Bush's Immigration Plan Drives Wedge Between Allies (Update1)

By Holly Rosenkrantz and Heidi Przybyla

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, South Carolina's senators, are both conservatives who champion limited government and expanded individual opportunity. In accord on most issues, they strongly disagree on one: immigration.

``We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who break our laws,'' DeMint, who favors a border crackdown that would halt the flood of undocumented immigrants into the U.S., said in an e-mailed response to questions.

``We don't need to rip families apart who've been here for years,'' said Graham, who backs President George W. Bush's plan to allow for ``guest workers'' and provide an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country a path to legal status.

The DeMint-Graham divide illustrates a schism among usual allies that is vastly complicating Bush's efforts to secure passage of immigration legislation. Normally the president charges into a legislative fight with most Republicans united behind him. Now, everywhere he looks in the ranks, there are deep divisions.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh advocates a crackdown, while the Wall Street Journal editorial page espouses the legalization route. Richard Land, a leader of the 16-million- member Southern Baptist Convention, supports Bush's policy; another top religious activist, Gary Bauer, president of American Values, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that promotes traditional marriage, is critical of Bush's plan.

Big Tent

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp sees a pro-immigration stance as a way to entice Hispanics into the Republicans' so-called Big Tent, the idea of attracting a more diverse constituency to the party. But Kemp's one-time ally William Bennett, the former Education secretary, now favors the punitive approach as a radio commentator.

Why the divergence and vehemence of opinion? The answer, analysts say, is the issue has become a test for a conservative movement unsure of its identity at a time when its leaders have presided over an era of exploding deficits and expanding government.

Some put it another way. ``It's a long-standing divide that essentially pits the inclusionists against the restrictionists in the conservative movement,'' said Marshall Wittmann, a former adviser to Arizona Senator John McCain and now a senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. ``The inclusionists are free-market conservatives who believe that immigrants revitalize our country's entrepreneurial spirit, and the restrictionists are more concerned about the dilution of American culture.''

Different Impulses

Jeff Bell, an anti-abortion activist and former adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, said the divide in the conservative movement reflects ``two different impulses at work: one that sees America as fundamentally a nation of immigrants, and one that fears outside forces are eroding our values.''

The House of Representatives in December passed legislation focusing on border security and cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants. The Senate today approved a measure, backed by lawmakers led by McCain and Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, that contains similar security and law-enforcement provisions yet also creates a temporary worker program and gives most undocumented immigrants a path to legal status.

House Republicans say current immigration laws must be enforced before the country considers creating a guest-worker program. They have criticized the Senate provisions as rewarding people who have broken the law.

Defections

While Bush is trying to defuse public anger over porous borders by muscling a measure through Congress prior to the mid- term elections in November, any compromise blueprint could be wrecked by defections from his political base.

In the House, Republican Representative Peter King of New York has allied with Republican Charlie Norwood of Georgia in backing tough border enforcement over earned citizenship. Republican Senators Sam Brownback of Kansas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- the party's leading voices for anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights -- are supporting Bush on immigration.

``There's a split within the opposition groups,'' Senator Graham says. ``There are people who genuinely believe that if you allow the path to citizenship you're rewarding illegal behavior, and there's a group of people who really are engaging in this timeless debate of a native pushback.''

`Dressed-Up' Amnesty

Similar fissures are opening among fundamentalist Christians. In a note to supporters after a May 15 nationwide address by Bush on immigration reform, Bauer called the president's plan ``little more than a dressed-up amnesty bill.''

Some of the most vitriolic reactions to Bush's immigration policy are coming from grassroots supporters who have backed him on tax cuts and the war on terrorism.

Bloggers last week slammed the president's Oval Office address, which was meant to win over skeptics by augmenting a guest-worker plan with a call to bolster border security via the temporary injection of 6,000 National Guard troops.

``He had his chance, and he blew it,'' said the Powerline blog. ``As soon as he started talking about guest-worker programs and the impossibility of deporting 11 million illegals, it was all over.''

Radio talk-show hosts and bloggers such as Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt have taken to mocking Bush's reform rhetoric, such as his reference to ``jobs Americans won't do'' -- a term they now deride as JAWD.

Bennett's Shift

Bennett, 62, a former drug czar under President George H.W. Bush, is now a talk-radio host aligned with the vocal opponents of the president's immigration position. ``We believed that we would be able to handle the number of illegal immigrants in the country, and it's now clear we have not been able to,'' he said in explaining why he opposed a 1994 California ballot initiative to deny undocumented immigrants social services.

He said his decision to shift positions and push for strong border enforcement today is a result of experience, not political calculation.

``The situation is so out of control that it's getting harder and harder to assimilate people into our culture. I'm more realistic than idealistic,'' he said. ``The first thing a country has to have is sovereignty.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net ; Heidi Przybyla in Boston at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 25, 2006 18:40 EDT

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