Immigration advocates woo McCain

jin5587 · 05-11-2010, 02:13 PM

http://www.politico.com/news/stories...033_Page2.html

Quote:

Immigration advocates woo McCain
By: Jeanne Cummings
May 11, 2010 05:35 AM EDT

Immigrant advocates plan to turn up the heat on the Senate this week in a hunt for at least one Republican to join their cause, and a prime target will be Sen. John McCain.

On Thursday, a cadre of religious leaders from Arizona plan to fly into Washington to lobby their state delegation to back a reform measure. “We will urge Sen. McCain to claim a bigger legacy than the one he has now,” said Phoenix-based Bishop Minerva Carcano of the United Methodist Church.

McCain, a onetime supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, isn’t likely to be an easy sell. He abandoned the issue after taking a political hit from his own party for his failed effort to get a reform passed in 2007.

While the four-term Arizona senator managed to overcome that discontent and win his party’s 2008 presidential nomination, resentment still lingers at home. He now faces a brutal primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth in which he has portrayed himself as in sync with anti-immigrant forces in the state. In a new TV campaign ad, a border sheriff complains about “illegals” and tells McCain, “you’re one of us.”

But McCain’s political prospects grew bleaker over the weekend when Sen. Bob Bennett, a fellow Republican veteran, was tossed aside by Utah conservatives at the state party convention. Bennett was unusually vulnerable because he faced a convention rather than a primary, but his rejection cast new light on the struggles of all incumbents in this cycle, and that is especially true for those facing the wrath of the conservative Republican base.

Ironically, it was McCain’s home state that reignited the immigration issue after the state Legislature passed a law that gives police far more leeway to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally. A secondary goal of the Arizona religious leaders’ trip to Washington is to persuade the Justice Department to delay implementation of that law to allow time for Congress to act.

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Sunday that the department is considering all options, including filing a lawsuit to challenge the law.

“I think we could potentially get on a slippery slope, where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done, and that is, I think, something that we have to try to avoid at all costs,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who also faces a tough reelection, has said he won’t bring up a bill unless advocates can find a replacement for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham pulled his support from a reform measure two weeks ago in a dispute over when it should come before the Senate. The delegation of Arizona religious leaders is pressing McCain to fill the void.

“I understand the politics of his race. But the bigger picture is the legacy he can leave. He understands the border, the needs for comprehensive immigration reform, and he understands how to make it happen,” Carcano said.

Carcano will be joined on the trip by Bishop Gerald Kicanas, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Tucson, who said the new law has generated fear and anxiety throughout the state and raised the specter of discrimination.

At a meeting with high school students last week, Kicanas said the discussion turned to how divisive the law has been in the state. Carcano reported that nearly a third of the 300 members of a United Methodist church skipped Sunday services for fear of being detained by authorities.

While neither church leader challenged the government’s authority to secure the borders, both said a federal law rather than a patchwork of state regulations is the appropriate way to manage the problem.

“We have to get beyond the partisan politics, which is so rampant in Washington, and find a way to deal with an issue that is worrisome and is highly emotional,” Kicanas said. “Our hope is to show them that this would be beneficial to our state and our country.”

Kicanas said the church is urging Catholics to send letters to Congress pressing for passage of a reform law, but it is unclear whether it will invest the same level of resources in the fight as it did in the battle over abortion language in the health care reform law.

Other advocates of reform are stepping up their campaign, too.

America’s Voices, which has been a leading proponent of the legislation, is conducting an online campaign to pressure Major League Baseball to move the 2011 All-Star game out of Phoenix. According to America’s Voices, about a third of professional baseball players in the U.S. are immigrants.

That project comes on the heels of the decision by the Phoenix Suns to change the name on the team’s playoff jerseys to “Los Suns” for one night to protest passage of the law.

In addition, other groups are planning more acts of civil disobedience, such as the protest outside the White House that led to the arrest of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) on May 1 and others that have been held outside immigration detention centers.

© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC