Immigrants may make up only a fraction of the electorate in the 10th and 11th congressional districts, but their influence in the increasingly tight races could have a larger-than-anticipated influence on Election Day.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) yesterday launched a 501(c)4 arm that will spend $513,000 over the next four weeks to do whatever it takes to deliver some 33,000 immigrants in IL-10 and IL-11 to their polling places.

Tired of lawmakers dodging the topic of immigration reform, Illinois Immigrant Action (IIA) director Lawrence Benito said he sees the campaign as an opportunity to put the congressional hopefuls on the spot.

"What we'd like to know is: if these people are elected what will they do to work toward just and humane immigration reform," Benito said.

For 10th District GOP Rep. Mark Kirk, convincing Waukegan's large Latino population that he supports their agenda might be a stretch. Just last year, Kirk suggested from the House floor that distributing condoms through border patrol agents might help to stem the flow of Mexicans into the U.S.  Prior to that, he voted in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration by heightening border security. Furthermore, a local white supremacist organization -- Chicago Friends Of American Renaissance -- described his views on immigration as "encouraging."

Latinos in southwest suburban Joliet, on the other hand, will have to make their decisions based on messages from the campaign trail.  Republican Marty Ozinga and Democrat Debbie Halvorson are vying to replace retiring incumbent GOP Rep. Jerry Weller.

IIA will send out the first of three mailers this week. Shortly thereafter, paid canvassers will begin knocking on doors and making phone calls to the new or reluctant voters, mostly in Waukegan and Joliet, who are the targets of this last minute push.

Elsewhere in the Chicago region, organizers also plan to reach out to an additional 100,000 immigrant voters who otherwise might not make it the voting booth on Nov. 4. ICIRR will spend an additional $500,000 on that portion of the campaign, which began three months ago with a registration drive that netted nearly 26,000 new potential voters.

Benito is fighting the perception that the campaign is merely a last-ditch effort to sway these increasingly competitive congressional races.

"This is part of a progression," Benito said. "In '06 you saw big marches. In '07 you saw increases in people filing for citizenship. And in '08 you're going to see people going out to the polls in record numbers because people know what's at stake."