In the last month, I've been to few meetings where the topic of illegal immigration was hotly debated.  I have come to believe, from these discussions, that Republicans may be succeeding in their efforts to use this as a wedge issue to divide Democrats.  We need to understand that the term "wedge issue" does not mean that Democrats should ignore immigration as a real problem that must be addressed rationally.  However, we can not let the Republicans divide us on this issue.

Let's assume that I'm a Republican strategist for a moment and am only interested in gaining votes and wining elections. 

As a Republican strategist, I would start with assuming that the numbers of "them" and "us" are pretty even and in order to gain votes, I need to convince some of "them" to vote for "us."  I need to find a topic that my opponents are split on and convince one of the factions that the Republicans represent their point of view.

In the case of Gay Marriage, if I recall correctly, among the groups that traditionally voted Democrat, the Catholics (and their subset of Hispanics) as well as many seniors would consider themselves very traditional and would agree with the Republican position that marriage is sacred and our shared religion specifies a man and a woman.

Now that I have an issue, again, as a Republican, I would have to work very hard to make sure that in the mind of that Republican-friendly faction, my issue was the absolutely most important issue in their minds. That way, they would put aside their differences on every other issue and vote Republican.

When Democrats court votes, we must always remind the voter that there are many issues, not just the "wedge" issue. The other issues only lose importance if we let them.

While immigration has been around for many decades (indeed, centuries) why has it become THE issue to decide the fate of a candidate's electability?  The answer is because the Republicans did their research and their homework well and they have used their media and positions to make it so. We know that the Republicans ignored immigration from the day they entered office. In fact, in 2001, the Republicans were already floating the guest worker program and would have signed it into law if 9/11 hadn't occurred. There were several articles that indicated that the Republican Party CHOSE to use immigration for the 2006 elections by mid 2005. (see example here.)

As seen in our various meetings recently, Democrats are indeed divided on this subject. I'm also sure that there is at least one group of Democrats who is willing to make this THE issue to decide if they support a candidate or not. Therefore, by my understanding, immigration is indeed a wedge issue. Note that the issue does not have to be trivial. It just has to divide.

Note also that the term Illegal Immigrant sounds more ominous than either undocumented worker or guest worker. That's why Republicans use the former and Democrats shouldn't.

I agree that all Democrat candidates must have a response to the immigrant issue. But I disagree that it should be THE issue and hope that our candidates can prevent the debate from being controlled by the Republicans.

To regain control, we need facts, not just accept what the other side states. In the last few weeks, I have caught many Republican lies being repeated in our own meetings. 

I think we would do well to discuss the facts and keep the meetings non-emotional. This way, our candidates will be able to steel themselves to be ready when the emotions enter into their meetings and future debates. We should be able to agree on the facts and then share views on the impact of those facts. Where we will always have fun discussions is on our visions of the near- and long-term futures of our country and state.  After all, that's why we're Democrats!

I will offer my time to investigate any facts that anyone hears on these issues to see what I can come up with.

In fact, here's a couple of things to think about. There are only four options to undocumented workers.

1. Find them, prosecute them and deport them. This will tie up our justice department, law enforcement and government for decades and cost trillions.  IT would also leave industries short around 10 million workers. The costs will be paid for by raising taxes, lowering wages, and raising the costs of goods. Not very practical.

2. Create a guest worker program. This will create an entirely new bureaucracy to track 10 million workers as they cross in and out of our country and migrate between states following their work. Remember that there are less than 2.5 million in our entire military (US and State). That should give you an idea of the size of the problem. Again, not very practical. The costs would be paid for by raising taxes. The endless cheap labor, now legal, would drive wages down for the most vulnerable workers - the working poor and lower middle class.

3. Ignore the problem. We could tighten up the borders and increase law enforcement so that a) it is difficult for more people to illegally cross the border, b) when a person is found who is not legally here, they will be deported, and c) when business pay (directly or through subcontractors) undocumented workers, they will be fined the equivalent of all the state and local taxes that they avoided paying. This would not erase the problem and would have minimal effect on the economy and the legal workers. 

4. Increase ability for workers (specially unskilled) to enter into the country. If our economy needs 1 million new unskilled workers each year, then let them in. Give them a path to citizenship so that their children will become our future skilled workers and their grand children will become our future leaders. This will not cost anything, will dramatically reduce the pressure to cross the border illegally or to overstay visas and will solve the "problem" overnight!

I look at immigration as a good thing for the US. As people's education increases (specially women), the number of children they are willing to support decreases. Therefore, the secret to prevent hordes of foreigners from dominating our American culture (what ever that is!?!) is to a) give the workers skills, educate their children (particularly the girls) and integrate them into our society. An Hispanic 3rd generation is, on the average, indistinguishable from any other 3rd generation immigrant. 

I hope this will help in the ultimate issue that we face on the local (school board), state (assembly), and national (congress) scene and that is to take back our country and, "Together, we can do better!"

Contact David Lombrozo

 

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