The Silly Immigration Spat

A new McCain ad, "God's Children," targeting Latino voters

Of all the fights Barack Obama and John McCain could pick with each other--Iraq, health care, taxes--immigration is perhaps the silliest. Why? Because the Democrat and the Republican don't actually, you know, disagree.

Not that this minor hitch has stopped them, of course, from throwing punches at a series of Latino-centric events over the past three weeks. Appearing yesterday at the annual National Council of La Raza conference in San Diego, Calif., for example--NCLR is a non-profit focused on helping Hispanic Americans--Obama accused McCain of "walk[ing] away from... comprehensive reform when it bec[ame] politically unpopular." And in his speech today to the same audience, McCain plans to slam Obama for "vot[ing] for and even sponsor[ing] amendments that were intended to kill the legislation." That's on top of Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a top McCain surrogate, declaring on a recent conference call with reporters that Obama "was AWOL" and "working against us" during last year's heated immigration battles in the Senate.

Is there any truth to these attacks? Sure. In the spring of 2007, Obama voted for five amendments--later dubbed "poison pills" by critics--that largely tweaked the bill's guest-worker provisions. Supported by labor unions and liberal interest groups and designed to make the bill more "expansive, balanced, and fair," the amendments nonetheless upset the "carefully crafted, but always fragile, compromise package that Democrats and Republicans [had] cobbled together." (Although, as one commenter notes, conservative Republicans had much more to do with torpedoing the bill than Obama.) Similarly, McCain backed away from the failed legislation after conservative criticism almost collapsed his Republican primary campaign, emphasizing a "secure the borders first" approach meant to pacify the right and even admitting at a Jan. 30 GOP debate that he "would not" vote for the bill again if given the opportunity. So when it comes to standing firm on immigration reform in the face of political pressure, neither candidate deserves a perfect score.

But that doesn't change the fact that both Obama and McCain crossed party lines to pursue legislation that would

ensure this bill moved successfully intact through the legislative process." And a month later----long after Obama had voted for the amendments in question--Martinez sent the senator a note thanking him for his "support." "While it failed, your backing of this important legislation meant a lot to me personally," Martinez wrote. "I know that standing firm in the face of extreme pressure has not been easy." Not exactly the kind of thing you'd say to someone who was "working against" you. Or "AWOL."

Of course, it's easy to see why McCain in particular is making a mountain out of this molehill: Latinos will be one of November's decisive voting blocs. As I've written before,

Ultimately, this silly spat doesn't tell us anything new about the candidates' (identical) stands on immigration. What it does prove, however, is that both senators are willing to play politics with the issue when necessary. If that comes as a surprise, you may want to crawl back into your hole--and set an alarm for November 5.