Political Splits on Immigration Reflect Voters' Ambivalence

Orange-clad members of Grupo Beta, a unit of Mexico's national immigration agency, offer medical care and other assistance to migrants near the U.S. border and take their names in case family members later inquire about them. (By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)

In the recent Post-ABC News poll, President Bush got his lowest marks on immigration, with 33 percent saying they approved of how he was handling the issue. That may largely reflect irritation over the government's failure to control the borders.

Border security has become the point of consensus in the debate. A Gallup poll in early December found that 56 percent of Americans said the government's principal focus should be on stopping the flow of illegal immigration, rather than working on a plan that would allow those here to become legal residents.

Bush has proposed a guest-worker program as part of a comprehensive immigration package, but Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), leader of anti-illegal-immigration forces nationally, has denounced the plan as a thinly disguised amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Tancredo's view prevailed in the House, which rebuffed the president by failing to include a guest-worker plan in its legislation.

Bush has tried to satisfy those who want to tighten the borders without alienating Hispanic voters, the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc. But when the White House praised the House for acting on immigration, the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page denounced the president. "By voicing no disapproval of these over-the-top provisions, Mr. Bush legitimizes the forces that will make it hard to pass useful reform," the editorial said.

Bush may find more receptivity to his guest-worker plan in the Senate, where Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) have sponsored legislation that calls for creating such a program and the possibility for illegal immigrants eventually to regularize their status in the United States. But finding a Senate majority for any comprehensive proposal will be difficult -- and even if approved there, such a measure would face stiff opposition back in the House.

As they move to the next stage of the legislative process, lawmakers will have to sort through conflicting findings on the question of creating a guest-worker program. Time magazine found strong support for such a program in its poll at the beginning of December, but earlier NBC News-Wall Street Journal and CBS News-New York Times polls found opposition to the idea.

Immigration cuts across party lines and has split both parties' coalitions. That suggests the possibility for a bipartisan solution, but in reality it might make compromise even more remote.

"You've got business groups and unions very often joined together on one side on this and movement conservatives and rank-and-file working class voters on the other side, with all of this playing out against the backdrop of the ongoing political battle for the Hispanic vote between Democrats and Republicans," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin. "The politics and the unusual coalitions make all the political choices much more difficult."

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.