Tougher Audience for Immigration Rallies

Immigrants and their supporters will take to the streets today to start a weeklong encore of the rallies that brought millions out in the spring. But as they prepare marches in Chicago, Washington, Phoenix and Los Angeles, immigration advocates are facing a less friendly political climate in the nation’s capital.

Although Congress may take up immigration overhaul when it returns next week, few on Capitol Hill are optimistic about passing legislation before November’s midterm elections. And any new initiatives are likely to focus solely on enforcement, not on providing more legal options for illegal immigrants.

In some political campaigns, immigration hard-liners are embracing the issue as a way to rally voters and target opponents who favor a broad rewrite of existing laws.

In response, advocates of a more comprehensive immigration overhaul are making the rallies more explicitly political, incorporating voter registration drives aimed at affecting tight races in November -- along with reminders that the Latino community, in particular, will watch what politicians say.

“We know the issue is being used politically,” said Jaime Contreras, chairman of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, which says it expects more than 500,000 demonstrators Thursday on the National Mall. “Our community understands that we haven’t won the war yet, that it will probably go into next year.”

House Republicans are also on the offensive, tying immigration to the larger issue of national security as part of their election-year campaign strategy.

“From homeland security to national security to border security, House Republicans will focus first and foremost on addressing the safety and security needs of the American people,” House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in announcing the GOP legislative agenda for September.

It’s too early to determine how many races will feature immigration as an issue, said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Carl Forti. But in a few tight and closely watched contests, it is already a factor.

In the Sept. 12 Republican congressional primary to succeed retiring Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe, a moderate on immigration who is backing a candidate with similar views, one of the contenders is former state Rep. Randy Graf, a member of the anti-illegal-immigration Minuteman Project.

In TV ads that began airing Aug. 23, Graf links illegal immigration to drugs, criminals and terrorists. “I fear not only for the safety of my family but for all Americans. National security begins with border security,” Graf says.

At the nation’s northern border, Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate, Mike Bouchard, told TV viewers that he was “a 20-year lawman. Anything that starts with ‘illegal,’ I’m going to be against.”

And in a highly competitive House race in Iowa, Republican candidate Mike Whalen blasted his primary opponent’s immigration record. “Illegal aliens are flooding into our country,” a voice in one ad intones. “Why? Because politicians like Bill Dix give them special benefits like lowered tuition costs.”

In many areas with tight races, the House GOP leadership has also held summer hearings on immigration that have helped highlight the hard-line stance of local Republican candidates.

Democrats say the GOP emphasis on immigration is misguided.

“It is a major issue, but it’s not No. 1,” said Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He cited Iraq, healthcare and gas prices as other issues that concern voters.

Burton noted that currently only six markets are running with paid ads about immigration, though that will probably increase.

Moreover, Burton said, Republicans are vulnerable on immigration because they have controlled Congress for the last decade.

When Congress reconvenes, both sides are expected to dig in their heels.

Like President Bush, the Senate backs a broad overhaul of immigration laws, including citizenship provisions for many currently illegal immigrants.

The House passed an enforcement-only bill.

Staffers say there have been few behind-the-scenes talks to bridge the divide, and Democrats in Congress are openly skeptical.

“Without the president seriously engaging and forcing the Republican leadership on the House side to conference,” the passage of legislation before November “won’t happen,” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas).

Boehner spokesman Kevin Madden disagreed. “I wouldn’t count it out,” he said.

Madden said that the House hearings on immigration held around the country made it clear the public wanted “a bill that puts a premium on enforcement.”

The upcoming marches -- which include events in Phoenix on Monday and Los Angeles on Sept. 9 -- are intended to tell Congress that enforcement is not enough.

The events will kick off in Chicago today, when marchers set out from Chinatown on a four-day, 45-mile walk that will end with a rally at the Batavia, Ill., office of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

On Saturday, the marchers will stop in DuPage County, in a district where Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) is retiring. It’s hotly contested by Republican state Sen. Peter J. Roskam and Army Maj. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, an Iraq war veteran and the daughter of a Thai immigrant.

Traditionally the heart of the Illinois Republican machine, DuPage County saw a 49% increase in immigrant citizens from 2000 to 2005. In Hyde’s district, legal and illegal immigrants now comprise 44% of the population. In Hastert’s district, they make up 30%.

Local advocates of comprehensive overhaul say that turning those immigrants into an electoral force is one of their biggest goals and that though the marches could prompt something of a backlash, the potential gains are worth it.

“The struggle isn’t going to be won in a day,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a march organizer. “But because of demographic and national security reasons, some kind of status for the undocumented is inevitable.”

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nicole.gaouette@latimes.com