Illegal Immigration Fuels Campaigns Across the State
By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 24, 2007
As Virginia Senate candidate Bob FitzSimmonds heads out each day to knock on doors in Prince William County, he brings extra copies of his latest brochure, the one addressing a single issue: illegal immigration.
FitzSimmonds, a conservative Republican running an uphill race to unseat longtime Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William), said he hears more from voters about illegal immigration than any issue except transportation. The Senate district includes Manassas, Manassas Park and part of Prince William, to which thousands of immigrants have moved in recent years.
"Immigration is definitely a problem," Patty Jenkins, 49, told FitzSimmonds as she and her husband cleaned their garage one recent day.
Candidates across the state, particularly in the increasingly diverse Northern Virginia suburbs, are hearing multiple sides of the immigration issue during visits to neighborhoods, fairs and community meetings. How they respond could help determine the outcome of the Nov. 6 elections for all 140 House and Senate seats.
"It's red-hot," said Sen. James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. (R-Fairfax). "Immigration is an issue everywhere in Virginia. Any candidate that speaks with confidence about [requiring immigrants to have a] legal presence will generate a terrific response."
Heightened interest in the issue has prompted a surge of proposals by Virginia Republican leaders. Hardly a week goes by without a candidate announcing an "action plan" on immigration: FitzSimmonds's brochure, for example, spells out a five-point plan.
Republican and Democratic candidates said they were surprised by the seemingly sudden and strong interest. Many said their internal polls did not show illegal immigration to be a significant voter concern at the start of the year. A Washington Post-Kaiser Foundation-Harvard University survey in May found that about a third of Virginians said they think illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States should be deported.
But interest picked up after Congress failed to approve an immigration overhaul this summer. That was followed by attempts by Prince William and Loudoun counties to crack down on government services to illegal immigrants and the closing of a day-laborer center in Herndon.
"It's a matter of concern across the state because of a failure of the federal government to do their job, to come up with some kind of comprehensive reform," said Del. Robert H. Brink (D-Arlington).
Virginia Republican leaders first seized the issue, unveiling a proposal to curb illegal immigration by prohibiting illegal immigrants from attending public colleges, requiring sheriffs to check immigration status before jail releases and suspending business licenses of companies convicted of hiring illegal immigrants.
Virginia Democrats, who are in a position to make gains in the GOP-controlled General Assembly, say Republicans have tried to divert attention from voter outrage over costly abusive-driver fees with an issue -- illegal immigration -- that state and local government can do little to resolve.
"To a large degree, they are grandstanding," said Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), the Democratic leader in the Senate. "It's to wash off the stink of abuser fees. When you see them dragging up issues like this . . . that's all they are trying to do."
The abusive-driver fees, which took effect July 1 and range from $750 to $3,000 for serious traffic offenses, were supported by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and members of both parties but were conceived by Republicans to avoid raising taxes to pay for road and transit projects.
"Republicans feel that [immigration] is a real opportunity for them to mobilize their base constituency, especially at a time when the Republican grass roots are so dispirited," said Mark J. Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University.
Republicans dispute the notion that they are exaggerating the immigration issue to gain political advantage, saying they are responding to complaints they get from voters.
As FitzSimmonds campaigned in Prince William recently, Marie Humston, 58, stepped onto her porch to ask him what could be done about the 12 people who she said moved into a single-family home next to hers on leafy Cliffbrook Court in Montclair.
"There are some things we can do at the state level," FitzSimmonds said before handing her his brochure, which lists such proposals as punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants and denying in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.
But most four-year colleges already prohibit illegal immigrants, and a 1994 law asks sheriffs to check immigration status.
"People need to recognize and realize that these promises are really just bumper sticker messages," said Flavia Jimenez, an immigrant policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group in the United States. "Many politicians are promising to fix the illegal immigration problem without hard facts to follow the statements they are making."
It's not just Republicans touting immigration. Democrats are, too, especially in conservative districts.
George Barker, a Democrat running against O'Brien in one of Northern Virginia's most competitive races, said immigration has "got people's attention. It's not just a Republican issue."
Although candidates in both parties are promising to take action if elected, there is little state and local governments can do, in part because the law provides many protections for illegal immigrants, as Herndon found out recently when a judge determined that the town's day-laborer center must be open to all workers, including those in the country illegally. Town officials shut down the center rather than comply with the court.
It is unclear whether talking about illegal immigration will help Republicans this fall. Republicans Jerry W. Kilgore and George Allen tried to use the issue in their last statewide campaigns but lost. But immigration did appear to help Republican Corey A. Stewart win chairmanship of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors last fall.
National party leaders are warning that the issue could hurt the GOP as it tries to keep the White House next year and make gains in Congress. Virginia's U.S. Senate race next year will no doubt include an airing of the immigration issue.
Across the country, Republicans are trying to woo Hispanic voters, a fast-growing group that helped reelect President Bush, who won a historically high 40 percent of its vote in 2004.
That support faltered last year when the Republican share of the Hispanic vote dipped to 30 percent after the GOP-controlled Congress considered a bill that would have substantially boosted border security.
Michael Thompson, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank based in Fairfax, said: "Immigration can be an issue, but is a short-term victory this fall worth long-terms problems for the party? Look at what happened in California. The Republican Party became known as the mean-spirited, anti-immigration party and went from success to failure almost overnight."
Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group, predicted this year's Republican immigration proposals in Virginia would also go awry.
"It's crazy. We are watching slow-motion political suicide," Sharry said. "They are reaching for it out of desperation . . . but it's more likely to backfire than work."
Del. Thomas Davis Rust (R-Fairfax), who is running for reelection, disagreed. "The federal government has failed miserably, so people are looking for the next level of government to fix it," he said.
Staff writer Tim Craig contributed to this report.
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