A Split on the Lines of Illegal Immigration
Arizona's McCain and Kyl Exemplify Division Among Republicans Nationwide

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Disagreements over how to deal with illegal immigration are splitting the Republican Party as few issues have lately, dividing state congressional delegations down the middle and bringing the Senate to a virtual standstill yesterday.

Epitomizing the divisions are Arizona's GOP senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain. Both face important elections and represent the same 5.8 million people. But they are leading the two main opposing approaches that Republican senators will have to reconcile if Congress is to address border security, illegal worker status, deportation practices and other issues.

McCain, hoping to gain the 2008 presidential nomination, is the chief sponsor of legislation that would give millions of illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship if they pay fines and back taxes, learn English, stay employed and do not break laws. Kyl, facing a potentially strong Democratic challenger this fall in his bid for a third term, is a key proponent of a guest-worker program that would require undocumented workers to return to their countries when their visas expire, a move that critics call unrealistic. Both bills would pour billions of dollars into greater border enforcement.

The House has approved an enforcement-only bill, but the immigration debate has deeply divided the Senate, especially its 55 Republicans. Party leaders unsuccessfully sought a compromise in several closed meetings yesterday.

"I'm very frustrated," Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced on the Senate floor. He accused Democrats of obstructionism, but Democrats shrugged off the charge. The Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee sent a bill to the floor that a majority of Republicans apparently will not embrace, they noted, because of the disagreements personified by Kyl and McCain.

McCain supports the committee-approved bill, but acknowledges that Congress's divisions over immigration reflect those of the public. "I live in a state where it's the number-one issue," he said yesterday. "I know that Americans are of different minds on this, including my state. But that doesn't mean the United States Senate shouldn't act."

Kyl spent much of the day on the Senate floor, trying to amend the committee bill to add tougher sanctions against some illegal immigrants, such as those with criminal records. Aides said he did not have time for interviews.

Experts on Arizona politics say the immigration issue generates enough crosscurrents to provide ample justification for both senators' views. On one hand, Arizonans have been alarmed by the influx of impoverished Mexicans pouring into the state following tougher enforcement on the Texas and California borders in recent years, said Rodolfo Espino, a political scientist at Arizona State University. But the state's booming construction and tourism industries crave the low-wage workers, he said, and the steadily growing number of legal immigrants are wary of actions they view as punitive to fellow Latinos.

"It's a pretty conservative electorate that Kyl is facing" this fall, Espino said, and his emphasis on tighter borders and sanctions against those who crossed illegally will probably serve him well. Kyl is largely in line with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who declared a state of emergency along Arizona's Mexican border last August, Espino said, so the strategy may limit Democratic challenger Jim Pederson's room to maneuver on immigration.

"It was very surprising to see 20,000 people in the streets of Phoenix," Espino said, referring to the recent mass protest against the Kyl-backed legislation. "But in the short run, it's not going to scare any local politicians here." The prospect of a large pool of Latino citizens, eligible to vote, "is just too far off in the future for anyone to be concerned."

McCain, meanwhile, is virtually a legend in Arizona politics and has long thrived on bucking orthodox Republican positions on key issues, Espino said. Even if more Arizonans side with Kyl on immigration questions, he said, "this would not be enough to cause McCain trouble. He does enough other maverick things that endear him to the hearts and minds of Arizona voters."

The Kyl-McCain split also applies to Arizona's Republican-dominated House delegation. GOP Reps. Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake side with McCain, saying the notion of deporting millions of illegal immigrants is unfeasible. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, meanwhile, is one of the most vehement advocates of tightening the borders and criminalizing illegal immigrants before addressing guest-worker questions.

Tamar Jacoby, who studies immigration issues at the Manhattan Institute, supports McCain's approach but says Kyl should not be dismissed as someone seeking to score political points. Both McCain and Kyl "are reformers or would-be reformers," she said, noting their similar efforts to tighten control of border crossings.

"Kyl is not grandstanding for his reelection," Jacoby said. But his notion that millions of Mexicans will willingly return home after working in the United States for several years is unrealistic, she said. McCain's emphasis on helping such workers become citizens invested in their adopted country is the better long-range bet, she said.