Illegal immigration is America's problem, not just the states directly being invaded. While the southern border states are being most abused by the illegals, other places and regions feel the effects. It shouldn't matter who is demanding a change with policy.
ST. PAUL -- Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is descended from Polish immigrants and has been known to throw around pretend-Polish words like "squatski." (As in: What has the Legislature accomplished?) But lately he has been talking a lot about the Mexican border, more than 1,500 miles from snowy St. Paul.His administration issued a report in December estimating that as many as 85,000 illegal immigrants live in Minnesota, at a cost to taxpayers of up to $188 million a year.
Democrats and other critics questioned the Republican governor's numbers and his motives. But that hasn't stopped Pawlenty from making immigration a top issue as he seeks reelection.
Similarly, GOP gubernatorial candidates such as Jim Oberweis in Illinois, Bob Beauprez in Colorado, and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in Massachusetts have been staking out hard-line positions on illegal immigration. And Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat facing criticism on immigration in her own reelection bid, is pushing a $100 million border security plan.
Campaign specialists say looking tough on illegal immigration can bring in both conservative and working-class votes.
"In a place like Minnesota, which I think has a generous welfare program, the image can be, 'Oh, these people come in and take advantage of this,' " said Rodolfo de la Garza, a political science professor at Columbia University. "You pander to cultural conservative types and to economically frightened types."The strategy has brought withering criticism from people who work with immigrants.
"He's reacting out of fear and he's also using fear as a tool to encourage people that are undecided to vote for him," said Ernesto Bustos, who organizes migrant farm workers in Owatonna.
In Pawlenty's first campaign four years ago, he promoted a system of tracking immigrants through their driver's licenses, running a TV ad that said, "Terrorists are here."
He was criticized for that, too, but went on to win.
Soon after his immigration report, Pawlenty rolled out a plan to go after illegals. He proposed to deputize state agents to enforce federal immigration laws, criminalize possession of fake IDs, and ban local ordinances that keep police from asking about immigration status."You'd have to be really living under a rock not to see this as a real issue," he said, pointing to photographs of methamphetamine, marijuana, machine guns, and cash seized from illegal immigrants.
Although 95 percent of Minnesotans were born in the United States, the number of foreign-born residents is growing faster here than almost anywhere else in the country, said Katherine Fennelly, a professor who studies immigration at the University of Minnesota. Pawlenty's figure for those living illegally in the state came from estimates by the Urban Institute and Pew Hispanic Institute.
If the estimates are correct, Minnesota has less than 1 percent of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States.
Still, specialists expect immigration to remain a big issue in states like Minnesota."There's no question that the failure of the federal government to create an immigration system that works is creating enormous anxiety in the states," said Benjamin Johnson, director of the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center, which calls itself nonpartisan but proimmigrant.
A spokesman for Beauprez, one of two Republicans seeking to become Colorado's governor, said voters ask about immigration regularly.
Go check out this:
Side By Side Proposals for Illegal Immigrants (PDF)