DREAM Act Portal Forum - U.S. SENATE RACE: Reid hopes Hispanic vote helps defeat GOP challenger

Source : http://www.lvrj.com/news/reid-hopes-...100713994.html

Nevada is 26 percent Hispanic

By LAURA MYERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Sen. Harry Reid speaks last week at Hermandad Mexicana. Jose Morales, front row second from left, a student at the College of Southern Nevada, and several children of illegal immigrants at the event are seeking legal protection to continue their studies.
JOHN LOCHER/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

When Julio Morales was 7 years old, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with his parents, and he has been living here illegally ever since. He has two younger brothers, the Americans in the family, who gained automatic U.S. citizenship when they were born in California.

Last week, the 24-year-old Morales, of Las Vegas, was among several illegal immigrant university students sitting openly in the front row and applauding U.S. Sen. Harry Reid as he promised Hispanic advocates he would try to pass the Dream Act.

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The proposed law would give students legal status to complete their educations in six years, putting them on a path toward American citizenship.

"I've been living here pretty much all of my life," said Morales, who doesn't remember much about his early years in Mexico. "It would be hard to go back. It would be like a different world."

The fate of Morales, his family and 11 million estimated illegal immigrants in the United States, including roughly 150,000 to 250,000 in Nevada, has sparked a burning election-year battle nationally and in the close race between Reid and Republican opponent Sharron Angle.

The immigration debate in Nevada is being driven, in part, by Reid's effort to fire up his Hispanic supporters, including by blaming Republicans for blocking comprehensive reform this year.

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican," Reid told the students and activists last Tuesday, prompting a round of GOP criticism, including by Latino Republicans in Nevada.

But Hispanic Democrats wanted to hear a little red meat rhetoric from Reid after being disappointed he didn't deliver on his promise for comprehensive reform this year. He needs their support to win on Nov. 2.

Two years ago, Latinos made up 15 percent of the Nevada electorate, a record high, with 76 percent voting for Democrat Barack Obama and 22 percent for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. In 2004, 60 percent backed Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and 39 percent voted for GOP President George W. Bush. McCain and Bush also have pressed for immigration reform.

Clearly, Hispanics are diverse and don't always vote along party lines or on single issues. And in low turnout mid-term elections, only the most enthusiastic voters go to the polls.

In Clark County, which has 90,425 registered Latino voters, roughly six in 10 of are Democrats, two in 10 are Republicans and the remaining two are nonpartisan or members of other minor parties.

Tibi Ellis, chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Hispanic Caucus, said GOP Latinos don't trust the Democratic Party "to do anything to control immigration or solve the problems."

"In an election year, this (immigration) is something that usually plays in the Democrats' favor, but this year may be different," Ellis said, citing heightened concerns in the Southwest about the lack of border security that has allowed an illegal influx. "Arizona has done something that was a sign of desperation."

Indeed, the Arizona law may change the electoral dynamics in Nevada.

For now, it seems to be a winning issue for Republicans who back Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants. The new law is aimed at criminals engaged in a cross-border drug war. The state imposed it after complaining the federal government failed to protect the border.

"Go Arizona Go!" Angle says as part of her regular stump speech.

Also feeding the illegal immigrant flames is the worst economy since the Great Depression. That is creating greater competition for jobs, a driving force behind past efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, including by Reid who tarred them as "freeloaders and scam artists" in 1993.

"There seems to be a growing fear about illegal immigrants," said Ken Fernandez, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"It always pops up when there's a recession. And this year it has hit a racial nerve, too, with the Arizona law. It's a touchy issue."

Critics of the Arizona law have called it racial profiling, because it gives law enforcement the authority to ask about a person's legal status if they are stopped for some other reason. A judge has blocked the most controversial aspects of the law, but the state is appealing.

The U.S. Senate by unanimous consent last week cleared a bill that authorizes $600 million to hire 1,500 more agents to patrol the border with Mexico, and supply more high-tech equipment and surveillance drones to the Southwest.

