Illegal Immigration

Florida to propose Arizona-style immigration enforcement law

“The proposal will almost certainly pass in some form, and that means Obama will have to decide whether to repeat his offensive against Arizona with Floridians as the target. Arizona meant little to Obama in terms of his re-election effort; its small number of Electoral College votes will almost certainly go to the GOP in any case. However, Florida is a much bigger problem. Obama won the state in 2008 on his way to a comfortable EC win over John McCain, but key states in that victory have shifted Republican since, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. At this point, Obama can hardly afford to lose Florida, but he cannot attack Arizona while leaving Florida off the hook, either. Obama could try keeping his own mouth shut and letting Eric Holder pursue a case against Florida, but after his PR blitz this year on the Arizona law, no one’s going to buy a hands-off illusion now. If the DoJ continues to sue states while the White House pushes back against a border-security-first approach, Obama will lose what flagging support he still has in a critical state just in time for the presidential election.”

There will be similar immigration “wedge” issues in other southern and midwestern states just in time for the 2012 Presidential elections.

tags: illegal_immigration Barack_Obama Florida

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