"Obama And McCain Playing Politics With Immigration?"

When it comes to immigration, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agree. It's just that they don't want to say so.

Instead, the White House rivals accuse one another of flinching when it mattered most, during and after last year's Senate debate on a bill that would have given millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

McCain "was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it," Obama said Saturday in an appearance before The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. "But when he was running for his party's nomination, he walked away from that commitment and he's said he wouldn't even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote."

McCain had spoken earlier in the day to the same group, and his campaign swiftly countered his rival's charge. "Obama put politics first and supported 'poison pill' efforts to kill the immigration reform compromise last year," it said in a written rebuttal.

Based on McCain's words and Obama's voting record, there is a measure of truth in what both sides say, even though the two men supported the bill with provisions to secure borders, crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, expand guest worker programs and provide a path to citizenship for millions in the country illegally.

McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., were leading advocates of the measure, which died in the Senate amid criticism that it offered amnesty to illegal immigrants.

It was a claim that contributed to the near collapse of McCain's presidential candidacy last summer, as he frequently acknowledged. Over and over, the Arizona senator told campaign audiences he had gotten the message, and border security would henceforth come first.

On Saturday, addressing a group of influential Latino officials with the presidential nomination in hand, there was no explicit mention of a path to legal status for those in the country illegally. Yet he sounded resolute wanting to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

"It will be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow," he said. "We have to secure our borders ... but we also must proceed with a temporary worker program that is verifiable and truly temporary. We must also understand that 12 million people are here, and they are here illegally, and they are God's children," he said.

Nor does his campaign Web Site offer much guidance.

"John McCain has always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure," says the beginning of a section on immigration.

It also stresses the importance of "assimilation of our immigrant population, which includes learning English, American history and civics, and respecting the values of a democratic society."

The closest it comes to addressing the thorny issue of citizenship for illegal immigrants is when it stresses the importance of making sure that "America will always be that 'shining city upon a hill,' a beacon of hope and opportunity for those seeking a better life built on hard work and optimism."

In his remarks to NALEO on Saturday, Obama said he supports "reform that finally brings the 12 million people who are here illegally out of the shadows by requiring them to take steps to become legal citizens."

His campaign Web Site — clearer than McCain's on the issue — says Obama supports a system that "allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens."

E Pluribus Unum included in the Great Seal of the United States, being one of the nation's mottos at the time of the seal's creation

E pluribus unum is a motto found on the Great Seal of the United States, along with Annuit Cœptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782.

While Annuit Coeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum appear on the reverse side of the great seal, E pluribus unum appears on the obverse side of the seal, the image of which is used as the national emblem of the United States, and appears on official documents such as passports. It also appears on the seal of the President and in the seals of the Vice President of the United States, of the United States Congress, of the United States House of Representatives, of the United States Senate and on the seal of the United States Supreme Court.

"E Pluribus Unum" is Latin for "Out of Many, One." Never codified by law, it was considered a de facto motto of the United States until 1956 when the United States Congress passed an act (H.J. Resolution 396), adopting In God We Trust as the official motto. Seth Read of Uxbridge, Massachusetts was said to have been "instrumental" in the addition of "E Pluribus Unum" to U.S. Coins. The first coins with this mint appeared as early as 1786 at Newburgh, New York.

"E PLURIBUS UNUM", in capital letter spelling, is included on most U.S. currency, with some exceptions to the letter spacing (e.g. the U.S. dime reverse side)(On top of the eagles head on the quarter). It is also embossed on the edge of the new 1 dollar coin. (See United States coinage and paper bills in circulation).

Originally suggesting that out of many colonies or states emerge a single nation, it has come to suggest in contemporary times that out of many peoples, races, and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation – illustrating the concept of the melting pot.

    The Hispanic vote will be very important in several key states in the general election this fall. Though the immigration reform policies of both Barack Obama and John McCain are very similar they are both "playing politics" in painting themselves as the true champion of  immigration reform that placates the millions of illegal Hispanic immigrants in America today. If I were an illegal Hispanic immigrant I would put my confidence in Barack Obama because John McCain has seriously "flip flopped" from his former position of immigration reform, in his attempts now to court the conservative Republican vote. My hope is that whoever the next President is, be it Obama or McCain, will remember the Great Seal motto, "E Pluribus Unum", "out of many, one". The Founding Fathers wanted whoever immigrated to this land to assimilate into this land. America is a "melting pot" not a multicultural hodgepodge. Real immigration reform will enable illegal Hispanic immigrants to assimilate in to America or vacate from America, as I see it. (Please read a previous relevant post, "United States Of America Or Mexico?")

tags: barack obama  john mccain  politics  immigration reform  president  us  takebackamerica  2008  obama  mccain  

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