Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is in the toughest reelection battle of his long legislative career. To that end, Reid recently elevated immigration reform to a priority issue in the Senate, much to the chagrin of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the only Republican who had agreed to co-sponsor of a different Senate approach to climate change legislation pushed by two other senators, John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
In a recent letter to Senate leaders, Graham called Reid's sudden shift in emphasis toward immigration reform and away from climate legislation "a cynical political ploy." Reid, who determines the Senate's legislative schedule, denied he had pushed a climate bill aside in favor of immigration reform, saying "energy could be next if it's ready."
But Hispanic voters will be critical in the midterm elections, following Obama's success in 2008 in getting 68 percent to vote for him. And the Hispanic vote also is important in Nevada and growing in importance in this and other states, a fact not lost on Democratic leaders, including Reid.
The importance of the Hispanic voter is key in Nevada . Since 2000, the number of Hispanic voters registered in Nevada has grown faster than the Hispanic population in the state, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. About 60 percent of Hispanic voters in Nevada are registered Democrats, with 19 percent Republicans and 21 percent nonpartisan or third party. That is slightly more Democratic than the national average for Hispanics, which is about 55 percent Democrats and 25 percent Republicans.
Hispanics make up about 12 percent of the Nevada electorate, compared with 9 percent of eligible voters nationally. They are about a quarter of the state's population, according to the U.S. Census, but a large proportion are ineligible to vote because they are not citizens or are under 18.
Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), once a supporter of a comprehensive overhaul that would include a path to legal citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, now is continuing to promote a plan focusing on enhanced border security. "If you don't like the bill the governor passed in Arizona , then carry out the responsibility which we have to secure the border," he said on the Senate floor.
The measure that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed into law April 23 makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and allows local police to detain individuals who they suspect are in the country illegally. President Obama described the law as "misguided" and said it underscored the need for an overhaul of federal immigration laws. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the Justice Department was looking into whether the measure violates federal civil rights laws.
