A Conversation About Immigration Policy

Below are some questions posted by a reader regarding immigration policy - with my responses.

Dear Alexander,

It seems best to respond to your questions and comments on a blog post. I am sure many other readers will be interested in what you had to say.

1. Americans will always vote to preserve their nation's sovereignty over the bias of some ethnic minority.

You are probably right about the nation voting to preserve its sovereignty, its been one of the main trajectories since we separated from England.

2. Who cares what Hispanics think.

I think most people don't care what Hispanics/Latinos think. Just like most people don't have much interest in Catholics or 7th Day Adventists. Usually if you really care about a group of people you have some other special type of connection. Probably the people most concerned about Latinos now are political campaign managers. I'm not saying they care in a good way, just that they seem to be encouraging their candidates to spend lots of time on this subject (or avoiding it). If you would take the sarcasm out of your statement your argument would be more effective.

3. Most want open borders

.

You might be right on this one, at least a majority probably want open borders. But there are many that are as angry about immigration as you are.

I think what U.S. residents and citizens who are Latino really want is a fair, safe, system for people to immigrate to our country. One of the main problems now is that its almost impossible to come here legally unless you are wealthy or have a particularly much needed profession.

Many are for open borders because its hard to imagine keeping people from coming here. Its an extremely complicated situation that involves economics, international politics, patience and calm.

4. You are talking like they already run the United States of America

.

The voting block is getting to be very large, and there is a good chance this group will influence national (and many local) elections in the near future. But I certainly don't think Latinos run the country. Right now it seems that Bush/Cheney and their gang unfortunately still have lots of control.

5. Most...are too blinded by the needs of their relatives "back home"

Most people who left close relatives behind would probably be obsessed with getting them here -safely. But there are many who have no relatives in other countries, there is no "back home" - Remember there have been Latinos in the U.S. since before it was the U.S. There is a whole group (a few hundred) that migrated here from northern Mexico (the Linares area) in about 1750 - they were with the Santander expedition. They have many many descendants in the American southwest. Lots has been written about it.. you might want to check it out sometime.

6. Guess what. They do not.
That is why you will NOT see "comprehensive immigration reform" But you will see 700 miles of fence
and more deportations.

Yes, that is why we still don't have comprehensive immigration reform - and so many deportations. The small, but very vocal group of anti-immigrationists are running the show at the moment. But I think its only temporary. You underestimate the power of American corporations. Business will win over in the end - because the workers are needed.

7. Not because we are mean.

I guess that is what is so hard to understand. How can you not be hard hearted when you encourage sending children to deportation camps, separate families, and insult people? I know there is another side of you that is reasonable and fair, that you are probably a good family man. So the question is, why does this bring out the bad side of you? I know, most people say, its that they can't stand someone being here illegally. Ok, so that bothers people, but then if that is true, why do people tolerate so many other types of illegalities?

8. It will be because of
Mexican arrogance, articles like this, and millions marching in American cities with Mexican flags

Don't you think there is arrogance on both sides? Millions marched, but millions from the other side blasted the U.S. Senate with emails and faxes. Just an aside - it seems to be the American way - to be arrogant.

9. Next time write your blog in Spanish so you do not alienate most of your readers

.

My Spanish is not that good for writing a whole blog (its my second language)- and most of the people who read this blog can't read Spanish that well anyway. Remember that group that came here in 1750? Well their descendants mostly can't speak Spanish. Serious academic studies see that by the second generation the Spanish is just about gone. It may not seem that way because Spanish is everywhere these days... and true this is because of ongoing immigration and globalization.

Maybe a better question is why is it so difficult to accept people speaking another language? Most people in Europe do. Many people in Africa know French or English besides their native language. Most people in India speak English.

A good number of people don't like to be around those who speak different language because they are concerned the non-English speakers are talking about them. But believe me, they have a lot on their minds, much more than talking about the Anglo person* nearby.

Hope this clarifies a few things. Your comments are welcome. All that is required is that you be respectful.



*I use the word Anglo, because (you may be surprised) a large number of Hispanics/Latinos are white. Anglo means non-Hispanic white person.

Countering Anti-Immigration With TV ADS

What can be done in this rabid anti-immigrant environment? It has been relatively easy to report on people being detained, laws being enacted, and the U.S. Senate bickering. However, its been near impossible to write about how to respond to this dilemma. The protests helped initially, but once the anti-immigrant side organized itself, there was no stopping the negative avalanche.

Now for a change, there is a group countering the new anti-immigrant measures...with PR - the Ayuda Business Coalition is making a statement with its new ads regarding immigration to be aired on CNN.

Hopefully this is just the beginning.

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Immigration Ad to Air This Weekend
Latino Group's Counterpoint Precedes Virginia Election
By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 3, 2007; D01

A regional group of Latino business leaders is launching a television advertising campaign this weekend in hopes of countering anti-illegal-immigrant measures they fear will spread throughout Virginia.

