Immigration Battle Divides Ariz. GOP

Haney, probably the most vociferous of McCain's critics, patrolled the hallway wearing a little button on his lapel that read "McCain 2008" and had a slash through it. He agreed that Goldwater today wouldn't get his vote: "He's pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda," Haney said. And he says he sees little difference between McCain and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on the immigration issue. "He's for open borders. He's for amnesty. Hillary's for amnesty."

Nearby sat a man wearing a McCain button -- no slash. Horst Kraus, 77, said he immigrated from Germany in 1960. He owns a nudist camp in Arizona (and says the conservative Republicans outnumber everyone else by 2 to 1). The immigration rhetoric scares him.

"I see 1938 all over again," Kraus said. "Back then it was 'Jews, raus' " -- Jews, out.

"Now it's 'Mexicans, out,' " he said. "I am very disturbed by it."

On Bell Road, that fear is shared by the many Hispanics who work or shop at the car lots, pawnshops, liquor stores, furniture stores and check-cashing operations that line the highway, one of the main drags in North Phoenix.

"It's scary," says Mary Torres, 39, who works at a thrift shop.

"There's a hatred for rising Hispanic communities in Arizona. They don't want little L.A.'s in Arizona," says co-worker Barbara Gutierrez, 40.

"A lot of people are going to other states. Even Canada," Torres said.

"Less controversy. Less pressure," Gutierrez said.

Max Romero, 41, proprietor of John's Olde Barber Shop -- a Hispanic-oriented business with "peluqueria" stenciled on the front window -- says that most of his customers are more focused on the Super Bowl than on Super Tuesday. But he makes a prediction about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.):

"I think that light-skinned brother's going to win. Because Oprah backs him up. The senator for us, McCain, he just seems so senile. He don't make no sense. Homeboy's young."

In the parking lot, men congregated around the back of a pickup truck, apparently hoping to get hired. More men gathered on a distant street corner. The day laborer center where the protests are held was vacant. The demonstrations have effectively shut the place down, scattering the workers.