Immigration at front of 2016 presidential race

PHOENIX — Presidential candidates from both parties are quickly staking out their positions on immigration, which has emerged as a dominant domestic-policy issue on the nascent 2016 campaign trail.

They span the spectrum.

Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrats' clear front-runner, supports a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented residents of the United States and has hinted that she would try to go further to shield millions from deportation than President Obama has with his controversial executive action.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has taken a pro-reform posture that supports a legal status short of citizenship for immigrants who have settled in the country illegally. He also opposes Obama's executive action, the latest round of which came last year after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives refused to take action on immigration reform.

Meanwhile, other leading announced or likely GOP candidates have taken much tougher stands, which may be tactically necessary to gain a foothold in influential early caucus and primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina.

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, for example, has abandoned his past support for comprehensive immigration reform and moved to the right, denouncing "amnesty" and discussing the need to possibly limit legal immigration to protect U.S. workers.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was one of the four Republican negotiators who authored a bipartisan immigration-reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013, but he since has distanced himself from the legislation, which included a pathway to citizenship.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, describes himself as a supporter of legal immigration, but he opposes a pathway to citizenship and "amnesty."

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has backed legislation that would allow "DREAMers," or young undocumented immigrants brought to the country by family members, to attain citizenship. But he has otherwise drawn a hard line by opposing "amnesty" and promising to immediately secure the border.

Likewise, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at times has signaled an openness toward immigration reform, but he voted against the 2013 Senate bill and like other Republicans opposes Obama's executive action and "amnesty" and wants border security first.

"With regard to a pathway to citizenship, I think if someone came here illegally and stayed here illegally, they do not get to earn the privilege of citizenship," Carly Fiorina, Republican White House candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO, said Wednesday after addressing the Republican National Committee meeting in Phoenix.

"They may get to earn legal status at some point, their children may become citizens at some point, but I think we have to be fair-minded about this," she continued. "There are too many people in this country who have worked hard to earn the privilege of citizenship, they have taken the oath, they've studied, and I don't think it's fair to say to them, 'Never mind, we're just going to grant these same privileges to someone who hasn't followed the rules.' "

Immigration has become a key early issue as Republicans have tacked to the right to position themselves for Iowa, whose caucuses give grass-roots conservatives an outsized influence, and other states such as socially conservative South Carolina. These early states are crucial to candidates' political momentum.

Perhaps sensing a political opportunity in the right's anti-illegal-immigration positions — and at the same time shoring up her own left flank against a liberal primary challenge — Clinton has come out earlier and more emphatically in favor of comprehensive immigration reform than many immigration advocates expected.

At a May 5 roundtable in North Las Vegas, Clinton outlined her support for comprehensive immigration reform and her willingness to use executive authority as president if Congress continues to balk at passing bills.

"Make no mistake: Today, not a single Republican candidate, announced or potential, is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship," Clinton said in Nevada. "Not one. When they talk about 'legal status,' that's code for second-class status."

Observers are pessimistic about the chances for passage of immigration-reform legislation even in the early administration of the next president, given that at least the House is expected to remain under Republican control after the 2016 election. But the Republican primary maneuvering on immigration could again complicate the party's chances to win the White House in the general election.

"Where it might seem like this (campaign emphasis on immigration) is sort of setting the stage for some sort of compromise after the next election, I don't see that happening," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science and Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California-Irvine. "Instead, I think the Democrats have realized that they have a distinct advantage with a growing electorate around immigration issues, and Secretary Clinton has sort of seized that opportunity and made it one of her defining issues."

Frank Sharry, executive director of the liberal organization America's Voice, said reform champions were "surprised and pleased" with Clinton's unequivocal pro-reform stance.

"She went beyond calling for comprehensive reform to saying she would go further on executive action," Sharry said. "That's music to our ears because if, as many predict, the House is going to remain in Republican hands, then why would they do anything different than what they've done to date, which is to block reform consistently?"

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes immigration reform, characterized Clinton's position as politically calculated.

"Until she has the nomination, it does make sense," said Krikorian, whose Washington, D.C.-based organization backs more enforcement and overall reductions in immigration. "She needs to make sure that she doesn't face a serious challenge on the left. By doing this, she makes it less likely."

On Thursday, Bush briefly mentioned immigration reform in the context of education and job training during an appearance at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry event in Tempe. After addressing the business-community audience at Four Peaks Brewing Co., he blasted Obama's executive action to reporters.

"I think we should fix our immigration system and make sure that the 'Dream Act' kids ... get legal status," Bush said. "... The president's action, I think, is unconstitutional. I've read that law, and it says prosecutorial discretion, which means case by case. Three to five million people is not case by case. He did this for political motivation to create a wedge issue politically. Now it's time to solve the problem. And solving it requires doing it the legal way through Congress."

Krikorian all but dismissed Bush's chances to win the GOP nomination, saying he "has staked out the most extreme position on the Republican side." Other Republican candidates such as Rubio and Cruz "are different more as a matter of rhetoric than substance than Jeb," he said, adding that contenders will have to demonstrate that they support border security and enforcement first in a believable way.

"The question is: Do you plug the hole in the boat before you start bailing it out?" Krikorian asked.

In Phoenix, Fiorina called for both the northern and southern U.S. borders to be secured.

"This is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government, and it hasn't been done," Fiorina said. "It's not rocket science to secure a border, but it does take money and manpower and, most important of all, political willpower. I think most Americans are in no mood for a boil-the-ocean, comprehensive solution when government has failed to execute its most basic responsibility."

Others are not ready to write off the more moderate Bush's chances in the GOP race.

"Latino voters are going to be a critical factor in at least five swing states: Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Virginia," Sharry of America's Voice said. "Obviously, Jeb Bush is trying to maintain a center-right position on immigration reform in order to remain competitive in the general election. The question is will Republican primary voters reward him or punish him?"

DeSipio of UC-Irvine said Bush, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy, may be well-financed enough as the establishment GOP favorite to withstand turbulence in the early states on the Republican calendar.

"If he can survive coming in second in a couple of those early primaries and caucuses, then he gets into a stretch where he'll do really well," DeSipio said of Bush. "And he'll have the money, it would appear, where he could survive a period where there's a lot of coverage saying he's out of the race. He could easily hold on and make a comeback, particularly if there is no clear front-runner among the others."