U.S. Border Control

Immigration expected to be top campaign issue for many Republicans in Congress

July 16, 2005

Republican members of congress have found that their constituents care more about immigration and border security than any other issue, according to a new congressional insiders poll.

Seventeen of the 37 Republican Congressional members who responded to the survey identified immigration as the issue 'most on the minds of your constituents these days.' The next closest issue, the economy, gained 10 votes, followed by gasoline prices with four votes and terrorism with three votes. One Republican called immigration the 'highest-octane issue in America.'

Rep. Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Republican who runs the House Immigration Reform Caucus, has said other members of Congress have come up to him recently and said immigration is a dominant issue when they return home for recess periods.

'It will be interesting to see at what point critical mass is achieved -- when enough people in this country have made enough noise and expressed enough frustration to their elected representatives that it breaks the logjam here in Congress but, more importantly, in the White House,' he said after reviewing the National Journal poll numbers.

By contrast, none of the 37 Republicans who responded said Social Security was the top issue on constituents' minds, despite President Bush's efforts over the last six months to tout his plan to offer private accounts as part of younger workers' Social Security plan.

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, said the results show the issue is growing outside of the border states, where it has been bubbling for some time.

'We're happily surprised,' Stewart said. 'Over the last few years part of the difficulty has been trying to explain to non-border state folks that immigration affects them as well.'

Of 35 Democratic members of Congress who responded, just two mentioned immigration as the top issue for constituents, while another specifically disregarded immigration, saying his or her constituents were talking about 'all of these issues except immigration.'

One of the two Democrats who did cite immigration as a top constituent concern said it is a difficult balancing act. 'The burning question of 'What can we do to simultaneously support the plight of undocumented immigrants while still keeping our streets and borders safe?' has never been more prevalent,' the lawmaker said.

'Immigration is a problem issue for the Democrats -- no one wants to say they embrace breaking the law and sacrificing national security,' Tancredo said.