Opposing Views on Immigration

The major party candidates for U.S. Senate--Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Republican Michael Huffington--began airing new statewide television commercials last week about immigration. Both commercials respond to attacks by the opponent’s campaign.

* THE FEINSTEIN AD: It opens by showing a San Francisco Chronicle editorial while an off-camera narrator explains: “The Chronicle says: ‘The Huffington ad blatantly distorts Feinstein’s record on the issue of illegal immigration’ and calls it ‘a plain and simple lie.’ ” The ad then features a graphic of a Senate immigration vote by Feinstein followed by a picture of a letter to President Clinton. The narration continues: “The truth: Feinstein’s leading the fight against illegal immigration. Her leadership secured funding for 600 new border guards--funding that Congressman Huffington voted against, three times. And Huffington is the only California Congress member who refused to sign this letter to the President to repay Californians the cost of illegal immigration.” It ends: “Congressman Huffington. He’ll say anything to get elected.”

* THE ANALYSIS: Feinstein’s ad responds to a charge Huffington made in a commercial that attacked the Democrat’s claim she is tough on illegal immigration. The Huffington ad contended that a 1985 resolution Feinstein signed while mayor of San Francisco ordered police to violate federal law by not reporting illegal immigrants. Feinstein supporters said the non-binding resolution recommended that police and other city officials should not initiate the deportation of refugees fleeing a particularly violent period in El Salvador and Guatemala. An editorial in the Chronicle recently called Huffington’s claim a “lie” because the resolution’s language addressed the relationship with federal law. The ad’s claim that Feinstein helped secure 600 new border guards refers to the senator’s support for a recent appropriations bill. Huffington said he favors more border guards, but he opposed the appropriations bill because he said it included other wasteful spending. Huffington also said he did not sign the letter to the President because he sent a separate one that called for even more funding reimbursement to the state.

* THE HUFFINGTON AD: It begins with Harold W. Ezell, former western regional commissioner of the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, speaking to the camera. “I know a lot about immigration,” Ezell says. “I was regional commissioner. You’ve seen ads about San Francisco’s sanctuary policy. Mike Huffington is right.” The ad then shows a picture of a 1985 San Francisco Chronicle story, highlighting a headline about the sanctuary vote and a phrase in the story that says “in defiance of federal law.” Ezell continues: “When Dianne Feinstein declared San Francisco a sanctuary, a safe haven for illegal aliens, it was in defiance of federal law.” Picturing Ezell again, he continues: “Feinstein’s hometown newspaper would have you believe something different, but I know the truth, I was there. Feinstein’s policy encouraged the invasion of illegals into California.”

* THE ANALYSIS: The ad is Huffington’s second attempt to persuade voters that Feinstein and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors violated federal law by passing the 1985 sanctuary resolution. Huffington bases his claim on two sources: a 1985 San Francisco Chronicle news story that used the phrase “in defiance of federal law” and Ezell, a former federal immigration official under President Ronald Reagan and a prominent Republican activist.

Chronicle Editor Bill German said recently that the newspaper’s 1985 news story that contained the phrase “in defiance of federal law” was incorrect. In fact, the resolution addresses the issue of federal law. It refers to a federal court decision that said a local government is not required to provide an individual’s immigration status to federal authorities. It also added: “The city and county of San Francisco is not, in adopting this resolution, encouraging its employees and citizens to violate any local, state or federal laws.”