LA Times evaluation of candidate's position on immigration

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-equality17-2008oct17,0,6873423.story

Editorial
Los Angeles Times
Immigration, abortion and the next president
McCain and Obama are closer on immigration issues but differ starkly on reproductive rights.
October 17, 2008

...Immigration is one subject on which McCain and Obama broadly agree. Both acknowledge that the system is broken and favor securing borders, creating a guest-worker program and providing a path to citizenship. As a sponsor of two comprehensive reform bills, McCain should be unbeatable on this issue. Standing up to fellow Republicans (and some Democrats), he declared that the nation could not turn its back on the impoverished millions who have come here to work and prosper. Unfortunately, the free-thinker has become a follower, trailing behind the worst instincts of his party. Abandoning problem-solving for politics, McCain has made border security and employment enforcement his new mandate. That may be good Republican politics, but it's not sound policy. An estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants arrived in the United States last year -- down from about 700,000 the year before -- and about 280,500 people were deported. Those expulsions too often took their toll on families and businesses and did nothing to address the wider consequences of a large population of illegal immigrants within our borders.

Obama acknowledges the importance of border and workplace security but does not make it a prerequisite for solving the problem in its entirety. Also, his proposal to increase economic development opportunities in Mexico offers hope for addressing the causes of illegal immigration, not just the symptoms. He does not have McCain's impressive record in support of comprehensive reform, nor does he have McCain's cynical abandonment of that position...