Immigration positions shift

Many Republican presidential candidates keep their distance from legislation that might be viewed as sympathetic to illegal immigrants.

BY ROB HOTAKAINEN
Eagle Washington bureau

A few years ago, Sam Brownback stood out as a conservative senator who was sponsoring a bill to allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship.

For his troubles, he was assailed as a "left-winger."

"It is disappointing," said Mary Lou Jaramillo, president and chief executive of El Centro Inc., a Kansas City, Kan.-based group that aids immigrants. "I understand when people are seeking re-election or going to a higher office, they do seem to have a change of heart. It's interesting how that works out. And, you know, he's not alone."

Indeed, as immigration heats up in the early stages of the 2008 presidential campaign, it's complicating efforts in Congress to fix a system that all parties acknowledge is broken. With the Senate in the middle of a weeks-long debate, many Republican candidates are distancing themselves from any legislation that might be viewed as sympathetic to illegal immigrants.

Two of the Republican candidates, Brownback and Arizona Sen. John McCain, teamed up with Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts last year to sponsor legislation that would have provided more border security and created a guest-worker program for 12 million illegal immigrants. While Kennedy is sponsoring the Senate bill currently being debated, Brownback and McCain are not.

Critics say it's a clear attempt to appeal to the party's conservative base.

"I see so many conversions," Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo said at a Republican presidential debate in South Carolina earlier this month.

Last year, Tancredo called Brownback "an extreme opponent of getting tough on illegal immigration." At the debate, he said the bill sponsored by Brownback and McCain "would have given amnesty to everybody who's here illegally," and he drew laughs when he said he was glad to see the conversions but that he would trust them only "when they happen on the road to Damascus and not on the road to Des Moines."

Brownback has maintained a low profile on the issue and declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.

But in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, he lamented the growing number of illegal immigrants in the nation, saying they've tripled from 4 million in 1987 to 12 million today.

"Some people think that the solution is to grant undocumented immigrants amnesty... but that won't work," Brownback said.

He said the "first and foremost" goal of any changes must be to secure the U.S. border but that he had not yet decided whether he'll support this year's bill.

"People are torn trying to balance two fundamental American principles: one of being a rule-of-law nation, and the second trying to be a compassionate society," Brownback said.

Melinda Lewis, director of policy and research for El Centro, said that in the past Brownback's pro-immigrant stance has been driven by his moral values, how he interprets his faith and his desire to protect vulnerable people. Until three months ago, she said, her group never considered Brownback a necessary target for their lobbying.

"I think you can't look at the changes in position of folks like John McCain and Sam Brownback and not draw the inevitable conclusion that their presidential campaigns have something to do with it," she said.

Lewis said that anti-immigration reformers "have a better grip on sound bites" and are showing their muscle in states with early caucuses and primaries. Of Brownback, she said: "He's not spending a lot of time in Kansas right now. He's spending a lot more of his time in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire."

The Senate bill would legalize millions of illegal immigrants but faces a barrage of amendments when debate resumes early next month. A guest-worker program, which is backed by the White House and many business groups, could bring in up to 200,000 workers a year to fill low-skilled jobs.

The legislation is under attack from all quarters.

Some critics say more immigrant workers are needed to satisfy demand, while others want to dismantle the program entirely because they fear it will take jobs away from U.S. workers. Some groups are pushing to recast the temporary worker program to allow participants to get on track for citizenship instead of returning to their home countries when their visas expire.

The bill would allow illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the first of the year to stay in the country and work under "Z visas" that would be renewable every four years. They'd be required to pass criminal background checks and pay a $1,000 fine.

Brownback said the bill is flawed because it allows only 24 hours to conduct the background checks. He said that's an insufficient amount of time and that he'll offer an amendment to try to change it.

"The problems with this provision are significant and obvious," Brownback said. "First, in a post-9/11 world, it is misguided at best and dangerous at worst to grant millions of people unlawfully present in the United States lawful status, even if a background check has not been completed."

All GOP candidates insist on a secure border; one dividing point is "amnesty" for those already here illegally. Some argue for tough law enforcement and deportations; other say it's impractical to try to kick out 12 million people.

President Bush in the last category.

"You can't kick them out," he said Thursday.

Bush said critics "who are looking to find fault with this bill will always be able to find something" and that it's easy to use advocates of the legislation as political targets.

"We've been through immigration debates in this country, and they can bring out the worst, sometimes, in people," he said. "We're a land of immigrants.... Sure, politics will get involved. But the question is, will members of Congress rise above politics?"