we the Citizens of the United States are saying on the issue of immigration? Overpopulation, congestion, urban sprawl, crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded schools and emergency rooms, vanishing farm land and green space, diminishing resources, lack of affordable housing, crime, pollution, the marginalization of American workers, tax payers and voters, the balkinization of our communities, the overall decline in quality of life, are all the result of unconstrained immigration!
Virtually every industrialized nation, even China, Mexico, and most recently Britain and the European Union, has taken steps to end illegal immigration, and to curtail legal immigration to only that which is prudent, demonstrably necessary, and above all other concerns, in the best interests of their native population. It's dangerously misguided to assert that the United States no do likewise.
Too many people competing for the same limited resources is a prescription for economic, environmental, cultural disaster of biblical proportions. Only a morn would assert that even more people competing for these same limited resources is, in any way, sound economic, environmental, social or cultural policy.
Is anyone on the McCain Campaign checking to see that their boss is taking the appropriate meds?
Great video!!!
McCain cannot play both sides of the illegal immigration broiling issue and hope for a resounding success.
It's a sad situation when neither Presidential Candidates can be trusted, to do the right thing for the American people. For three decades our political opportunists have been puppets to the highest bidder and a whole conglomerations of special interest groups. McCain stating that he would propose no path to citizenship, until the border was fully enforced? However how can this be when potentate Democrats are straining to gut border funding now? Then the path to citizenship is too easy, when hundreds of thousands have waited in line forever to get an entry visa?
Every lawbreaker who entered through the back door, jumped ship or overstayed their visa, should be required to go home and apply. I personally and 80 percent of the American people, think a small pittance fine, criminal record investigation is far to easy. They broke the law, no matter where they originated from and deserve no sympathy because they were fully aware that their would be CONSEQUENCES!
We should endorse the federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) that would add real, razor sharp teeth to state immigration laws.
We need more enforcement to stop the interdiction of trucks bringing in drugs and illegal immigrants into America. Funding is being cut by the Democrats, so they can gut the border fence and stop the enactment of the Federal SAVE ACT. An army of ICE agents, twenty thousand more border patrol along with massive funding, to supply helicopters, spy probes and other equipment for internal enforcement. This will include extra funding for police departments around the country, to train more officers in Immigration enforcement. The e-verify data base the Fed's are using has a 90.5 success rate. It would be a major deterrent against pariah employers, who hire illegal workers. Its pennies of what taxpayers are unknowingly spending now. We need 'zero tolerance' enforcement, that will give maximum arrest and detainment of predator employers of illegal immigrants. Join NUMBERSUSA for free and assist in stopping illegal immigration.
John McCain has a big heart, like the majority of Americans do. Great ad.
Having fought in the Vietnam war and having buddies names on the memorial wall. I am offended that he uses it as an ethnic political pander.
Every name is the name of a dead AMERICAN soldier. Period. And not one of them gave their life so that this corrupt politician could undermine the law and get special treatment for any one race over another.
Like your predecessors, I'm an immigrant who came here to get a better life. It's dignifying to see that this great nation had become so powerful and advanced thinking that it's because of immigrants like you and I. Look at native Indian who do not want to assimilate with the rest of us. I hope not one of us wanted to be in that situation where progress is being hindered with all kinds of stagnant cultures. Let us all be united to welcome those who are trying to come to this great nation and making this nation even greater. At the same time let us protect this nation from those who are trying to destroy this nation in the name of freedom. To me combating terrorist should be the priority and let us not be deceived to make immigrant as a scape goat like what hitler did to the Jews back in WW II.
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