Immigration issue alive -- but only in Spanish

WASHINGTON — Immigration has emerged as an issue in the presidential election — but only in Spanish.

In dueling ads airing in Florida and other swing states with large number of Latino voters, the campaigns of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and GOP rival John McCain are casting each other in an anti-immigrant light.

Meanwhile, spokespersons for both candidates on Wednesday denounced their opponent's ads as false, misleading and "desperate."

McCain's ad, the first to appear, accused Obama of trying to block a major bill supported by the Arizona senator last year that would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

It says Obama supported "poison pill" amendments "that made immigration reform fail" and that the Illinois senator is "ready to block immigration reform."

The ad refers to amendments to the bill which some considered "poison pills" while others said were intended to improve the fragile compromise measure.

One of the amendments, pushed by labor unions, would have sunset a proposed guest worker program at five years.

In any case, the overall immigration bill was largely derailed by a lack of Republican support after a conservative rebellion, including thousands of phone calls that overwhelmed the congressional phone system, causing it to malfunction. In the final vote that ultimately killed the bill, only 12 Republicans voted to move it forward.

Hessy Fernandez, McCain's spokesperson for Hispanic media, said that Obama "voted for those poison pills because he wanted to please the unions. Barack Obama says one thing and does another."

Obama's campaign called McCain's ad "untruthful," and former Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, a campaign co-chair, said, "It is very unfortunate to see Senator McCain engage in desperate and misleading ads."

Obama on Wednesday released his own Spanish-language radio and TV spots that tie McCain to talk show host Rush Limbaugh and immigration hard-liners in his party.

It says that McCain and "his Republican friends" have "two faces" when it comes to Latinos. The ad shows a picture of Limbaugh above the words, "Mexicans — stupid and unqualified." A narrator says that McCain wants Latinos to forget "the insults" and "the intolerance" from Republicans.

Fernandez said the ad was "hypocritical and desperate" and that McCain never used that kind of rhetoric himself.

"Senator McCain took a lot of heat, at great political risk, for this issue" of immigration reform, she added.

The Obama ads will air in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, four swing states where the candidates are fighting hard for Latino votes.

Nationwide, Obama is leading McCain handily with Hispanic voters, according to various polls. A Gallup Poll conducted the first week of September showed that 60 percent of registered Hispanic voters preferred Obama, while 31 percent preferred McCain.

McCain's immigration measure was seen by many as a courageous stance against the right wing of the Republican Party, which viewed the measure as an amnesty for lawbreakers.

McCain has also separated himself from hard-liners on the issue, saying repeatedly that illegal immigrants are "God's children" and should be treated with compassion. A video released by the campaign this month features McCain saying that "all immigrants are symbols of hope" and that as president, immigration reform will be a priority.

However, McCain has also backed away from his immigration bill during the campaign, saying that the border must be secure before any legalization efforts move forward.

Obama has said repeatedly he supports giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.