Hispanics see Bush plan as ‘good sign’

Hispanic groups have welcomed President Bush’s immigration proposal as a “good sign” that the issue may rise to the front of politics, though they say it appears to be aimed at political gain more than successful passage in Congress.

“On one hand, people really appreciate the addressing of the issue, but the concern is this is going to be done hastily, and in turn it is going to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment,” said Luis Arteaga, executive director of the Latino Issues Forum in San Francisco.

He compared it to the election-eve conversion by Gov. Gray Davis in California last year, when the Democrat, after two prior vetoes, finally signed legislation making undocumented aliens eligible for driver’s licenses.

“Even the people who wanted to see it passed didn’t like the way it worked out,” Mr. Arteaga said.

A couple of weeks later, California voters recalled Mr. Davis and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Austrian-born actor opposed the license measure, and polls showed that the stance helped him and hurt Mr. Davis.

Coming at the beginning of an election year, the timing of the Bush proposal also caused some advocates to say that they were being used as political pawns.

“The details of the proposal, however, reveal that this is at best an empty promise, and at worst a political ploy,” said Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza.

Mr. Bush last week laid out principles for changing the U.S. immigration system, including allowing the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the country to apply for guest-worker status. The president also proposed a general increase in legal immigration to the United States.

Mr. Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox yesterday in Monterrey, Mexico, where Mr. Fox endorsed Mr. Bush’s principles and urged the U.S. Congress to pass the proposal quickly.

Adam Segal, director of the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University, said the new initiative marks a return to Mr. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, when he tried “to raise the comfort level that Hispanics outside Texas had with Bush and the Republican Party.”

Many conservative activists, including key Republican leaders in Congress, said the proposal appears to reward aliens for their illegal behavior by making them legal and allowing them to enter the regular process for permanent residence.

Still, Mr. Segal said, the measure might be enough to help Mr. Bush win states with large Hispanic populations, such as New Mexico, which he lost by a few hundred votes in 2000.

The Bush administration vehemently denies that the plan amounts to amnesty.

Mr. Segal explained that some Hispanics regard the Bush proposal, by contrast, as placing too much emphasis on illegals seeking work, not citizenship.

Story Continues →