Reid praised its passage and pressed again for broader immigration reform.

"I continue to believe that increased enforcement along our borders is only one part of a sound, comprehensive solution to fix our broken immigration system, and more work remains to achieve that ultimate goal," Reid said in a statement.

Angle, too, has called for tougher border security, even using the U.S. military if needed.

Otherwise, Reid and Angle have staked out starkly opposite positions on illegal immigration.

■ While Angle backs Arizona's law, Reid supports Obama's decision to sue the state to halt enforcement, a move unpopular in Nevada and nationwide.

■ Reid wants comprehensive federal reform to bring illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" so they can go to the back of the line to seek U.S. citizenship after paying penalties.

Angle dismisses Democratic ideas, arguing that "generally cloaked within those proposals is amnesty." Instead, she says, current federal laws should be enforced to deport illegal immigrants and prevent more from coming.

■ Angle said last week she wants Congress to review the 14th Amendment that grants American citizenship to babies born in the United States. Reid responded by saying Republicans looking to change the amendment are "either taking leave of their senses or their principles."

Yet Reid didn't always feel that way. In 1993, he proposed one of the toughest immigration bills as a recession lingered and concern about border security grew after several violent acts by foreigners. They included the fatal shooting of two CIA employees in McLean, Va., by an illegal immigrant from Pakistan.

Reid's bill would have cut quotas for legal immigrants, barred government benefits for illegal residents and established new penalties on employers and denied citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

That same 14th Amendment argument is being raised today by some Republicans in Congress. Even Reid's fellow Democrats, Sen. Richard Bryan and Rep. James Bilbray, refused to join his 14th Amendment move.

"We have too many immigrants, legal and illegal," Reid told a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter at the time, when Nevada did not have anywhere near the Hispanic population it has today.

The 1990 U.S. Census put Nevada's population at 1.2 million, including 124,419 Hispanics, or about 10 percent. Now, Hispanics make up about 26 percent of the state's 2.6 million population.

In 1993, Reid's bill died in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Reid has said it was the biggest mistake of his legislative career. It has come back to haunt him .

In 2006, with the Senate heatedly debating immigration, Sen. Jeff Sessions. R-Ala., made reference to Reid's speech from 1993, and to Reid's vote in 1986 against a comprehensive reform bill that offered amnesty to 3.1 million immigrants and set penalties for companies that hire illegal workers.

Reid took to the Senate floor and delivered a mea culpa. His 2010 campaign passed it around last week as Republicans criticized him, calling him a hypocrite for slamming Angle on the issue.

"A group of people came and talked to us and convinced us that the thing to do would be to close the borders between Mexico and the United States, in effect, stop people from coming across our borders to the United States," Reid said in his speech. "This period of time for which I am so apologetic -- to my family, mostly -- lasted about a week or two."

Reid said his wife, Landra, who rarely intercedes in legislative affairs, told him he was wrong, as did longtime friend Reynaldo Martinez and others.

"That is a low point of my legislative career," Reid said.

Landra was by his side again last Tuesday at Hermandad Mexicana, a Hispanic advocacy group, as he met with several illegal immigrant students who made personal appeals for the Dream Act.

The Dream Act students have been going public in Washington, D.C., knowing authorities are leaving them alone to focus on arresting illegal immigrants committing serious crimes instead.

"Young people who are 'Dreamers' are not being bothered," Reid said when asked about a recent late July raid at a North Las Vegas bus stop that upset Hispanics. Agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested more than 30 suspected illegal immigrants.

Morales, who is studying computer engineering at the College of Southern Nevada, said he never fears he will be picked up by police. His father, a janitor, has been able to find work easily, too.

"I don't have anything to hide, so why should I be scared," Morales said when asked if he felt comfortable being identified publicly. "I haven't killed anyone or done anything wrong."

Contact Laura Myers at [email protected] or 702-387-2919.

Reid would easily win Nevada if DREAM Act/CIR passes.