Scott Brown has released a new TV ad hitting New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen for backing amnesty and opposing a border fence.
It is his second effort to capitalize on the public’s fast-growing worry about out-of-control illegal immigration.
“Want to know why there is lawlessness on our border? Ask Sen. Shaheen. She voted against border security twice, and for amnesty,” Brown says in the ad.
“It is time for us to secure the border and enforce the law,” Brown says.
Other GOP senatorial candidates in Arkansas, Michigan and Iowa are lining up with public sentiment. In Congress, Sen. Jeff Sessions is pushing the GOP leaders to make the midterm election into a referendum on President Barack Obama’s immigration policies.
But the ad’s fine print show that Brown is hedging in his opposition to immigration.
He slams Shaheen for opposing the construction of a border fence, and for endorsing an amnesty for younger immigrants, and he cites current “lawlessness” likely referring to President Barack Obama’s decision to allow at least 100,000 Central Americans to cross the border and file for residency.
But Brown doesn’t slam Shaheen for her vote in support of the Senate’s 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill.
That ambitious bill would have doubled the annual inflow of migrants and guest workers up to four million per year. That’s roughly equal to the number of Americans who turn 18 each year.
But the Senate immigration bill is very popular with donors in business and Wall Street, because it would provide them with more cheap labor and higher profits.
A poll released Thursday by Reuters and Ipsos shows that 82 percent of Americans in New England believe that legal immigration should be reduced or kept level.
Only 17 percent believe it should be increased, said the poll.
The public’s increased skepticism toward immigration was also shown when 53 percent of New Englanders told Reuters that say “immigrants threaten traditional American beliefs and customs.”
Only 47 percent of New Englanders say immigrants “strengthen American society.”
The Reuters poll is similar to a July AP poll, which showed that President Barack Obama’s immigration policies have strong backing from only 18 percent of voters, and strong opposition from 57 percent of voters.