Washington - US presidential candidates Barack Obama and
John McCain touted their economic plans and offered contrasting
messages on immigration reform in duelling speeches to a prominent
Hispanic group Tuesday in the US capital.
Obama said his administration would put the issues facing Hispanic
Americans on a par with those facing all Americans and prevent
employers from exploiting immigrant labour.
'It's about making sure that we have a government that knows that
a problem facing any American is a problem facing all Americans,'
Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, told the League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
While Obama promised to make immigration reform a 'top priority'
and to bring an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the US
'out of the shadows,' his Republican rival McCain was more cautious
in his own LULAC address.
McCain alluded to another effort at comprehensive immigration
reform, but only after the porous US border with Mexico was secured
and illegal immigrants were prevented from reaching the United
States.
McCain has led two failed bipartisan bids in the last few years to
reform immigration laws that would have offered a path to citizenship
for those already living in the US illegally, albeit after paying a
criminal fine and learning English.
'Many Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said
we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts (at
reform),' McCain said.
'We must prove to them that we can and will secure our borders
first. ... But we must not make the mistake of thinking that our
responsibility to meet this challenge will end with that
accomplishment.'
But McCain gave few details of a future immigration plan. The
Arizona senator is running a fine line between garnering Latino
support and not alienating conservative supporters, who strongly
oppose any form of amnesty for undocumented workers and have heavily
criticized McCain for his past efforts at solving the problem.
Obama has held an edge of as much as 30 points over McCain in
opinion polls among Hispanic voters in the United States ahead of
November's general election. An estimated 9 million Latinos are
eligible to vote.
Obama, a senator from Illinois, touted his past community work
with Hispanic and other organizations in impoverished Chicago
neighbourhoods, and said that McCain had 'abandoned his courageous
stance' in favour of immigration reform, since launching his
presidential bid.
'We need a president who isn't going to walk away from something
as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically
unpopular,' Obama said, but added that he too would require illegal
immigrants pay fines and learn English if they wished to gain legal
status.
Obama devoted much of his speech to specific problems facing the
Latino community and was interrupted numerous times by applause and
supporters who broke out into the now familiar chant of 'Si se puede'
('Yes we can').
McCain, who spoke a few hours earlier, in contrast focussed on his
economic plan for all Americans and reiterated his support for free-
trade deals a week after travelling to Colombia and Mexico.
'The global economy is here to stay. We cannot build walls to
foreign competition, and we shouldn't want to,' he said.
McCain's remarks drew only tepid applause from the 200 to 300
people gathered in Washington's Hilton hotel, but no protests. Last
week, McCain's speech was interrupted three times by demonstrators at
the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO).
Democratic candidates have traditionally done well among
Hispanics, who make up about 15 per cent of the US population, but
Republicans have closed the gap somewhat in recent years.
The Democrats' 2004 nominee John Kerry won 53 per cent of the
Latino vote compared to 44 per cent for President George W Bush,
according to exit polls.
Former president Bill Clinton had garnered 72 per cent in 1996,
compared to only 21 per cent for Republican challenger Robert Dole.
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