Candidates Skirt Immigration Issue

The gap between the two issues underlines a central fact of the state's politics: Immigration and its consequences remain topics of intense debate, but the ground has moved.

The shift illustrates how sweeping demographic changes have altered the state and its politics: immigrants, mostly Latino and Asian, now comprise more than a quarter of California's population, the highest proportion in the nation and up substantially from a decade earlier.

Latinos and Asians differ about the proper mix of policies toward immigration -- both legal and illegal. But the increased number of immigrants in the population, and even more so the increased number who have registered to vote, has had a strong impact on the state's political figures.

"Politicians of both parties are terrified of this issue for fear of alienating the Latino community," said Kevin Spillane, a Republican political consultant in Sacramento. "It's not politically correct to talk about illegal immigration."

Those who advocate more restrictive policies say the majority continues to support their side of the debate -- a contention backed by at least some polling data -- but they concede that politicians of both parties now consider the issue a loser.

"What has changed is that both political parties have decided that they simply will not discuss the issue and will go along with extending all kinds of benefits to illegal aliens, despite the fact that the state has no money," said Ira Mehlman, Los Angeles spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Indeed, while Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he opposes the bill to give driver's licenses to some 2 million illegal immigrants, which Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Friday, the Republican candidate has not emphasized the issue. Instead, he plays up his immigrant background.

His reticence stands in sharp contrast to the actions of former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who in 1994 made support for Proposition 187 -- the measure to cut off most public services to illegal immigrants -- a major focus of his campaign for reelection.