America's Voice Research On Immigration Reform
Report: “Republicans: Fenced in by Immigration”
Published by: America's Voice
Introduction:
In 2005 a new wedge issue — immigration — was born. That year, the Republican-led House of Representatives approved a sweeping bill that would have turned all undocumented immigrants into felons. In 2006, the Senate passed a version of the McCain-Kennedy bill that would have turned all undocumented immigrants into taxpayers. House Republicans renamed the Senate bill the “Reid-Kennedy Amnesty,” thus solidifying illegal immigration as the latest “wedge” issue in American politics. House Republicans took the issue and ran hard with it in the 2006 elections. That summer they launched a series of “field hearings” promoting their crackdown on illegal immigration, and deriding the Senate’s more practical approach. These hearings became thinly-veiled campaign commercials for Republicans, held at taxpayer expense in the districts of the Party’s most vulnerable Members.
Despite the Republican Party’s best efforts to distract voters from the issues that beset the party at the time — such as corruption and two unpopular wars — the illegal immigration wedge issue failed to protect incumbent Republicans in 2006. The Democrats took control of the House and Senate for the first time since 1994. Restrictionist candidates like Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN/8), Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ/5), Randy Graf (candidate for R-AZ/8) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) lost. And candidates favoring comprehensive immigration reform like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ/8), Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO/7), Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), and Governor Bill Ritter (D-CO) won against opponents who advocated hard-line immigration policies.
Rather than learn their lesson, the GOP reprised this failed strategy in time for the 2008 elections. Candidates and the Party spent millions of dollars and ran hundreds of ads in scores of races across the nation, charging Democrats with supporting amnesty and opposing immigration enforcement. Once again, the GOP immigration strategy went down in flames, and the Party was handed another major setback at the ballot box, from Congress to the Presidency.
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