| | |  Americas & Beyond | July 2008 
Obama Pledges to Find Way for Illegal Immigrants to Gain Citizenship
 Bob Keefe - Cox News Service
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| | Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Barack Obama speaks during a townhall meeting at The Behrend College in Erie, Pennsylvania, 2008. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand) | | |
San Diego — Barack Obama told a Latino group Sunday that he would make immigration reform a top priority and create a way for 12 million illegal immigrants in America to get "out of the shadows" and gain citizenship if he's elected president.
"Yes they broke the law, and we should not excuse that," Obama told more than 2,000 attendees at the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's biggest Latino civil rights group. "We should require them to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for citizenship - behind those who came here legally."
"But we cannot - and should not - deport 12 million people," he said. "That would turn America into something we're not; something we don't want to be."
Obama also unveiled a plan that would give tax credits to small businesses that provide health care for employees. And for people who can't get health care through their work, he proposes a national health care system.
"If you're a service worker somewhere who doesn't have health care, you're going to be able to get health care as good as the healthcare I have as a member of Congress," he said. "And if you can't afford it, we'll subsidize it."
Obama's speech came as he and probable GOP nominee John McCain are stepping up their courting of Latino voters. McCain is scheduled to speak to La Raza in San Diego on Monday.
Polls show that Latino voters so far greatly favor Obama over McCain. According to a July 2 Gallup poll, Obama leads McCain 59 percent to 29 percent among registered Hispanic voters.
"Make no mistake about it: The Latino community holds this election in (its) hands," Obama said. "Some of the closest contests this November will be in states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico - states with large Latino populations."
Obama pointed out that four years ago, 40,000 registered Latinos in New Mexico didn't vote. John Kerry lost that state by 6,000 votes.
"I know how powerful this community is, and by the way, so does Sen. McCain," Obama said.
Martin Castro of Montebello, Calif., said he backs Obama because he thinks McCain flip-flopped in his support of broader rights for immigrants and because Obama has a more positive message for the country.
Republicans "have depicted immigrants as people who want to move in and take over the country - and of course that's not the case," said Castro, CEO of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, a nonprofit group near Los Angeles.
"It's that hate type of dialogue," that convinced him to support Obama, Castro said.
Obama also took aim at McCain's stance on immigration, saying the Arizona senator proposed immigration reform but then said he would vote against it back when he was trying to woo conservatives during the Republican primary.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I think it's time for a president who won't walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically unpopular," Obama said.
Bob Pacheco, chairman of the California Statewide Latino Coalition for McCain, said the Arizona senator will likely expound on his immigration reform proposals on Monday.
As for Obama's speech, "he made a lot of promises, but no concrete suggestions," Pacheco said.
In San Diego, which shares a border with Mexico, immigration and the border are always hot issues. Sunday, before Obama took the stage, supporters of the La Raza and Obama faced off in cross-street shouting matches.
"He's just pandering to special interests," by speaking to La Raza, said Wilma Spahn, who carried a sign that read "Obama, Try Working for American Citizens & Speak English."
The sign referred to comments Obama made last week at a town hall-style meeting in Georgia, where he said he thinks immigrants should learn English, but that he doesn't support an English-only law. He also urged Americans to teach their children to speak Spanish.
Obama reiterated the comments later in Dayton, Ohio, saying was personally embarrassed by his own lack of language skills.
"We should want our children to have more skills," he said in Dayton. "There's nothing wrong with that. That's a good thing. I know, because I don't speak a foreign language. It's embarrassing."
In San Diego, Obama tried to emphasize his similarities with the Hispanic civil rights group, saying he marched with them as a community organizer in the streets of Chicago and pointing out that his father was an immigrant, from Kenya.
He also appealed to the one of the scariest issues for illegal immigrants - deportation.
"The system isn't working when 12 million people live in hiding ... when communities are terrorized by ./././ immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel," he said.
Nidia Carranza from Brawley, Calif., about 20 miles north of Mexico, said she supports Obama because she hopes he'll work to end tough immigration rules that have split up families and deported people who have been in the United States for most of their lives but can't gain citizenship.
"I want to (stop) the raids we're having today," said Carranza, wearing a "Latinos for Obama" t-shirt. "We need to give immigrants legalized status."
Bob Keefe's email is bkeefe(at)coxnews.com. |
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