Foes of immigration 'amnesty' mobilizing

• Angry calls during last immigration debate shut down switchboard in Congress
• Opposition slow to build up steam this time
• Bipartisan group of lawmakers support pathway to citizenship

PHOENIX -- As lawmakers get closer to introducing a comprehensive immigration-reform bill, opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship.

The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress.

That prompted supporters to pull the plug on immigration reform in favor of beefing up border security first.

Groups opposed to immigration reform say legalizing illegal immigrants is a form of "amnesty" that rewards people who broke the country's immigration laws and encourages more people to enter illegally or remain unlawfully after their visas have expired.

Once legislation is introduced -- lawmakers anticipate late March or early April -- opponents plan to take advantage of the country's high unemployment rate and conservative discontent with President Barack Obama's policies to fuel a grassroots campaign against the bill that includes phone calls, emails, faxes and online petitions to lawmakers.

"It's just starting to percolate," said Rusty Childress, a former Phoenix auto-dealership owner who has founded several anti-illegal immigration groups, including United for a Sovereign America, American Freedom Riders and Riders USA.

Childress and others who oppose any form of legalization for undocumented immigrants acknowledge that, so far, the issue hasn't generated as much heat as it did in 2006 and 2007, even though Obama has made immigration reform a top priority this year and a bipartisan group of lawmakers is moving fast to get a bill passed as quickly as possible, perhaps this summer.

"I am trying to light a fire here and get the passions burning again, and I know that, in the end, Americans will melt down the phone lines in Washington against amnesty," Childress said. "We are not there yet."

They blame fatigue for sucking some of the life out of the "anti-amnesty" movement. Opponents also say there is a feeling that passage of an immigration-reform bill may now be inevitable given the renewed push by key Republicans to pass immigration reforms to attract increasingly influential Latino voters following the drubbing GOP nominee Mitt Romney received from them in November.

"It is tiring. There may be a sense that people are a little worn out," said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA. The Washington, D.C., group advocates for restrictions on immigration and has organized campaigns in the past urging its members to call, fax or email lawmakers to oppose immigration reform.

"And I think there is a little bit of sense right now that maybe they can't stop it, so why bother," Beck said.

Diminished influence

A sharp drop in illegal immigration since 2007 has slowed some of the momentum behind the "anti-amnesty" movement, Beck said. Since 2006, Border Patrol apprehensions on the southern border with Mexico have dropped 66 percent, from 1.07 million to 356,873 last year.

In the Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona, Border Patrol apprehensions are down 69 percent since 2006, from 393,074 to 120,000.

"In that sense, the conditions don't feel probably as dire or raw," Beck said.

In 2006 and 2007, the last time Congress seriously considered immigration reform, illegal immigration was a major topic on talk radio and conservative hosts played a major role in fanning public opposition.

Now, immigration reform has not gained as much traction on talk radio, said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade industry magazine, which conducts a weekly survey of the most frequently discussed issues on talk-radio stations nationwide.

According to the magazine's weekly survey, immigration was the No. 1 issue on talk radio at the end of January, when a bipartisan group of eight senators, including Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake from Arizona, announced a set of principles for crafting a reform bill.

The "Gang of Eight" plan includes creating a pathway to citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, contingent on making sure the border has been adequately secured.

But since then, immigration has been overshadowed by other issues such as the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, gun-control legislation and rising gas prices. Last week, immigration did not even rank among the top 10 issues, according to the Talkers survey.

"That is not to say that it could not flare up again, and it's not to say that it's not an important issue," Harrison said. "It hasn't fallen off the radar. It's still there."

In February, several angry constituents told McCain during a town-hall meeting in Sun Lakes that they are opposed to his support of immigration reforms that include a pathway to citizenship.

But polls indicate there is strong support among Americans for that type of reform.

A Fox News poll said that 72 percent of registered voters surveyed Feb. 25-27 favored allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country and eventually qualify for citizenship as long as they meet certain requirements such as paying back taxes, learning English and passing a background check.

Democrats favored a pathway to citizenship by 82 percent and Republicans by 63 percent, the poll said.

In recent weeks, immigrant-advocacy groups have been mobilizing to keep pressure on lawmakers to introduce a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship. They have held regional bus tours and rallies and are planning their own campaign to get 1 million supporters to call their representatives in Congress and urge them to support reform.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, doesn't think opposition will be as strong this time because the influence of "anti-amnesty" groups has been diminished by the November election, when Obama swept more than 70 percent of the Latino vote. Romney campaigned on a strident, anti-immigrant message, saying he favored self-deportation and was opposed to letting illegal immigrants gain legal status.

"You'll see strong opposition, but I don't think it will be anywhere near the kind of volume or visibility of 2006 and 2007, in large part because I think Republicans have realized that by branding themselves as anti-Latino, it hasn't been very good for them electorally," Sharry said.

Even if opposition from "anti-amnesty" groups is strong, Republicans are likely to pay less attention than in 2006 and 2007, said Matthew Garcia, a history professor and director of comparative border studies at Arizona State University. "I think there are enough Republicans now who understand they need Latino votes," Garcia said. "And they understand the political calculus, so they are going to have to accept pathways to citizenship."

Contributing factors

High unemployment could help fuel opposition from Americans who are concerned that letting undocumented immigrants gain legal status will hurt the millions of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who are out of work, Beck said.

The U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that as of January, there were 12.3 million unemployed people.

Having a Democrat in the White House could also help fuel opposition, Beck said. The last time Congress considered passing immigration reform, a Republican, George W. Bush, was president. Bush supported comprehensive immigration reform.

Beck said members of his group already have sent more than 1 million faxes to members of Congress since the start of the year. The group also posted a petition on its website opposing a proposal by the bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight to legalize undocumented immigrants "in a time of budget-deficit crisis and high unemployment."

More than 190,551 people have signed the petition, according to the group's website.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C., group also opposed to reforms that include a pathway to citizenship, is urging members to sign a petition on its website telling Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to "reject amnesty."

Rubio, a member of the Gang of Eight, once opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to gain legal status but came out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform after the election.

"Looking back at the experience of 2006 and 2007, the other side did a very good job of turning people out onto the streets," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for FAIR. "The people who were opposed to the legislation, what they were able to do was get their message across in a different way: Calling their members of Congress, going to town-hall meetings. So, I suspect (for opponents), it is going to be much of a repeat of what we saw."