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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...adlines-nation

GOP Sends Mixed Messages on Immigration
Candidates talk tough about enforcement, but the White House, in an effort
to lure
Latino voters, says it's time to discuss reform.
By Maura Reynolds
Times Staff Writer

August 27, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's announcement last week that
stepped-up
enforcement appears to be slowing illegal immigration was designed to send
a message:
The nation's borders are becoming more secure and it's time to talk about
broad
immigration reform.

That would appear to contradict the message coming from many Republicans
on the
campaign trail: The border is dangerously porous and talk of reform is
premature.

But it is less of a contradiction than meets the eye. While Republican
candidates are
trying to hang on to their congressional majority by trumpeting the need
for border
security, the White House is laying the groundwork for a longer battle
over
immigration with an eye on capturing the Latino vote.

Republican Party leaders have the task of balancing the party's
conflicting
short-term and long-term goals on immigration.

In the short term, many if not most congressional Republicans are taking a
hard-line
approach. In some districts, that means denouncing proposals for a guest
worker
program or legalization of some immigrants as amnesty.

"What you are seeing on the House side is uniform agreement on 'border
security
first,' " said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican
Congressional
Committee. "Where they go beyond that is up to the individual.. This is
district by
district. Each race is local."

But strategists at the Republican National Committee and in the White
House are
concerned that some of the tough rhetoric could give voters the impression
that
Republicans are anti-immigrant. And that's a long-term danger for the
party, because
its leaders are convinced that Latino voters are the key to turning the
GOP into the
country's dominant party.

"You always have self-serving politicians who are focused on one thing -
getting
elected or reelected - and they put rhetoric ahead of what's good for the
country,"
said Allen Weh, chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, where the
GOP has
been battling to increase party registration.

"We're going to have some collateral damage from this rhetoric, no doubt
about it,"
Weh said.

As a voter group, Latinos hold tremendous appeal for Republicans. First
and foremost,
they are the fastest-growing segment of the population.

Republicans also believe that despite Latinos' traditional loyalty to the
Democratic
Party, they have a chance to make significant inroads by emphasizing
issues other
than identity politics.

For instance, party leaders think the Republicans' socially conservative
positions on
issues such as abortion and gay marriage will resonate with Latino
Catholics, as well
as with the swelling number of evangelical Protestants. Messages such as
self-reliance and low taxes can be made to appeal to the many Latinos who
are
small-business owners.

On immigration, the party is essentially trying to send two messages at
once.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws," Republican
National
Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said this summer in a speech to a
conference of Latino
officials. "We must forge a new way, a solution that recognizes these two
essential
concepts."

Whether a double-barreled message will resonate with voters remains to be
seen. But
many House Republicans aren't willing to take chances on a long-term
strategy at the
expense of losing control of Congress in the short term.

"We have to solve our short-term problem before we solve our long-term
problem," said
a senior Republican leadership aide, who would discuss internal party
strategy only
on condition of anonymity.

House Republicans are using their summer recess to hold a series of events
around the
country designed to drum up support for their "enforcement first" approach
to
immigration.

That was the central idea behind a Republican-written bill, passed last
year, that
raised illegal border crossing from a misdemeanor to a felony. That
proposal sparked
nationwide street protests by Latinos, who carried signs saying, "We Are
Not
Criminals."

Democrats who are working to prevent Republican gains among Latinos say
that the
administration's attempt to send two messages at once caught up with them
last
spring.

Joe Garcia, who works on Latino issues for the New Democrat Network, said
that before
the street protests the administration had been courting Latino voters
while
simultaneously encouraging right-wing radio hosts to beat the drums over
border
security, raising fears of terrorists and foreigners flooding into the
country from
Mexico.

"This is an issue that plays to the xenophobic base," Garcia said. "For a
long time,
[the president] was able to conduct two separate campaigns. The problem is
that the
two of them met."

It's conventional wisdom in Washington that little is expected to happen
on
immigration legislation before the election in November, which allows
candidates
maximum leeway to run against whatever version of immigration reform works
best in
their districts.

But some GOP House leaders are weighing whether it would help candidates
if they were
to pass a modified immigration reform proposal before the election. Under
discussion
is a two-stage bill: first, border security, and second, some form of
guest worker
program "triggered" by certification of improvements in border security.

"We can do it in phases," the House Republican aide said, noting the goal
would be to
act before the election. "I wouldn't rule that out."

Garcia said too much damage had been done to the Republican Party's image
among
Latinos. A poll conducted recently for his group showed that support for
the
president and the GOP had fallen dramatically since the 2004 election.

"How do you call a certain group 'criminals' and then turn around and
offer an olive
branch?" Garcia said.

However the congressional election turns out, the long-term strategists
are unlikely
to give up on their goal of sending more Republican Party membership cards
to
Latinos.

And toward that end, they hope to move the discussion, at least
incrementally, toward
the next stage: Now that the borders are tight, what is to be done about
the millions
already here?

"I don't expect every Hispanic to wake up tomorrow and suddenly realize he
is a
Republican," Mehlman said in his speech this summer. "But I do hope we can
come
together as a nation to talk about immigration - without the angry
rhetoric."


Do you want a Mexican way of life or an American way of life? That
isn't a dumbass liberal vs conservative question, it's a critical
question of what quality of life you and your children will have for
themselves. You want the kind that half the population of Mexico is
running to the border to get away from? That is what you'll get.
....Hoy Paloy

The White House affirms:

"Democracy is like an old ugly whore who must drop her drawers faster and
faster for less and less."

Hank