Thanks largely to a controversial immigration law in Arizona, political observers agree that immigration will be a key issue for state and federal candidates in November’s election.
And, thanks largely to the federal Department of Justice’s decision last week to challenge Arizona’s law – known as S.B. 1070 – those observers say Republicans will likely get a bump at the polls.
“The Department of Justice has made this a federal issue, which drags it into every congressional race in the country,” said Douglas Johnson, a researcher with Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State and Local Government. “The decision to sue Arizona will certainly help Republicans more than Democrats.”
As evidence, he noted that three of Arizona’s five Democratic members of Congress asked the Obama administration not to sue the state over S.B. 1070, which requires law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of people they come across in the course of duty and suspect might be in the country illegally.
The law sparked not only the Justice Department lawsuit, but also a presidential address earlier this month.
Renee Van Vechten, a political science professor at University of Redlands, said she is surprised President Barack Obama opted to speak about immigration reform, saying the move could “add fuel to the fire.”
“He’s making it into a hot-button issue,” she said. “It just surprised me he would even attempt to tackle this issue. It doesn’t create a whole lot of winners or a whole lot of payoff in the short term.”
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Jul 122010
