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 Americas & Beyond | June 2008 
Obama, McCain Spar for Latino Vote
 Agence France-Presse
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| | Barack Obama | 
| | John McCain (C) | | |
Washington — Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama called for immigration reform on Saturday as they courted America's ever-growing Latino voting population.
The candidates spoke separately to a Hispanic group in Washington about the need for comprehensive reform to bring the country's 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows.
McCain and Obama both backed measures that were blocked by hardline Republicans in Congress that would have given undocumented foreign workers a path toward citizenship.
But McCain, who had championed the reform bill despite opposition within his own party, has since said his focus was now to secure America's porous border with Mexico first.
"We will not succeed in the Congress of the United States until we convince a majority of the American people that we have border security," McCain said.
"But that does not have to be done in an inhumane or cruel fashion," he said, vowing to push for a temporary worker program again.
McCain, whose remarks were interrupted four times by anti-war protesters, said immigration reform was his "top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow."
Obama, who spoke to the group shortly after McCain, criticized the Arizona senator for shifting his focus to border security, although the Democrat said that "there are many areas where barriers make sense."
McCain "said that he wouldn't even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote," Obama said. "And if we're going to solve the challenges we face, we can't vacillate. We can't shift depending on our politics."
"We haven't been serious in solving the problem," Obama said, vowing to make immigration reform "one of my priorities on my first day" at the White House.
The Hispanic community, with 45 million people, or 15 percent of the population, is now the largest racial minority group in the United States, and many live in states expected to be hotly contested in the November 4 election.
In 2004 President George W. Bush obtained more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote -- a record for a Republican -- and defeated Democrat John Kerry in four of the key southwestern states as well as in Florida.
Obama struggle to woo Latino voters during the marathon Democratic nomination race with Senator Hillary Clinton, who won two-thirds of the Hispanic vote.
But Obama has won the backing of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Hispanic former UN ambassador and presidential candidate, and hired Patti Solis Doyle, a former Clinton aid of Mexican descent, as the chief of staff of his yet-to-be-named vice presidential running mate. |
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