Immigration debate roils campaign for New Mexico governor
SANTA FE - The campaign for New Mexico governor is playing out on Capitol Hill and at holding facilities for immigrant children on the Mexico border, as two competing candidates engaged in the national immigration debate as members of Congress.
Gubernatorial candidate and Republican Rep. Steve Pearce voted Thursday for a failed bill that would have curbed legal immigration and bolstered border security.
His rival in the governor race, Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill with a new pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” who arrived in the country illegally as children.
Immigration policy has been pushed to the forefront of political discourse in the border state of New Mexico, as Pearce and Lujan Grisham compete to replace two-term Republican Gov. Susana Martinez — a hard-liner on immigration enforcement who recently sent National Guard troops to the border to bolster security.
More:Martinez supports family separation policy
New Mexico’s Democratic mayors, state legislators and U.S. senators descended on the border in Texas this week to raise humanitarian concerns about the treatment of immigrant families, as President Trump reversed course on separating immigrant children from parents caught illegally entering the United States.
Crisscrossing the country, Lujan Grisham expressed her dismay over Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossers during her visit this week to the California border with Mexico. She plans to join a rally on Sunday at a holding facility for immigrant children outside El Paso where 250 teenage boys mostly from Central America are being held.
“We’re doing everything we can to stop the president and Homeland Security from continuing to enact pain using the terminology for zero tolerance for anybody breaking the law,” Lujan Grisham said in California.
More:Trump's order draws mixed reaction from Las Cruces and New Mexico politicians
The congresswoman from Albuquerque also has attempted to force a vote on a bill to grant legal status to Dreamers using an obscure House rule.
Seeking the upper hand in the gubernatorial campaign, Pearce accused Lujan Grisham of obstruction on immigration reform and cast himself as a proponent of compromise.
More:Pearce weighs in on family separation policy
He acknowledged that immigration negotiations in Congress are focused on disagreements between Republicans.
“The back and forth has been between the differing viewpoints in the Republican Party,” he said. “It should be across-the-board.”
Trump on Friday told his fellow Republicans in Congress to “stop wasting their time” on immigration legislation until after the November elections. That could further delay a vote on compromise legislation from Republicans.
Victor Reyes, a campaign spokesman for Lujan Grisham, said Pearce’s vote on Thursday placed him firmly in the camp of hard-liners on border security and sought new limitations on citizenship eligibility for immigrants who arrived illegally as children.