Howard Dean on Immigration

On The Politico (here), Roger Simon talked with Howad Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party.  Here is the portion of the interview touching on immigration:

“We talked about immigration, and I asked if there was a unified Democratic position on it.

“I think there is a much more unified Democratic position than there is a Republican position,” he said.

“The Republicans have decided they don’t want to do anything about immigration because they are scared. “For the short-term purpose of winning in ’06, they ginned up a big anti-immigrant fervor which helped them in a few races, turned Hispanics against them by 12 more points, and now they don’t know how to get out of it.”

Dean said that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored a bipartisan immigration reform bill last year, “is having a hard time putting together a bipartisan bill because the Republicans are running away as fast as they can. And we can’t pass a bill that isn’t bipartisan. Frankly, I think that has a lot to do with presidential politics and a complete lack of presidential leadership.” Dean also said: “The best kind of immigration reform is a much better working relationship with Mexico. We will never solve immigration problems in this country without improving the Mexican economy dramatically.”

KJ