DIANA MARRERO
 

WASHINGTON -- Millions of Hispanics are expected to vote in Tuesday's critical midterm election, but their decisions won't be based solely on the immigration debate that dominated much of the political arena this year.

Like other Americans, they will also be thinking about the Iraq war, the economy, education and health care as they cast their ballots.

As the nation's largest minority group, Hispanic voters could play a decisive role in many congressional races in the battle for control of Congress. To get their attention, Hispanic voters say, candidates need to talk to them about more than just immigration.

Tahis Castro, an activist and union worker from Reno, has already voted, taking advantage of Nevada's early voting process.

By Odette Alcazaren-Keeley,

SAN FRANCISCO—Many ethnic voters will troop to the polling booths on Tuesday with one thing in mind: immigration. And there are indications from ethnic journalists that their communities are leaning toward the Democratic ticket to get the kind of comprehensive immigration reform law they want. Some fear that the issue will get swept under the rug until the new Congress starts in January.

Alberto Vourvoulias, executive editor of El Diario/La Prensa, the country’s oldest Spanish-language newspaper, says immigration is the core issue driving voters in New Jersey to vote for incumbent Democrat Senator Bob Menendez. Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been “pro-immigrant, supporting comprehensive immigration reform and voting against the construction of the 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border,” Vourvoulias explains.

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s vote in favor of that border wall is why his readers are unhappy with her, according to Vourvoulias. Protests led by immigrant rights groups criticized Clinton’s vote for the wall. Despite this, El Diario/La Prensa is endorsing Clinton, although, Vourvoulias says, “We do have a caveat for her, and that is we urge her to support immigrants, whether undocumented or not, and we are also very worried about her position on the Iraq war.”

The newspaper is supporting both New York Democratic candidates Clinton and gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer, based on what Vourvoulias calls “the small party-line basis.” The paper, Vourvoulias explains, is supporting candidates based on issues that are closest to the hearts of Latinos. “It’s an innovative approach, it’s the first time it’s been done in New York, and we’re the only publication to have done it,” Vourvoulias says. The paper wants Spitzer to be aware of the importance of affordable housing, to support fairer health care for the poor and to stand up for immigrants.

In 1986, the US government offered amnesty - legal status - to 3 million illegal immigrants. Here are seven of their stories.

By Luis Andres Henao | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Twenty years ago Monday, Congress passed the largest effort to date to curb undocumented immigration to this country. Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), employers were sanctioned for the first time for hiring undocumented workers. The bill also called for tighter controls along the Mexican border. But the bill was a compromise: Enforcement was balanced by an amnesty provision.

Under IRCA, undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States prior to 1982 and those who had worked as seasonal agricultural workers before May 1986 could seek legal status and eventually US citizenship.

Nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants were granted legal residence under the amnesty. Most of them were Mexican (more than 80 percent) and lived in the Los Angeles area. Salvadorans, Filipinos, Haitians, Poles, and Vietnamese also benefited from the program.

But two decades later, illegal immigration is still a hot-button issue and amnesty is a dirty word to some. Private-citizen minutemen and National Guardsmen have rushed to the Mexican border. This spring, millions of undocumented immigrants and others marched in the streets of US cities to protest federal legislation that would criminalize illegal immigrants.

Will someone please explain to me in simple words how a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives or the Tennessee Senate or the governor can prevent illegal immigration as some candidates for these offices are advertising?

If I'm not mistaken stopping illegal immigration would be up to our U.S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate and the President since this involves the nation's borders. We all should know that these federal elected officials have let Americans down during these past 20 or 30 years by turning their backs to our porous border to the south.