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November 5, 2007

Voters: Secure the borders and kick illegal immigrants out

Terry Date

Editor's note: This is the sixth in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project.

Keep illegal immigrants out of the country and kick out those already here.

That's the feeling among many voters who ranked immigration as their primary concern in an Eagle-Tribune poll of more than 150 Southern New Hampshire residents.

Those who would erect fences to wall out illegal immigrants say they are an economic drain on society. In addition, but to a lesser extent, these people worry that border breaches represent a national security threat.

For them, it's the economy.

Wayland Elwood, 91, a Londonderry farmer, said illegal immigrants take jobs away from regular citizens | though he concedes that many of these positions are ones Americans do not want.

On the topic of undocumented workers, Elwood wants the next president to "put a fence up high enough so they can't get in."

Londonderry resident Andrew Nesbitt, 46, a warehouse worker and Teamsters union member, said undocumented workers who labor for short money drive down the wages of regular workers.

And Sandra Clark, a retiree from Chester, said illegal immigrants get free health care at hospital emergency rooms, thereby driving up medical costs for American citizens.

"Our country is choking because of the expense," she said.

Barbara Coish of Windham said the growing numbers of illegal immigrants living and working here is a looming problem that will become more of a tax on citizens in the future.

Like many of those who take a hard stand against illegal immigration, Coish supports immigration through legal channels.

In the past, she said, legal immigrants, including those in her husband's family who emigrated from Canada 50 years ago, had to have a job lined up, money in their pocket and a place to stay before they gained entry into the United States.

Sixty percent of those polled in The Eagle-Tribune survey listed immigration policy among the top 10 issues to consider when choosing the next president.

Candidates for president have heard the national outcry over immigration.

On the Republican side, it is a hot-button issue on a par with abortion and gay rights, according to many voters and political observers.

Sen. John McCain has grown more adamant about protecting the nation's borders since fellow Republicans attacked him in June at the GOP presidential debate in Manchester for his support of a bill that proposed allowing many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already here to stay.

At later campaign stops, McCain made a point of telling crowds he had heard their concerns about illegal immigration.

"Secure the border. Secure the border. Secure the border," he told a throng of voters at a Pelham campaign stop earlier this year.

GOP candidate Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, often talks about immigration at town hall-style meetings on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

In addition to securing the country's borders, Romney has said he would implement verification for noncitizens, punish sanctuary cities and provide no special pathway to citizenship for those here illegally.

Perhaps the most outspoken presidential candidate when it comes to illegal immigrants is Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado.

He said legislation friendly to illegal immigrants could lead to the entry of more non-English speakers into the country and threaten the United States with "Balkanization."

In addition, Tancredo would prosecute employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.

Meanwhile, the most outspoken of The Eagle-Tribune poll-takers who ranked immigration as their No. 1 concern was Charles Morton. He's a World War II veteran who lives in Derry and, for a time, after his military service, lived and worked on a ranch in the West.

He wants the next president to seal the border with an electric fence topped with razor wire.

Morton said other countries would soon throw out Americans if they were in those countries illegally. The United States should do the same by rounding up illegal immigrants and deporting them, Morton said.

This isn't likely to happen if a Democrat wins the White House.

Many Democrats say they want to protect the nation's borders, but they also want to provide a means to legal status for some undocumented workers.

Count Sen. Hillary Clinton among these Democrats.

Clinton said that as a nation, a premium is placed on policies that help families, but immigration laws fail to reflect this and the system is in crisis.

Clinton said she would "repair those broken portions of our immigration system that irrevocably damage families and force citizens and lawful immigrants to choose between their newly adopted country and living with their spouse or children."

Democratic candidates Mike Gravel, a former senator from Alaska, and Dennis Kucinich would counter underlying problems responsible for the flow of undocumented workers into this country.

"The United States will not be able to resolve its immigration issues until it resolves its trade policies," Kucinich said.

Gravel, who favors a guest worker program and a naturalization process to bring immigrants to legal status, said any discussion of immigration must include the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He said the agreement, which eliminated most tariffs on products traded between Canada, Mexico and the United States, has led to the exodus of workers from Mexico and has been a boon to international corporations.

Gravel said a study by the Economic Policy Institute said more than 1 million American jobs and 1.3 million farmers in Mexico were lost to NAFTA.

Still, regardless of the party, candidates express uniform support for border protection.

This idea is very important to Rick Hartung, a 61-year-old computer programmer from Hampstead.

For him, respect for those boundaries is key to national security and the nation's very identity.

"If you have a country with borders and it can't control those borders, you have to question whether it's a country," Hartung said. "That's fundamental."

This view is most succinctly addressed by GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas.

"The talk must stop," Paul says. "We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all."

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