Republicans Stick to Anti-Immigration Lines in Debate
According to recent polls, the Democrats have a 34-point lead over the Republicans among Hispanic voters. So you can understand why GOP presidential candidates were at first reluctant to agree to a Spanish-language debate. The Democrats had held a similar debate in September.
But after some prodding and poking from senior GOP figures, who know the importance of the Hispanic vote, the candidates girded their loins, traveled to Miami, and Sunday night held a 90-minutes debate on Univision, the Spanish-language cable TV network.
NPR's Greg Allen reports that in particular the candidates weren't all that eager to go before a Hispanic audience and defend their positions on immigration. (Rep. Tom Tancredo, the candidate most outspoken on the issue, didn't attend the debate because he said he didn't like the idea of it being translated in Spanish.) For instance, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was forced to defend his position that all 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. had to go home before applying to get back into the country.
There was little follow-up to any of the tough questions, like how the candidates felt about separating children born in the U.S. from their illegal immigrant parents. None of the candidates answered the question directly. And former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was asked if he reported to authorities that employees of a landscaping company he used at his own home outside Boston were in the country illegally. In his answer, Romney never did say if he believes Americans should report illegal immigrants to the authorities.
But none of the candidates backed away from their positions on immigration, if they did seem on occasion to soften them a bit.
Although the event was broadcast nationally, one advantage the candidates did have was that the debate was held in Miami - which meant a friendlier in-studio audience. The Hispanic community in Florida is not as deeply vested in the immigration issue as are other parts of the country. It has other concerns that point farther south. Rep. Ron Paul discovered this when he suggested that the U.S. have "friendly and warm" relationships, and lots of trade, with countries like Venezuela and Cuba.
He was roundly booed for his remarks.
11:37 AM ET | 12-10-2007 | permalink
