IMMIGRATION

Hillary Clinton stressing support for immigration reform

Dan Nowicki
The Republic | azcentral.com
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reiterates her support for comprehensive immigration reform while speaking to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials on Thursday, June 18, in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — As the 2016 Republican presidential field toughens its tone on border security and enforcement, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has drawn a sharp distinction on immigration by embracing comprehensive reforms such as a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers already in the United States.

Speaking Thursday before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Clinton, a former secretary of State, reiterated promises she made during a May 5 roundtable in North Las Vegas.

That she would fight for comprehensive immigration reform that includes "a real path to citizenship" for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States.

That she would oppose any move to deport the young immigrants known as "dreamers" or to undo President Barack Obama's executive actions that are shielding millions of immigrants from enforcement action.

And that if Congress continues to balk at acting on immigration reform, "as president I will do everything possible under the law to go even further than what President Obama has attempted to achieve," she said.

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"There are so many people with deep ties and contributions to our communities, like many parents of dreamers, who deserve a chance to stay, and I will fight for them, too," Clinton said to applause from a standing-room-only crowd inside the Aria Resort & Casino. "But I don't have to wait to become president to take a stand, right here and right now, against divisive rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and their families. It's wrong and no one should stand for it."

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The contrast between Clinton and the Republican White House prospects grew sharper this week with the entry into the race of celebrity real-estate developer Donald Trump, who announced his candidacy with a speech bashing Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and vowing to build a border wall at Mexico's expense.

"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," Trump said of immigrants from Mexico.

While Trump is viewed by many political handicappers as a novelty candidate, others said his anti-immigrant rant could tarnish the Republican brand with Latino voters, a fast-growing demographic that is increasingly influential in key swing states such as Nevada, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Virginia.

Despite warnings from national GOP leaders after the loss of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney to Obama, in which Romney was shellacked among Latino voters, most of the Republican presidential contenders continue to stake out hard-line positions on immigration and border security.

Trump's comments were a noisy distraction from the official entry into the race of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a more moderate GOP presidential candidate who supports immigration reform. But even Bush didn't appear inclined to take up the issue during his Monday announcement until he was interrupted by pro-citizenship hecklers.

"By the way, just so that our friends know, the next president of the United States will pass meaningful immigration reform so that that will be solved, not by executive order," Bush said.

Later in the week, Bush called for immigration reform while campaigning in Iowa, which hosts the first presidential caucuses.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another GOP 2016 candidate, also sparred this week with immigration activists who interrupted a speech he was giving in Washington, D.C.

Ben Carson, a conservative retired neurosurgeon seeking the Republican nomination, was the only GOP hopeful to make an appearance at the NALEO conference. His remarks on Wednesday largely avoided immigration and instead highlighted the economy and the need for global U.S. leadership. He did say national-security concerns dictate the need to seal the borders.

"What we should do, I believe, is provide them a way that they don't have to hide in the shadows," Carson said of the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country. "Give them an opportunity to become guest workers. They have to register. They have to enroll in a back-tax program. And if they want to become citizens, they have to get in the line with everybody else and do what's necessary."

Clinton spent less than five minutes of her 30-minute speech to the NALEO conference focusing explicitly on immigration policy. She also discussed other issues that resonate with Latino voters, including early-childhood development, preschool, jobs, education and voting rights. She also addressed the mass shooting Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., which killed nine people at a historic Black church.

Clinton's efforts to secure the Latino vote are fueled, in part, by anxiety among some Democrats that Obama's winning coalition might not be as motivated to turn out to the polls if Obama is no longer on the ticket.

"Because this is what this community wants and needs to hear, it's what it's going to take to energize that community to actually show up in this election," said state Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, who attended the NALEO conference. "If we don't, I think she's going to be in trouble. It's going to be a tough race anyway, so she needs this community to turn out next year and this is one way to really motivate them to do that."

One political scientist said that while the Republicans must finesse immigration-related issues so as not to alienate anti-"amnesty" conservatives who are influential in the GOP primary, Clinton's pro-reform stance appeals not only to Democratic primary voters but also to less partisan general-election voters.

Clinton so far has a few opponents in the Democratic race, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is expected to address the NALEO conference on Friday.

"A Democrat on an issue like this can run for the broad center from the beginning and doesn't have to worry that she'll pay a big price for that in the primaries, whereas on the Republican side, even nominal immigration moderates like Jeb Bush have to say they're against the executive action," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science and Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California-Irvine.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee suggested Clinton's efforts to appeal to Latinos is merely cynical politics.

"Latinos deserve to know that Hillary Clinton is looking out for her own political ambition instead of their interests," Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, said Thursday in a written statement. "As she has proven time and again, Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected — making big promises she won't and can't keep, just like President Obama."

Still, Clinton's all-out endorsement of immigration reform so early in the presidential campaign has immigrant-rights activists applauding.

"I don't doubt whether she is deeply committed to it, but what I respect is that she understands the power of our movement, the importance of the Latino vote, and therefore she feels like it's in her interest to say what she's saying," said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America's Voice, a liberal national group that advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. "To me, it's a movement victory that she's saying what she's saying. And for me, it's slow-motion political suicide for the Republicans to be saying what they're saying, with a few notable exceptions."

Even so, Clinton's expansive pro-immigration agenda is a recent development for her and a sharp break from the policies of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who served two terms in the White House from 1993 to 2001.

As a U.S. senator from New York, Clinton voted for the border-fence-authorizing Secure Fence Act of 2006, although she distanced herself from it as early as her 2008 presidential race. Also during the 2008 campaign, when she lost the Democratic nomination to Obama, Clinton came out against issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, a position she reversed this year.

"Hillary seemed tone-deaf and rusty when she was on her book tour (for her 2014 memoir 'Hard Choices') and she was asked a couple of questions about immigration, and both times she fumbled it," Sharry said. "But now, as a candidate, she has really leaned into it, taken ownership of the issue and made it clear that she's going to draw sharp distinctions with whoever the Republican nominee is, including if it's Jeb Bush."

Her husband's legacy could follow her as the campaign rolls on.

Bill Hing, a University of San Francisco law professor and immigration-policy expert, said that from the standpoint of immigrant-rights advocates, Bill Clinton "has one of the worst immigration records" of any president in modern history.

Under his administration, the United States started the "big militarization of the border" through Operation Gatekeeper, which was aimed at stopping illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego by deploying more Border Patrol agents, and installing fencing, ground sensors, lights and other technology, Hing said.

Clinton also signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a sweeping bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress that was aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants through a wide range of punishments. Those included barring undocumented immigrants from returning to the United States for up to 10 years, and expanding the list of crimes for which legal immigrants could be stripped of their status and deported.

However, Hing doubts Bill Clinton's old positions on border security and immigration enforcement will hurt Hillary Clinton with Latinos.

"Latino voters are giving her a pass because the Republicans have been so intransigent on immigration reform," Hing said, pointing out that in recent years conservative Republicans have consistently foiled attempts by moderate Republicans and Democrats to pass immigration reform.

Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization System during the Clinton administration, said it's unfair to tie Bill Clinton's record to Hillary Clinton.

The border-security and immigration-enforcement measures launched under Bill Clinton's administration were badly needed, Meissner said. But what distinguishes Hillary Clinton from her Republican rivals is that she believes it is time to move beyond border security and immigration enforcement, she said.

"She's talking about now what needs to be done in addition and that is very different from what all the Republicans are saying," Meissner said. "They are just saying more of the same and they are in a time warp. ... We just don't have the same issues at the border."

Republic reporter Daniel Gonzalez contributed to this article.