Salvador Montes holding his citizenship certificate. Photo by Sandra Montes.

Salvador Montes holding his citizenship certificate. Photo by Sandra Montes.

ALBUQUERQUE — As the 2008 election cycle began to pick up steam earlier in the year, one of the questions on many minds was the impact of the contentious immigration debates of 2005 and 2006 on the outcome.

Would immigration reform be a major issue in 2008? And would the Latino population swing back to the Democrats from the shift they had made in 2004 toward George Bush, when he got 40 percent of the Latino vote nationally, and about 37 percent in New Mexico?

The impact of the immigration debate in this country, with a shift toward stronger enforcement of immigration laws, the construction of a border fence, and mass raids and deportations of immigrants over the past couple of years, can be seen in the personal stories of immigrants such as Pajarito Mesa’s Salvador Montes, who became a citizen and will vote for the first time this year.

Montes first came to the United States in 1972. Originally from the home of Pancho Villa — Parral, Chihuahua — Montes was a trained welder by the time he was 13, working in the mines in Mexico. But it was very difficult to make enough money to support his family, so he came to New Mexico off and on to work until making it permanent in 1985 when he got his green card.

Montes tells of a pretty harrowing story that occurred before he got his green card. He and his two nephews were hired one Friday to thin pinon trees in a forest for $8 an hour. They went with the contractor who hired them to the site, and were subsequently locked into a room until the following Monday with just a pot of beans and a few potatoes to tide them over. On Monday morning they were informed the pay would be $3.50 an hour, by a man with rifles in his truck.

“It was hard work that we did for four hours, not knowing how to get out of the situation,” he told the Independent. “We were miles from the highway and we noticed they had rifles in their truck. Finally we decided we had to just insist that they take us to the highway, regardless of the rifles. We got on either side of the truck so they couldn’t get to them, and argued with them to take us to the highway, any highway would do. Finally they agreed, and we felt pretty lucky.”

And from the moment he got his green card, Montes said, he’s felt much more secure in New Mexico. He’s never been stopped or harassed by authorities, and crossing the border to visit family has been easy.

That sense of security, though, has changed in recent years.

“Now, even those with green cards are being deported, for any little thing. It seems that the green card provides less protection — you’re not as valid anymore in terms of being here,” he said. “It’s less safe. I haven’t had a problem, yet, but we hear it on the news, and it makes us feel insecure.”

The “us” is the extended community of family and fellow immigrants that Montes lives among on Pajarito Mesa, on the southwest edge of Albuquerque. From the Mesa, one has sweeping views of the Sandia Mountains and Albuquerque. The quietness is broken only by the wind and on occasion the distant laughter of children. Home to over 400 families, the majority of the people on the Mesa are under 18 years of age. It’s a community with no running water, electricity or public roads. Residents are mostly Mexican immigrants who’ve trickled onto the Mesa over the past decade.

Montes cites his increasing sense of insecurity as the first reason that compelled him to become a citizen this year. Secondly, he cites a continual refrain from elected officials he’s interacted with since moving to the Mesa in 1997. When advocating for government services on the Mesa, he said, more often than not he’ll eventually hear the question: “And how many voters live up there on the Mesa?”

Even when it’s jokingly spoken, he said, the message is clear. Without the right to vote, he and his community have much less power.

If the polls closing in on Election Day tell us anything, the Latino population will come out strong for the Democrats in 2008. A poll released by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials on Oct. 23, which they describe as the largest sampling of Latino voters in battleground states this election cycle, shows a large uptick in Latino support for Barack Obama.

But most importantly, the NALEO poll shows a significant downturn in Latino support for John McCain compared to George Bush in 2004. In Florida, McCain had 38 percent Latino support at the time of the poll, but in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada he swung between 13 and 20 percent.

And just as the Pew Hispanic Center predicted earlier this year, the economy is the No. 1 issue for Latinos, just as it is for most Americans at this point.

The other three top issues according to the NALEO poll are the Iraq war, health care, and immigration reform.

Many may be surprised to see immigration reform beating out other key issues, such as education and gas prices, especially given that the topic hasn’t seemed to be as contentious as many had predicted. But as it turns out, immigration reform has played quite a significant role in Spanish language media.

Frank Sharry of immigrant rights group America’s Voice describes it as a “slugfest” in comments he made during a discussion of the growing influence of the “new American electorate” that was televised on C-SPAN:

They are slugging it out in Spanish language ads in four states with topic A being immigration. They get it. Here’s the reason they get it. John Kerry didn’t get it and George Bush did get it. John Kerry pulled his Spanish language advertising in the Southwest and George Bush won Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, and of course he won Florida as well. And he had an unprecedented level of support among Latino voters generally, but Spanish-dominant voters in particular.

While George Bush won 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004, Sharry noted, he won 48 percent of the Spanish-dominant Latino vote.

The slugfest he refers to has been well documented by Politico’s Ben Smith, who refers to it as an ad war. You can see much of the Spanish language ad war between the two campaigns here, here, here and here.

Montes told the Independent he is looking forward to voting for the first time in 2008 although he’s a little worried that his registration won’t be there when he goes to the polls. He was registered automatically when he took his oath of citizenship in June, but he has yet to receive his voter card. Nonetheless, he’ll be at the polls early, and looks forward to voting for the candidate who he believes best understands the realities of life for immigrants such as himself.