At a Republican retreat in Philadelphia, Republican lawmakers presented their constituents' concerns to President Bush's political strategist.  The legislators stressed that voters in their constituencies were not happy with the President's immigration proposal, and that they themselves would not vote for the bill.  They also expressed the opinion that President Bush proposed the immigration bill in order to attract more Hispanic voters.

A Bush spokesman stated that the President defended his proposal: “He said he didn't do it for politics [but] because that's what he believes is good for the country.”

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California Senator Rico Oller issued a four-page mailer last week, attacking his opponent Attorney General Dan Lungren for supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants while he served as attorney general in 1990.

The mailer states “Dan Lungren voted to give illegal aliens US citizenship.  Lungren broke with the Republican majority and supported keeping amnesty for millions who broke US immigration laws.”

In an interview last week, Lungren stated the mailer referred to legislation he had helped to create that became law in 1986.  The bill included a provision granting legal status to foreign farm workers.  The Congressional Quarterly reported at the time that although Lungren originally backed the bill, he opposed it once the amnesty clause was inserted.  At the time, he was the ranking Republican on the immigration subcommittee in the House of Representatives. 

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According to Republican California US Senate candidate Rosario Marin, the US must pressure Mexico to improve its economic conditions in order to discourage illegal immigration.  Marin, an immigrant from Mexico, said the determination of the cause of the large immigration numbers from Mexico to the US has been avoided and instead the government has decided to focus on solutions to the immigration problem.

Marin is the only one of the four Republican candidates running for a seat representing California in the US Senate that supports the guest worker proposal presented by President Bush.  A major part of her platform includes her opinion that Mexico should be held more responsible for illegal immigration than the United States.  Although she knows that Congress has no authority over Mexico’s domestic policies, pressure could be applied through economic aid and treaties.

Marin is also proposing in her campaign that illegal immigrants convicted of crimes should be returned to Mexico to serve their sentences.  Marin, however, refuses to address the issue of whether or not illegal immigrants should have the privilege of obtaining a driver’s license and is being criticized for her silence on the issue.

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A Palestinian-American, Maad Abu-Ghazalah, is running for Congress in San Francisco on a platform emphasizing foreign policy improvements.  His main opponent is Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), a Holocaust survivor and a loyal supporter of Israel who has held the office since 1981. A recent trend of Muslim citizens has been to attempt to affect and change US federal policy by becoming part of the government.

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With President Bush’s announcement of a guest worker program in time for the presidential election, immigration is becoming a major issue for all the candidates.  Bush called for a new, humane and rational approach to the immigration situation, prompting all presidential candidates to release statements of their own on the topic.

Senator John Kerry supports legalizing undocumented workers who have been working in the US for more than five years and who do not have a criminal record, as well as legalizing the status of the children of undocumented workers who have been raised in the United States.  While serving in the US Senate, he has voted against both raising the number of skilled workers’ visas and curtailing benefits to immigrants.

Senator John Edwards has stated that he would back an earned legalization program to legalize the status of illegal workers.  Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean says that he would legalize the status of undocumented workers who have been upstanding citizens, similar to Clark’s position.  Dean, however, has expressed concern over the possibility of many Hispanics joining the military to get citizenship.

Representative Dennis Kucinich contends that Bush’s proposal is a form of indentured servitude and has announced that he supports amnesty for undocumented workers.  Similarly to Kuchinich’s stance on illegal immigrants, the Reverend Al Sharpton equates an illegal immigrant to something very close to a slave.  He favors a more lenient policy that would treat the people coming in to the US from Mexico more like those who come in from Canada.