Politico
By Jonathan Topaz
June 3, 2015
Martin
O’Malley, struggling to emerge from the long shadow of Democratic
front-runner Hillary Clinton, is betting on immigration as a break-out
issue that can win him
a strong share of the Latino vote.
He’s
casting Clinton as a late-to-the-party figure on immigration reform,
and he’s likely got an edge on Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is enjoying a
surge of attention in the
presidential race but is not prioritizing immigration in his campaign.
“It’s
central to our nation’s character and central to our nation’s economy …
For me, it’s a pretty essential part of what it’s going to take to get
things going in the
right direction,” O’Malley said in a phone interview with POLITICO
Wednesday, ahead of a Q&A with Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
president Javier Palomarez.
And
after Hillary staked out an aggressive, and relatively new, stance on
the issue last month, O’Malley delivered his own promise during the
event: he would pursue immigration
reform in his first 100 days in office and would use executive action,
if needed.
In
the interview earlier in the day, O’Malley said his record speaks for
itself and also says something about Clinton. He argued his leadership
on immigration while he
was Maryland governor was an example of challenging Washington
orthodoxy — particularly in his fight against the White House and
Clinton when he spoke out last summer against the fast-track deportation
of the flood of Central American unaccompanied minors
across the border.
In
many ways, he placed the issue as central in the larger narratives of
his campaign — a generational contrast with Clinton and his
gubernatorial record. While he declined
to challenge Clinton or Sanders directly — he never used their names —
O’Malley alluded to politicians who failed to speak up and declined to
buck the party, apparent references to Clinton.
“When
nobody else would speak up about the deplorable treatment of the
Central American refugee kids coming to our country for sanctuary, I
stood up and spoke very directly,”
he said.
While
Clinton impressed – and genuinely surprised – immigration activists
with her Nevada speech last month in which she called for a pathway to
citizenship and for more
robust executive action on immigration, O’Malley is arguing that he’s
had their backs all along.
Not
all activists are convinced, though, that O’Malley will get a
significant advantage over Clinton with Latino voters by portraying her
as a latecomer.
Ali
Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, says
there’s little distinction between the three candidates on immigration.
He argued that Clinton
pushed Obama to the left on immigration during their 2008 campaign,
noting in particular a famous moment on the trail in Nevada in which
Clinton, meeting with immigrant families, said: “No woman is illegal.”
“If
Latino voters in the Democratic Party were to look over the timeline of
Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the Latino community, those roots
are pretty deep,” Noorani
argued. “I guess O’Malley is trying to chip away at those roots and
find a lane.”
O’Malley’s
doing a good deal of Hispanic outreach early in his campaign. Since his
announcement last Saturday in Baltimore, the former governor conducted
one of his first
interviews with Univision and his appearance with the Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce Wednesday was one of his first public engagements as a
candidate. He has also hired Gabriela Domenzain, a sought-after
operative and former director of Hispanic media for President
Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.
O’Malley’s
also pointing to his tenure as Maryland governor from 2007 through
early 2015, during which Maryland passed the DREAM Act, which granted
in-state tuition to
undocumented immigrants, as well as a law to provide driver’s licenses
to undocumented immigrants. His team also touts a big increase in
contracts for Hispanic small businesses in Maryland.
In
the afternoon Q&A on Wednesday, O’Malley pledged to scale down
deportations and take more executive actions. When asked about foreign
policy, he immediately began speaking
about outreach to Latin America and the border crisis this summer.
“You
definitely see a day-and-night contrast with Gov. O’Malley and
Secretary Clinton … Hillary Clinton has a dismal record on the issue,”
said Cesar Vargas, co-director
of the DREAM Action Coalition. “It’s nice the Hillary is actually
saying great words, but we’re not going to fall for it.”
Added
Clarissa Martinez, deputy vice president at National Council of La
Raza: “In O’Malley’s case, his immigration record is not something that
has taken shape as a result
of his wanting to run for president … O’Malley has a stronger position
among the Democrats. Because it’s not just words. It’s deeds.”
And
O’Malley is proudly pointing to that high-profile and heated
back-and-forth last summer with the White House and its connection to
Clinton. While Clinton backed the
Obama administration’s push to fast-track the deportation process, in
order to try to stem the tide of unaccompanied Central American children
along the U.S.-Mexico border, O’Malley pushed back.
“It
is contrary to everything we stand for to try to summarily send
children back to death,” he said at the time, a statement that prompted a
phone call from White House
Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz and further criticism from the
administration.
Some
activists still bristle at Clinton’s backing of the White House. And
there are still wounds from the 2008 primary season in which Clinton
famously was vague on several
occasions about whether she supported driver’s licenses for
undocumented immigrants.
Clinton’s
campaign in April said she supports the policy, which quickly prompted a
sharp retort from O’Malley — “I’m glad Secretary Clinton’s come around
to the right
positions on these issues.”
Asked
during the interview on Wednesday whether Clinton has been late on
immigration issues, O’Malley took a long pause. “I’ve never hesitated on
these issues, even when
some would say that it was politically risky,” he said.
Sanders, meanwhile, hasn’t been emphasizing immigration.
While
immigration was featured prominently in O’Malley’s announcement address
last weekend, with a DREAM-er originally born in Panama as one of the
opening speakers, Sanders
was introduced by labor leaders, affordable housing advocates and
campaign finance activists.
He
didn’t mention immigration in his speech, which had fourteen different
policy sections and lasted about a half hour. The senator rarely talks
about it on the stump;
at a recent town hall in D.C., he said that while immigration was an
important issue, it wasn’t as central as the other issues he discusses
far more.
“If
people are going to get to know him, they need to get to know him on
the basis on what he believes are the biggest issues facing our
country,” said top Sanders adviser
Tad Devine — meaning campaign finance reform, income inequality and
climate change. He noted also that Vermont has a relatively small
immigrant population.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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