Immigration a Big Issue to NH, Iowa GOP
By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press
December 17, 2007
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — At opposite sides of New Hampshire, John McCain faced two corporate audiences in two college towns earlier this month. Only one topic came up in both places when he starting taking questions: illegal immigration.
The Republican presidential hopeful gets so many questions — sometimes hostile — about immigration at his town hall meetings that he quips, ”This meeting is adjourned,” before explaining his position at length. It was the first question asked when he visited the spacious headquarters of C&S Wholesale Grocers, a multibillion-dollar grocery supplier in Keene. A day earlier, an employee at a gleaming printing press manufacturer in Durham appeared skeptical after hearing him explain his stance, which prompted McCain to give her a chance to respond.
”I just think it’s not fair to all the people who came here legally and went through the process and now all the illegals, you’re just gonna give ‘em citizenship?” she said. ”That’s not fair.”
In a recent Associated Press-Pew Research Center poll, 17 percent of likely Republican voters in the New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary named illegal immigration as the one issue they want to hear candidates talk about, making it second only to Iraq. In Iowa, where caucuses kick of the presidential nominating season, immigration was the leading issue for 18 percent of Republicans, ahead of Iraq. Click here for complete article
