Ruben Navarrette says John McCain has been a positive force on the immigration issue.

Ruben Navarrette
Nationally syndicated columnist

Thanks to the immigration issue, many Latinos think of Democrats as the good guys and Republicans as the bad guys. It’s an attitude that spells trouble for John McCain.

But it isn’t that simple, and this election proves it. McCain — a Republican — risked his political career to pursue comprehensive immigration reform, while Barack Obama — a Democrat — was late to the issue and made some bad choices once he stepped into the debate.

I understand the larger argument. As I have written on many occasions, when Republicans ran Congress, they bungled immigration reform by clinging to an enforcement-only strategy, declaring English the national language, and ignoring anti-Latino racism.

Then, after claiming they were only against “illegal” immigration, Republicans tried to limit the number of Latino immigrants who come legally by abandoning family reunification as a principle of U.S. immigration policy.

Read More…

Randi Kaye
AC360° Correspondent

“I told ya so” — that’s what lots of folks in Arizona these days are saying.

In January, the state passed the toughest immigration law in the country.

It’s called the “Employer Sanctions Law” and it penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. After two offenses, businesses could have their licenses yanked.

Two months ago I went to Arizona to check out how this might impact the state. A local economist predicted about 8 percent of Arizona’s population would disappear, and the state would lose tens of billions of dollars in economic output. The agriculture industry, tourism, hospitality, and construction would be hardest hit. Why? Because illegal workers, at that time, made up about 11 percent of Arizona’s workforce, more than twice the national percentage. Now thousands have left town in search of work.

Keep reading

When you spend time with the U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexican border, it is unlikely to be boring.

Gary Tuchman in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

That was certainly the case for a visit we paid near the town of Laredo, Texas. No matter how you feel about the issue of illegal immigration, what we witnessed is a process that is truly broken.

We were with the border patrol as they spotted three young men swimming across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in an attempt to escape into the United States.

We watched the men get captured and loaded into the paddy wagon. We watched them get booked into a detention facility. And within a matter of hours, they were escorted by a border patrol agent on foot; taken to a bridge across the international border, and when everyone arrived at the line separating the countries, the agent told the former captives goodbye and don’t come back!

So what happens then?

In an effort to find out, we stayed with the would-be illegal immigrants on the Mexican side of the border as they discussed plans about what to do next. Their Mexican hometown is 17 hours away from Nuevo Laredo by bus and they discussed going back home for a while. But after some debate, they felt that maybe they would swim across the Rio Grande back to Texas on the VERY same day they were captured there.

They kept going back and forth on what to do and we tried to be flies on the wall to see what was going through their heads. The way they ultimately handled it caught me very much by surprise. We’ll have the story tonight at 10PM.

- Gary Tuchman, 360° Correspondent

They came for a better life, but a new law is driving them away, and it could put Arizona’s economy in jeopardy.

I spent a few days in Phoenix talking to some illegal immigrants who say they are packing their bags because they can no longer find work.

Border fence between Arizona and Mexico

Arizona has the toughest immigration law in the country making it nearly impossible for undocumented workers to keep a job. The law took effect in January and targets businesses who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. If they get caught, the business can lose its license. So now nobody wants to hire these illegals anymore and they can’t earn enough money to stick around.

Juan Leon told me he came to Arizona from Mexico about 10 years ago and is taking his family back next month. He has two daughters who were born in the U.S. but now have to be pulled out of school to start over in Mexico.

Lots of parents are doing this. In fact, the Mexican consulate says they’ve had a rush on Mexican Birth Certificates. Already this year, more than 300 have been processed compared to just 63 in all of last year.

Dawn McLaren, a research economist at University of Arizona, told me if so many illegal immigrants leave Arizona will soon look like a ghost town.

Keep reading