CAMPAIGN 2000

This marks the introduction of a new feature we will be bringing you over the coming year, focusing on immigration-related issues that arise during the presidential campaign.  As the field of candidates stakes out positions on major issues, they already have and will continue to address immigration issues.

California is one of the most important states in the presidential election because of the number of electoral votes it possesses.  It is also, of course, home to many of the nation’s immigrants.  So it is not surprising that immigration came up during a speech Republican candidate Steve Forbes gave at the Los Angeles Press Club.  During the speech, Forbes hit on two hotbed topics in immigration, the release of criminal aliens and the H-1B visa cap.  Forbes called the INS “a mess” and one of the “worst-run agencies of the Clinton-Gore administration.”  He claimed, like many others, that the agency is releasing immigrants convicted of crimes rather than deporting them.  Forbes also supported raising the annual H-1B cap to help companies facing labor shortages, especially in high tech fields.  

Vice-President Al Gore and Senator John McCain each spoke by remote camera to a conference of Arab-Americans organized by the Arab American Institute.  Former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus spoke to the conference on behalf of former Senator Bill Bradley.  Gore promised to work to eliminate negative stereotypes of Arab-Americans, in particular the practice of airport profiling, which many advocates feel unfairly singles out people of Arab descent for searching or questioning.  Each of the candidates praised Arab-Americans for assimilating into American society while at the same time maintaining their ethnic heritage.  

Hispanics in Iowa are experiencing something new – politicians are vigorously courting their votes. The state, which holds one of the first votes in the election process, is home to only about 56,000 Hispanics. Nonetheless, the presidential candidates are using the state as a testing ground for their strategies to reach the nation’s growing Hispanic population. Their efforts to reach Iowa Hispanics will likely not have any effect on the outcome of the Iowa caucus, as Hispanics make up only two percent of the state’s population, but should provide ideas as to how to better reach Hispanics in states such as New York and California where they are a sizeable percentage of the population.

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