Bush's backing of bipartisan immigration deal splits GOP

WASHINGTON — President Bush's embrace of this week's Senate bipartisan immigration deal has split the Republican Party.

Capitol Hill operators were besieged with calls from interest groups Friday, and immigration clearly was Topic A on conservative talk-radio shows. Other key figures, including analysts at the Heritage Foundation and National Review columnists, derided the agreement as a sellout of conservative principles, while most GOP presidential candidates criticized the plan as a form of amnesty — a characterization rejected by the White House.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who last year said similar efforts for a comprehensive immigration bill were "reasonable," called the deal reached this week the "wrong approach" to the problem. "Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new 'Z-Visa' does, is a form of amnesty," he said.

Although the White House also is facing an uproar on the left, the conservative reaction underscores both the volatile role immigration continues to play in GOP politics and the fact that Bush has encountered mixed success in moving his party toward a vision of an open, pro-immigrant society. He once hoped the vision might help realign American politics by bringing Hispanics into the GOP tent.

Dem leaders' role pivotal

One senior White House official said objections raised by Democratic leaders pose as much danger as conservative concerns. He said he remains uncertain whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are willing to allow Bush a Rose Garden signing ceremony on such a major issue.

"It is completely within the control of the Democratic leadership whether this bill passes or not," said this official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss strategy more openly.

The first big test comes Monday when the Senate votes on a motion to take up the measure, requiring a super-majority of 60 votes. Supporters acknowledge it will be close. The more-polarized House is expected to take up the issue this summer.

White House officials said they fully anticipated the conservative reaction and acknowledge they face a big challenge in educating even their strongest supporters.

Tensions already were running high among Senate Republicans who have been immersed in negotiations over the bill. Arizona Sen. John McCain, a presidential aspirant and one of the Senate's strongest champions for the immigration bill, has been pilloried by rivals for pushing a comprehensive approach. In a bipartisan meeting Thursday, the tensions apparently boiled over.

McCain, Cornyn at odds

According to several sources, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, got into a shouting match when Cornyn voiced concerns about the number of judicial appeals illegal immigrants could receive. After McCain swore at Cornyn and accused him of trying to blow up the pact, Cornyn accused the presidential candidate of "parachuting" into the negotiations at the last minute. McCain, who helped craft a Senate immigration deal last year but has been represented by staff in most meetings this year, blew up, saying, "I know more about this than anyone else in the room."

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McCain's camp denied he claimed superior knowledge of the bill, but acknowledged the two Republicans went at it. "These negotiations can be very tense, and there was a spirited exchange. That's it," said Brian Jones, McCain's presidential-campaign spokesman.

With the exception of McCain, most other Republican presidential candidates strongly condemned the deal. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, mulling a White House bid, urged Congress to "scrap this bill and the whole debate until we can convince the American people that we have secured the borders or at least have made great headway." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, also mulling a bid, called the deal "disastrous" and said the upcoming Senate vote would be a "defining moment" for the Republican Party.

"I can't imagine anybody running for president being nominated if they support this bill," he said.

Administration officials said they have addressed many of the concerns conservatives had with previous legislation: For instance, provisions making it possible for 12 million illegal immigrants to stay in the United States would go into effect only after stringent border-control provisions are implemented. Such "triggers" won the allegiance of Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who had opposed last year's Senate immigration bill, which never came up for a vote in the House.

Another change from last year's bill mandates that migrants participating in a new guest-worker program would have to leave the country after their short-term work visas expire, with no way to petition for permanent residence. That helped win over Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., another past critic of immigration legislation.

Phones ringing nonstop

Other provisions would strengthen penalties and create a merit-based system for future immigration.

"They're the things in this bill that Republicans and conservatives have wanted for a long time," said Joel Kaplan, deputy White House chief of staff and a key negotiator.

Still, conservative groups pummeled the legalization feature as amnesty, resurrecting a central theme from previous immigration debates. Phones on Capitol Hill were ringing so fiercely Friday that young staffers were handling several calls a minute, putting constituents on hold to handle others and repeating the same phrases: "Yes, sir. ... Yes, sir. ... We'll pass on your comments."

Supporters acknowledge that the bill wouldn't please anyone completely but, as a package, they say, it offers Congress and America the best — perhaps last — opportunity to repair the country's broken immigration system.

"It will be very difficult"

Immigrant advocates are hoping the active support for the deal from such notably conservative senators as Kyl and Isakson will be enough to persuade moderate lawmakers to support it.

"The ones who think this is just amnesty ... we're not terribly concerned about those guys. We weren't expecting their votes," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant group. "Once this process gets started, House Democrats and Republicans are going to want to get it done. It will be very difficult, excruciating, like crawling over broken glass ... but it's never been more likely that we could get a bill done than this year."

Sharry's comments were reported by the Chicago Tribune.