(CNSNews.com) - Leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said Monday they need to hear more specifics on the two presidential candidates’ plans for immigration reform.
“We are very interested to know more specifically what Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain will give as a plan of action, and I have not seen that yet,” said Rosa Rosales, the national president of LULAC. Rosales, as well as other high-ranking members of the League, spoke at a news conference to open the 79th annual LULAC National Convention.
 
Members of LULAC will have the chance to question Barack Obama, the prospective Democratic candidate from Illinois, and John McCain, the prospective Republican candidate from Arizona, on Tuesday when the two candidates speak at separate LULAC events in Washington, D.C.
 
In response to a question from a reporter, Rosales declined to say whether McCain had flip-flopped or changed his mind on the issue of immigration. McCain sponsored a bill last summer that would have introduced comprehensive immigration reform. That bill did not pass and, more recently, McCain has been more vocal on the need for border security.
 
“LULAC has always been for security. We’re anti-walls. We’re not at war with Mexico. The walls have come down in Germany. The walls have come down all over the world,” Rosales said. “LULAC does want border security, but not the walls.”
 
But LULAC also wants humane treatment for the millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, she said.
 
“We are talking about having something that is streamlined, so you don’t have to live in the shadows, so that you don’t have to be abused,” she said.
 
“We want a humane solution,” Rosales said. “The immigration laws are broken right now.”
 
The LULAC state director for California, Argentina Davila-Luevano, told Cybercast News Service that McCain’s and Obama’s appearances at the convention on Tuesday will be “pivotal” for Hispanic voters.
 
Davila-Luevano said she has not heard a clear plan for repairing the immigration system from Obama -- nor does she understand whether he has a solution to help the undocumented immigrants like the ones she sees in California. Whether McCain will continue to support comprehensive immigration reform is also not clear to her, she said.
 
“We’re kind of teeter-tottering right now” between the candidates, she said.
 
Rosales said it is important for the Latino community get a clear idea of where McCain and Obama each stand on immigration reform.
 
Neither candidate should take the Hispanic vote for granted said Ada Pena, the state director for Washington, D.C. For Hispanics, the issue of immigration reform will be one of the key campaign issues.
 
“They are going to vote regarding the issues that deal with them,” Pena said. “It will be regarding immigration, especially in the border towns, in all of southern Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado. You are going to see the impact the Hispanic vote is going to have in this election.”
 
Pena told Cybercast News Service that the candidates would have to answer the questions posed by LULAC when they speak at the convention Tuesday.
 
In addition to questions LULAC will pose on immigration and the economy, Pena said she also is interested in whether the candidates have employed Hispanics in the upper levels of their campaigns to influence issues important to the Hispanic population.
 
“That’s very important,” Pena said. “Because if they don’t have that, what do we expect once they get elected?”
 
LULAC describes itself as the nation’s oldest and largest Hispanic advocacy group. Its convention, at the Hilton Washington, continues through July 12, 2008.