The centerpiece is an ad that claims to show what happened when Riverside, N.J., passed a resolution penalizing employers who had hired illegal immigrants. Images of empty buildings and signs of shop liquidations and closures flash across the screen. The ad explains that Riverside rescinded its measure one year later.

"The moral: Virginia, let's be careful what we wish for," a narrator warns.

The ads are scheduled to air throughout Virginia on CNN several times over the weekend and on Tuesday, when the state is scheduled to hold elections.

In buying the commercial time, the business group, Ayuda Business Coalition, is taking a decidedly different approach in its fight against recent crackdowns on illegal immigrants than other groups, which have organized work boycotts and demonstrations.

"We want to do this in an organized way that doesn't expose us to look like we aren't respectable or disciplined," said Mariano Claudio, a coalition member.

Coalition members fear the recent passage of an anti-illegal-immigration resolution in Prince William County has created momentum for state legislators to introduce similar measures in the General Assembly when it convenes in January. Prince William lawmakers limited some social services to illegal immigrants and stepped up enforcement efforts against those who have been convicted of crimes.

"Some call what happened in Prince William a success. Our longer-term goal is to start building effective arguments for what we know is a fight coming in Richmond," said Mauricio Vivero, executive director of District-based immigrant advocacy group Ayuda, which is running the project.

The Ayuda Business Coalition encompasses about 100 business leaders and includes the head of the Salvadoran American Chamber of Commerce and Carlos Castro, the owner of Todos Market. The group said it has raised $100,000 for lobbying and media advertising. Sosa and Associates, a Latino-owned public relations firm, produced the TV commercial for free...


for complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201891_pf.html

Felonies and Lost In-State Tuition in Oklahoma

The Oklahoman conveniently does not mention that people who give undocumented people rides in their cars can be charged with a felony.



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Churches witness immigration policies playing out among Latino families
The Oklahoman
November 2, 2007
By Lillie-Beth Brinkman

There are stories like that of two sisters – one who can go to college on in-state tuition and the younger one who won’t because of changes in Oklahoma’s new state law, effective Nov. 1. Because of deportation fears, some people in the community are too scared to call police for legitimate reasons, such as domestic violence. Rumors spread that families are moving out of state due to recent law enforcement crackdowns based on existing federal immigration laws..[Father] Taylor has noticed a slight decline in the numbers of those who attend mass at his church regularly.

“People are very nervous about things right now,” Taylor said. “It’s really hard to live in a community and hear people say they don’t want you here.”

The new Oklahoma law known as House Bill 1804 will, among other things, require employers to check legal documentation in hiring and will restrict the state-offered benefits available to illegal immigrants, including access to in-state tuition at Oklahoma’s higher education institutions. It does not prevent emergency health care for undocumented immigrants or keep them from attending public schools in Oklahoma.

At the federal level, lawmakers continue to debate immigration issues such as whether to require employers to match Social Security numbers with a proper name.

And recently, local law enforcement officers worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in raids targeting violent street gang members. The actions led to the arrest of 65 people, many of whom were in the United States illegally and eligible for deportation.

The Catholic churches are working to reassure their parishioners and provide them with the information they need about the laws. Both Sacred Heart and Little Flower Catholic Church have been trying to get information to the public through recent workshops and informational meetings.

“I think the majority of the people know what is going on,” the Rev. Jenaro De La Cruz of Little Flower Church. He said he urges his parishioners not to be scared and said that many of them are already permanent U.S. residents or American citizens.

For the church, immigration is a moral issue.

“The Catholic Church’s position is that we respect every single human person. Each person has an intrinsic dignity from God,” said The Most Rev. Eusebius J. Beltran, archbishop of the Archdiocese in Oklahoma City.

“When we see something that is unjust, against the person, we take exception to it and we try to change it.”

Beltran said that the Catholic Church considers U.S. immigration policies to be unjust, especially because many of the people coming to this country aren’t given a fair hearing. Some have been waiting since the early- to mid-1990s for a hearing on their immigration status; until their case is heard, they cannot work in this country legally.

“As a result, many of those people especially from Mexico and Central America, come to the United States illegally,” he said “They come out of desperation. They come seeking a better life for themselves and their families.”

The new Oklahoma law may also jeopardize some services that agencies provide to Latino residents who are in this country illegally. Taylor wondered, for example, whether there would be repercussions for a church if the child of an undocumented worker goes on a church ski trip. Right now, it is unclear what fallout will occur from the Oklahoma law, which is being challenged in court by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders.

Taylor thinks any law regarding immigrants should “facilitate immigration so it can be done in an orderly way,” he said.

