Mel Martinez: Immigration ire all too familiar
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The debate over Arizona's strict new immigration law is giving Mel Martinez -- the Republican senator from Florida who took early retirement last year -- an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.<br />
Martinez, the first Cuban American elected to the U.S. Senate, was at the center of the firestorm over immigration reform in 2006. Activists opposed to allowing illegal immigrants to earn citizenship mailed build-up-the-border bricks to the senator's office. The legislation collapsed as some unions balked, conservative Republicans cried against amnesty,'' and anti-immigrant fervor laced talk radio.<br />
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Here we go again.<br />
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Taking matters into its own hands, Arizona has passed a polarizing law making it a crime not to carry a green card and empowering local police to enforce immigration law.<br />
<br />I kind of cringe to see it all start again, to hear the same angry voices,'' said Martinez, now alawyer/lobbyist at DLA Piper in Orlando. What frustrates me so much is people equating illegal immigrants with criminals. You hear people talking about an invasion of our country.''<br />
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The law's proponents and critics don't agree on much, but they do share a deep frustration with the federal government.<br />
<br />It's kind of a helpless feeling that I have, though I would be no better off if I was still there [in the Senate],'' said Martinez, explaining that immigration reform would never pass muster in an election year. It really is frustrating because we didn't pass a law when we had a chance and that's why we are where we are today.''<br />
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Asked whether it's fair to blame President Obama for not taking up immigration in the past 16 months, with the economy in tatters, Martinez said,He made promises and he failed to live up to them. Even now, he's pretty equivocal about it. . . . President Bush worked hard on this issue and since then I think there's been an abdication of leadership.''
When he was in office, Martinez criticized his own party for not doing enough to make the fast-growing and politically influential Hispanic community feel welcome. Hispanic voters helped Democrats take over Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008.
When it comes to immigration, I think a lot of people express themselves in ways that make Hispanics uncomfortable,'' Martinez said, adding that most immigrants are hard-working people.<br />
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In Florida, a handful of the leading Republican candidates -- Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate, Bill McCollum for governor, and Holly Benson for attorney general -- have applauded Arizona for trying to establish law and order. Both Rubio and McCollum criticized the law before it was amended to blunt concerns about racial profiling. But the changes did little to mollify most critics, including former Gov. Jeb Bush.<br />
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Protesters are planning to rally in South Florida on Monday when the Florida Marlins play the Arizona Diamondbacks.<br />
<br />The law has been improved in how it approaches the problem, but I still feel uncomfortable with the approach,'' Martinez said. I would rather not see it in Florida. . . . What if someone decided I looked like an immigrant? I don't carry a green card anymore. What if it was my family taking a trip to Miami from Orlando in a beat-up old car as we used to do when I was a kid, wouldn't it be tempting for someone to pull us over?''<br />
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McCollum backtracked on the law just days after his surging Republican rival, Rick Scott, began airing ads touting the law as acommon sense effort.'' Asked if he thought political calculations were at work, Martinez said, ``I'm just glad I'm not running this year.''
