Immigration splits 2008 White House hopefuls

Sun Nov 25, AFP:

WASHINGTON — One of the trickiest tightropes being walked by the 2008 US presidential candidates, all of them descended from immigrants, is how to tackle illegal immigration as they bid for the White House ...

"Democrats are badly divided on the immigration issue. They want to appeal to Latinos (Hispanics seen as favorable to liberal US immigration policy) but don't want to alienate more moderate and conservative factions of the party," Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP ...

In last week's debate in Las Vegas, Clinton came out against the idea of giving state drivers' licenses, which are used as official identification, to illegal immigrants with a flat "no," after being slammed for waffling on the issue in an earlier debate in Philadelphia.

And although he knew the controversial issue would be back on the table, Obama was also sideswiped by the issue in Las Vegas. After skirting a direct answer, he finally told a CNN moderator he favored illegal immigrants having access to official drivers' licenses.

But on the Republican side, other than John McCain, who represents the Hispanic-heavy border state of Arizona, the candidates all argue for a hard line to be drawn at the US border ...

Tom Tancredo, a Republican hopeful, explicitly ties the two in ads highlighting the "20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs" and "Islamic terrorists [who] now freely roam US soil."

But by slamming illegals, Republicans risk losing support among immigrant-friendly Hispanic voters.

Immigration "is an issue that is a hot potato issue," said Peter Romero, a former top US diplomat for Latin America.

"The campaign at least so far, has evolved around 'run no risks, make no gaffes and make no mistakes'. Using the wrong word, using the wrong terms, can get you in lot of trouble," added Romero, noting that neither Democrats nor Republicans had been clear and forthcoming on the issue to date ...

US Hispanics, the United States' largest and fastest-growing minority with almost 45 million people, could play a critical role in deciding who moves into the White House ...

"The Republicans are losing one of the great swing votes in American politics," said Larry Sabato, political analyst at the University of Virginia.