Mississippi Immigration Bill Passes House
BANFIELD: Welcome back, 5:29 now on the East Coast. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.</s>SAMBOLIN: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. We're happy to have you here. And it's time to check the stories making news this morning. That U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians has an attorney now. His new attorney, John Henry Brown (ph), says because of injuries suffered in Iraq, his client should not have been sent back to the battlefield. And he says there is concern about fallout from the massacre overseas and here at home.</s>JOHN HENRY BROWN, ATTORNEY: Well, apparently Homeland Security, this morning, issued a directive that they're expecting some sort of retaliation for these allegations, so it's being taken very seriously, and I think that's why his name is not being revealed and I certainly would not reveal his name even though I know what it is. So, I think there is serious concern about the safety.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.</s>BANFIELD: The reaction to a rare march tornado that's caught on tape in Michigan. It forced 200 people from their homes, part of a severe weather outbreak from Michigan all the way down through the south. Storms damaging or destroying several homes outside Ann Arbor. There are reports that at least three funnel clouds touched down in this area. And gas prices have a peek at your screen. No lies. It jumped by a full penny overnight while you were sleeping. The average price now, $3.83, and that's the seventh day in a row if you're keeping score that gas prices have gone up.</s>SAMBOLIN: A controversial immigration bill is on the verge of passing in Mississippi. The measure would require police to check the immigration status of people arrested, and it would ban illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses as well. The bill was approved by the state house and is now headed to the Senate where it is expected to pass. And for the first time in nearly four years, folk, the S&P; 500 sits above the 1,400 mark. The index gained eight points yesterday to close at 1,402. The rally sparked by good news on the jobless front and expanding manufacturing. Tech heads all over the world are in a frenzy. The new iPad goes on sale this morning at 8:00 a.m. Right now, people are camped outside Apple's flagship store in New York City. That was Eastern Time that it goes on sale here. The device will sell starting at $499.</s>BANFIELD: You have to be committed if you are going to sleep on a street in Manhattan overnight.</s>SAMBOLIN: Wait till you find out what one woman is doing, how she's making money behind --</s>BANFIELD: I don't want to know.</s>SAMBOLIN: There's my tease. There's my tease.</s>BANFIELD: Making money on the streets of New York. Who knew?</s>SAMBOLIN: Not like that, Ashleigh, not like that.</s>BANFIELD: Thirty-two minutes --</s>SAMBOLIN: I think it's kind of innovative and creative, and I like it.</s>BANFIELD: -- past the hour. Listen, to speak English as an official language or not or as a main language and by the way, what about that word, main, official, mostly spoken, it's a burning issue that's surrounding Rick Santorum for the last two days.</s>SAMBOLIN: Oh, yes. He is wrapping up a two-day visit to Puerto Rico where 20 delegates are at stake. And there, he said, quote, "Like any other state there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law and that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language." He also said this, listen.</s>RICK SANTORUM, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have to speak English. That would be a requirement. It's a requirement that we put on other states. It's a condition for entering the union.</s>SAMBOLIN: CNN's Jim Acosta caught up with him yesterday, as well, and apparently, he's not backing down on his statements.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Should it be a requirement for this territory to become a state?</s>SANTORUM: I think English and Spanish. Obviously, Spanish is going to be spoken here the island, but this needs to be a bilingual country, not just a Spanish speaking country.</s>SAMBOLIN: And live from Washington, Jonathan Allen, reporter for Politico. Thank you for joining us this morning. I am hyperfocusing this morning on Santorum. A lot of issues there when he was talking, he's talking about language. He was talking about statehood. He was talking about culture. Why do you think we're talking about it so much?</s>JONATHAN ALLEN, REPORTER, POLITICO: Well, I think Rick Santorum hit a couple of real touchstones in Puerto Rico as you mentioned. Number one, the sort of assumption that Puerto Rico wants to become a state is not entirely clear. That's a huge issue on the island. The other thing is, Santorum seems to suggest that English to be the official language, the main language, the principal language in order for Puerto Rico to become a state. He actually used the word country to refer to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, obviously, is part of the United States already, and there are no federal laws requiring that English be an official language for a territory to become a state. So, there are a lot of different things going on here. I think one of the reasons we're talking about this is the importance of the Hispanic vote in this upcoming 2012 election, particularly, in a set of western states that have been swing states and also in Florida, which has been the swing state.</s>SAMBOLIN: And do you think for me and I'm of Puerto Rican descent and I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico. I went to school there, and actually, English is a requirement in all of the schools from the time you enter kindergarten, and through college, most of the textbooks are in the English language. Do you think this is more of an emotional issue?</s>ALLEN: I do think it's an emotional issue. And as you point out, obviously, Puerto Rico already is bilingual. This is not a territory that where everyone is speaking Spanish and no one speaks English. But, yes, I think it's a very emotional issue, and I think a lot of particularly Hispanic-Americans obviously not everyone in Puerto Rico is Spanish but a large percentage of population. I think a lot of Hispanic-Americans are already feel a little bit under siege these days. You showed a clip earlier today of the basketball player was having where is your green card chanted at him. We've seen the bill in Mississippi. We saw last year or a couple of years ago the bill in Arizona. I think a lot of Hispanic voters feel like they're under siege right now, and this is going to be an issue for Republicans in the general election. We saw a big falloff in the Hispanic vote for Republicans between George W. Bush who is anywhere as high as 40 percent to John McCain, and those voters are very important, as I mentioned, at a lot of swing state.</s>SAMBOLIN: Now, they are an important voting bloc. So, let's talk about McCain in 2008, because he didn't have the Latino vote there, right? And they said that that, perhaps, could have cost him the election. So, I want to look at the numbers from 2008, and then, I want to compare them to some current numbers now. If we do a match, do we have those numbers for everyone? OK. If we could just put those up, please, I would appreciate that. All right. There we go. So, that was Obama/McCain, 67 percent to McCain's 31 percent. And then, when you do a matchup and the only poll that I have here is an Obama/Romney matchup for the Latino vote. It's considerably lower, 68 percent to 23 percent. And there is a school of thought that if you don't have the Latino vote at up around 33 percent, that you cannot win the general election in November. How are Republicans going to fix this problem?</s>ALLEN: Well, there's not a huge gap to make up there from 28 percent to 33 percent, but I think what you'll ser is a Republican nominee move toward the middle a little bit on issues of importance to Latino voters, and obviously, those are -- the Latino voters are not a monolithic bloc and don't vote simply on issues of immigration. In fact, I think for most polling that I've seen, other issues are the most important issues. It's just a question of whether or not they feel like, again, they're under siege, which is if somebody is making that the issue, then they may be more likely to vote against that person. So, I think that you'll see a Republican nominee try to pivot. Right now, in order to win a Republican primary, there's a very large part of the Republican base that either from a law and order perspective, or in some cases, I think, people would argue from, perhaps, a phobic stance doesn't like what they're seeing in terms of Hispanic immigration into the country.</s>SAMBOLIN: All right. Jonathan Allen, thanks for joining us this morning and sharing your perspective.</s>ALLEN: Take care.</s>BANFIELD: Thirty-seven minutes now past five. And coming up, new details on what might have set off that U.S. soldier who's accused of slaughtering 16 innocent civilians in Afghanistan. And also, Hollywood hot shot, James Cameron plummeting to new lows, and that's a good thing. He's headed on a real-life adventure to the deepest parts of the Earth below the ocean. CNN's Jason Carroll is the only news reporter with him as he prepares for the big dive. We get a live report coming up later on. You're watching EARLY START.