Some Democrats at odds with their party as well as President Bush over immigration

October 17, 2006

In at least a dozen fiercely contested Congressional contests across the nation, Democratic candidates are publicly breaking with the message of the Democratic leadership. The leadership has consistently demanded a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in return for their support of increased enforcement of immigration laws.

Former Washington Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler, running for Congress in North Carolina, ran a television ad declaring he would “never give amnesty” to illegal immigrants. In Georgia, Representative John Barrow has played up his vote to build a fence on the southwest border. In Ohio, John Cranley, challenger to Republican Representative Steve Chabot, has accused Chabot of voting to legalize hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., the Democrat running for Senate from Tennessee, reminds voters repeatedly that federal agents raided his Republican opponent’s business and found four illegal immigrants working there. Ford also proudly describes his vote for the border security legislation passed by the House last year, a measure condemned as anti-immigrant by many Democrats in Congress.

“I’m the only person on this stage who has ever voted for an anti-illegal-immigration bill, matter of fact the strongest in the country,” Ford said this week in a debate with his Republican opponent, Bob Corker. The congressman emphasized that his position put him at odds with his party and with President Bush, who pushed for legislation to grant legal status to illegal immigrants.

Almost all Democrats in Congress support their leadership’s position on immigration. However, the appearance of some candidates vying to be tougher than Republicans on border security, particularly in tight races in conservative states, shows how divisive the immigration issue remains.

The tough border security message is carried mostly by Democrats in the South and the Midwest, where a surge of Hispanic immigration is transforming small towns and cities. In such communities, some candidates are deriding legalization as amnesty, proclaiming border security as their priority or criticizing Republican challengers as failing to stem the tide of illegal immigration.

Immigrant advocacy groups, including the National Council of La Raza, has accused some Democrats of abandoning their principles. They warn that Democrats and Republicans who demonize immigrants risk alienating Hispanic voters, who are expected to constitute a powerful bloc in coming years.

Some Democrats praise the shift in tone, saying internal polling shows that the traditional message of support for legalization for illegal immigrants lacks the backing of many middle-class voters, regardless of party affiliation.

“They think that Democrats are on the side of illegal immigrants even at the expense of citizens,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at the Third Way, a centrist Democratic research group that has conducted polling on immigration. Kessler, who in recent months has briefed senior Democratic campaign officials and the staffs of dozens of Democratic candidates, has been advising them to take the offense on border security by charging that immigration enforcement has faltered under Republican leadership.

Kessler acknowledged that his message was hard for some Democrats “to swallow.” But adopting a tougher message, he said, would make Democratic candidates less vulnerable in the November elections.

“Immigration is an incredible source of strength for Americans,” he said. “But it’s also a source of angst for Americans. I don’t think we should just shrug that off.”

The mounting Democratic ambivalence over immigration was apparent in September in the last frenetic weeks of lawmaking before the Congressional recess.

With the November elections looming, 62 House Democrats voted to support a strict border security measure championed by the Republican leadership, up from the 36 who supported tough legislation last December. In the Senate, 26 Democrats voted in favor of building 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border, outnumbering the 17 Democrats who opposed it.

Since then, on the campaign trail, Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, who is up for re-election and often breaks with his party, has accused his Republican challenger of supporting the legalization approach favored by two Democratic senators, Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, both of Massachusetts.

“I support border security first; my opponent supports amnesty,” Nelson said in a television ad this month.