Last week, the Democratic candidates running for president participated in the first forum televised and sponsored exclusively by a Spanish-language network.  Univision, the nation’s largest foreign language network & hosts of the forum, broadcasted the candidates fielding questions that dealt largely with the issue of immigration.  According to the Washington Times, all the candidates participating pledged to make immigration reform a top obligation in their first year in office.  

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York said she would increase border patrol operations as well as implement physical barriers along the US border, but favors ‘a pathway to legalization,’ with a focus on keeping families together.  Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois also favored stronger border security, and pledged to reform the application system for legal immigrants, citing increased entrance fees and backlogs.  Former Senator John Edwards said the U.S. should look first to the broader economic causes of why illegal immigration occurs.   

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut , both fluent in Spanish, complained about restrictions that they answer only in English.  Mr. Richardson was upset that ‘Univision has promoted English only in this debate,’ to a rousing applause, to which he continued his answer in Spanish.  

Univision representatives said the forum was watched by 44 million viewers, but noted that audience members complained after the forum that it yielded vague responses that won’t help them decide on backing a particular candidate.

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Beginning this month, The Washington Times began profiling new Republican presidential nominee Fred Thompson and where he stands on particular issues. Chief among them are his legislation history on immigration.  Past legislation that Thompson has voted on reveals that although his legislative record is in tune with similar Senators of his party, the one issue he does not seem to follow the traditional Republican party line is by taking a lenient approach to immigration.  

In 1995, then Sen. Thompson was one of six senators to vote affirmatively to preserve undocumented immigrants’ ability to receive federal benefits.  In 1996, Thompson voted against legislation aimed to crackdown on undocumented immigrants by setting up a system so employers’ could ID the legal status of their employees.  During his tenure has senator, Thompson ended up on the losing side of an all-against-one vote five times: two were against exempting or limiting liability of teachers or other volunteers, and the other three came against measures on matters such as encouraging zero-tolerance anti-drug policies in schools.