DNC: McCain Backs Criminalization...Again

WASHINGTON, March 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- John McCain's efforts to pander to the far right by betraying the Hispanic community went to a new level this week. While he stood with President Bush accepting the role of presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, John McCain's campaign was approving a harsh and enforcement-only package of legislation for Republicans to introduce in the Senate.

The package of Republican bills was described this week by the LA Times as "the hardest-hitting package of immigration enforcement measures seen yet -- one that would require jail time for illegal immigrants caught crossing the border, make it harder for them to open bank accounts and compel them to communicate in English when dealing with federal agencies." [LA Times, 3/4/08] Yesterday it was reported that "the McCain campaign had signed off on the approach." [washingtontimes.com, 3/6/08] This is not the first time McCain has supported criminalization. According to the AP, McCain "backed a scaled-down proposal that...makes being in the country illegally a criminal misdemeanor" last summer. [AP, 8/2/07]

"John McCain's support for criminalizing immigrants makes it clear that the Republican Party will continue its pattern of using immigrants as scapegoats and immigration as a wedge issue for political gain," said Democratic National Committee Hispanic Caucus Chair Ramona Martinez. "The American people deserve better, they deserve solutions, not political games to please the far right for the benefit of John McCain's presidential campaign."

McCain's colleague in the United States Senate, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) challenged McCain to reject the package earlier this week and sent him a letter calling on McCain to "let this nation's 44 million Latinos know that demonizing them for political purposes will not be tolerated and that the more hateful rhetoric in the immigration debate has no place in our country's civic discourse." Senator McCain has not responded to Senator Menendez.

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Source: Democratic National Committee

CONTACT: Luis Miranda of Democratic National Committee, +1-202-863-8148

Web Site: http://www.democrats.org/

2008-03-07 16:47:42 0307512 PRNEWSWIRE