Border Politics on the Campaign Trail

TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 21, 2006 — -- When ABC News came to Arizona's 8th Congressional district, the first thing Republican candidate Randy Graf wanted to do was show us where the bodies were kept.

A conservative who wants every illegal immigrant in the United States to return to where they came from, Graf took us to Pima County Medical Examiner's Office in Tucson to show us some of the hidden costs of the problem of illegal immigration.

"This is a refrigerated trailer that they had to bring in," Graf said. "We don't have enough room or facility for all the illegal aliens found in the desert out here."

The morgue has a capacity for 120 bodies, but has been forced to use the refrigerated tractor trailer Graf showed us to store bodies because of a record-breaking intake of corpses due to the 200 or so dead illegal immigrants found in Arizona's southern desert each year.

Depending upon the condition of the corpse, the trailer can hold between 60 and 70 bodies.

As in other states and congressional districts across the country, Graf has seized upon an issue -- being tough on illegal immigration -- that Republicans think will be a winner for them. This is especially true in Arizona's 8th district -- one of the 10 congressional districts sharing a border with Mexico.

Tracking a Van of Illegal Immigrants

As Graf offered ABC News a look at the morgue, a hospital official asked us to leave, and tried to stop our cameras from filming.

"This whole issue is a sensitive issue to many folks," Graf said as we walked back to the cars.

It is sensitive, and it is everywhere in this border state.

We then drove 110 miles south of Tucson to the Arizona-Mexico border. We had to interrupt an interview as U.S. border patrol agents drove by, tracking a van on the other side of the border that they suspected was full of potential illegal immigrants -- Mexicans looking to cross the border illegally.

The van stopped in some bushes and seemed to have let the potential illegal immigrants out of the vehicle.

"It looks like they probably unloaded the folks that were in that van over there," Graf said. "They will most likely just park over there and stay over there until the opportunity comes for them to cross the fence."

Soon enough the border patrol drove away.

These scenarios are becoming a big focus on the campaign trail, and it's not just in border states. All over the country candidates are focusing on the issue.

"Some enter our country with … sinister intentions," embattled Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., says in one TV ad. "That's why I fought so hard to add thousands of new guards, to beef up our borders and for critical high-tech surveillance."

Bob Corker, a GOP Senate candidate in Tennessee, also declares his immigration reform plan in a TV ad, saying "First, secure this border. Allow people to work here but only if they're legal. And no amnesty. Those employed but here illegally must go home and return through legal channels. And those who want to become citizens must learn the English language. "

And it's not just Republicans. In Nebraska, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson begins another TV ad saying that "Drug dealers, gang members and half a million illegal immigrants sneaked into America last year, compromising our national security and costing us jobs."

Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Harold Ford Jr. said in a radio ad: "Every day over 5,700 miles of border stands unsecured. It must stop."

'They Want Illegal Immigration Stopped'

But in Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas the issue has extra resonance.

"The ranchers having their fences cut, water lines being cut, stock tanks being drained, you know vandalism on their property, fear for their family's safety," Graf said. "For the folks that live down here, they deal with this every day. They want illegal immigration stopped."

But Graf also illustrates how divisive this issue is, even just among Republicans.

The immigration reform bill offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and supported by President Bush offers a path to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States.

It was introduced in the House by the Republican Graf seeks to succeed -- retiring moderate Jim Kolbe.

"You have to deal with the tough issue, which is what do you [do] about the 10-11-12 million people who are in this country illegally now," Kolbe said.

Graf said the bill constitutes "amnesty" and rewards law breakers, while he wants all illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin.

"Nearly one-third of the prison population in the state of Arizona is illegal immigrants," Graf said. "I don't think we need to import a criminal element like that simply because we have failed to secure this border.

Such views give Graf's Democratic opponent, state senator Gabrielle Giffords, an opening to paint his positions as "outside of the norm." Giffords is trying to position herself as the centrist in this swing district -- supporting the Bush/McCain/Kolbe immigration reform plan and emphasizing border enforcement.

"We need modern era technology, not this Vietnam (War) era technology that we currently have," she said. "We also need to get tough on employers who are illegally hiring people."

This stance has not endeared her to local Latino groups, though she benefits from her opponent's position.

"Gifford is playing on the immigration politics like everyone else does. But I feel that her view is not as punitive as the other candidate," said Hector Yturralde, acting president of "We Are America," an immigrants' rights group.

But it isn't just democrats and Latino groups painting Graf as extreme, the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington worked to defeat Graf in the primary and even after he won, Kolbe refused to endorse him.

"With the differences that we've had on all of these issues, to endorse him at this point would look, I think, very strange," Kolbe said. "Wouldn't be true to my principles."

Graf does enjoy the support of local Minutemen, the controversial citizens' group who've taken it upon themselves to patrol the border.

"Anytime anybody comes up with a program or an idea that seems to address this issue of illegals and reducing them they get a lot of support … and right now we know that the Minutemen are very supported in Arizona," said Bruce Merrill of Arizona State University.

"Illegal immigration is in the top topics in the upcoming elections in November," said David Heppler of the Arizona Border Watch.

It's an issue the Minutemen are taking seriously, for the threats these immigrants could pose to U.S. security.

"We just saw a black van that was loaded with aspiring illegal aliens … pull up and unload and so now they are hiding in the bushes," said Richard Humphries of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. "We don't know who they are we don't know what they want to come across for we don't know what they're carrying with them … and yet the chances of them getting across once night falls is pretty good & #0133; that's scary."

When asked if they are just poor people looking for work Humphries said they probably are but, "We don't know that."

Many Latinos regard the Minutemen as racist, including Yturralde.

"If you look at the KKK history, they persecuted a group of people because of their origin. They persecuted a group of people because they were different from everyone else. The Minutemen are doing the same thing," he said.

"The U.S. border patrol is here to stop illegal immigration and that's all the Minutemen want to do," Humphries said. "Very few people view the U.S. border patrol as racist or xenophobic. And there's no difference between the Minutemen and the border patrol. It's ridiculous."

One of the ways the Minutemen are trying to do that is by hiring ranch hand Ben Grantham to erect a fence at the border, where he has seen a lot of illegal aliens cross. But not everything at the border is as it might at first seem.

"You've got one of the most powerful countries in the world next to something bordering on a third world country, you know, you see what's holding it all back. And that's the big problem," Grantham said. "The more barriers you have, it's going to channel people into certain places, I mean, that's going to raise the chance of catching people or like slowing it down. But it's still (just) a fence for a pretty complex problem."