Last issue’s Immigration Across the Nation commented on the Senate’s new pro-immigration bent. But one Republican Senator still hanging in the electoral balance is being criticized for that very reason. Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss is in a tight runoff with Democratic challenger Jim Martin following a November 4th election that was too close to call.
The Democrats hold 58 seats in the Senate; they are unlikely to win another undecided in Minnesota but there is a big difference between 58 and 59, given the two Democrat-leaning Independents in the Senate. This makes Georgia an all-important race for the Democratic party, for Barack Obama, and for the world. A filibuster-proof Senate will make Obama’s policies essentially unstoppable in the legislature, for good or ill.
On one level, Chambliss is a traditional Republican – anti-gun control, anti-abortion, pro-state’s rights, and a strict economist who opposes the automaker’s bailout and is skeptical about Obama’s proposed economic package. But there is more than that to Chambliss, and that makes this race important for immigration issues on another level. Chambliss favored an Immigration Compromise Package which would have loosened the state’s stance on undocumented immigrants. He also favored the McCain/Kennedy reform bill. This made him unpopular with strict anti-immigration Republicans both in Georgia and on Capitol Hill.
His opponent, Jim Martin, has been very quiet on immigration issues, as has the Democrat establishment, but he is known to want a precedent on strict border security before anything else is done, echoing Barack Obama’s statements during the summer, as well as calling for payment of back taxes and fines for undocumented immigrants residing in the state. How this will be implemented remains to be seen – it seems, no matter what, more enforcement will be required, and it’s not clear how that will go with Napolitano (see below) and a potentially pro-immigrant Senate.
How the results of this race will effect immigrant issues is unknown, but it is a clear example where politicians’ silence on immigration issues can be as important – and as worrying – as their rhetoric.