“People have a God-given right to immigrate,” Taylor said. “The right to immigrate is not absolute. It has limits. But it is a God-given right.”

Others disagree, saying that the 500,000 or so immigrants who come to the United States illegally each year should not have access to the government’s resources and that they take jobs away from U.S. citizens.

Taylor contends that people have a right and an obligation to provide for their families, and for many Hispanics, the only way to do so is to come to the United States for jobs, Taylor said.

“People who come here looking for a better future [sic]come here seeking something good,” Taylor said.


http://newsok.com/article/keyword/3162653/

Debate on Immigration in the U.K.

An editorial in today's London Independent describes the current anti-immigration debate in the U.K. It sounds similar to what is happening in the U.S.

One comment:

"In the public debate on this subject, there always seems to be a strong assumption that immigration is something to be feared. Not only is that a slur on the character of the vast majority of immigrants"

The editorial says its hypocritical for the UK to complain about immigrants when the economy has profited so much from them. Isn't that what has happened here?

The mob mentality that is taking over is strange, especially when editorials like this and the one from the NY Times on illegality keep appearing.

It reminds me of when in the middle ages the Jews were blamed for the outbreak of the plague - and many were killed or banished from cities.

This rabid emotion that shows on the face of Lou Dobbs and his followers seems like a plague. And yes its very contagious. Could it be happening again and we are sending the blame the wrong way?




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Leading article: The stench of hypocrisy
Published: 31 October 2007
London Independent


An unseemly anger against immigrants seems to be boiling over in the country. A speech by Tory leader David Cameron calling for a cap on migrant numbers has been given a warm reception. An underestimation by ministers of the number of foreign workers in Britain has been seized upon with glee by the usual reactionary subjects. And yesterday the Government announced not only that it will retain the restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian immigration, but also that it will plough ahead with its Australian-style points system – a Conservative cast-off – for migrant workers.

In the public debate on this subject, there always seems to be a strong assumption that immigration is something to be feared. Not only is that a slur on the character of the vast majority of immigrants, it flies in the face of the reality of the British economy. It is a debate that demeans us as a nation. Take the blunder over figures. It is certainly embarrassing for ministers that they used the wrong statistics. But consider the implications of the true figures. What they show is that more than half of the new jobs that have been created since 1997 have been filled by immigrants, even more than previously stated. This confirms the crucial role immigration has played in our economic vibrancy. It is this economic contribution that exposes the wrong-headedness of Mr Cameron's protectionist proposal to curb migrant numbers regardless of the demand for their labour. Is this the party that prides itself on its free-market principles?

The Government has been just as hypocritical. While taking credit for strong economic growth, it is dancing to the tune of the anti-immigrant lobby. The restrictions on Bulgaria and Romania fly in the face of the principle of free movement of labour within the EU. Meanwhile, the points system will discriminate unfairly against unskilled workers from outside the EU; one also wonders if ministers are really best-placed to dictate to the marketplace over hiring policies.

One argument from the anti-immigrant lobby that contains an element of truth is that immigration puts a strain on housing and transport. But whose fault is it if the Government has failed to build enough houses and neglected the national transport infrastructure? Ministers should concentrate on how best to absorb the inflow of migrants rather than dreaming up devious ways of keeping down numbers. After all, immigrants have put more than enough into the Exchequer in the form of tax revenues over the years to pay for these improvements. But, sadly, such a rational approach seems a distant prospect while our society insists on regarding immigration as a problem rather than a benefit.



http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article3112790.ece

"This law convinced me it was time. [They] hate us so much here."

As painful as it is, the people leaving Prince William County may be teaching the county a lesson. It will be interesting to see what happens in a few months. Already the signs are there, sales at the markets are down... people are leaving their houses.

One thing I do have to mention is that N.C. Aizenman needs to think through his/her use of words - Saying that someone "sneaked" into the country may please some Minute Men, but is an extremely different reality. Why not say "escaped" into the country? Or "immigrated" to this country?

The use of the word "sneaked" shows a negative pre-existing value judgement on the part of the writer. I thought journalists were supposed to present the news objectively -

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Uneasy Latinos React Using Their Feet: By Leaving Pr. William
Crackdown Is Festering Fear
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 22, 2007; A01

Supporters of the anti-illegal immigration measure adopted in Prince William County last week have argued that its most important purpose is to send a powerful signal to the county's mostly Latino illegal immigrants that they are no longer welcome.

It appears the message has already been received: Terrified that new policies will lead to mass deportations, illegal immigrants and the many legal immigrant relatives and friends who live with them have been moving out of Prince William ever since July, when county supervisors first approved the plan's outline.

The size of the migration is difficult to measure, particularly during a year when slumping housing prices and skyrocketing foreclosures have led many residents to move for purely economic reasons.

Still, signs of the growing climate of fear are everywhere.

At the Freetown Market, a convenience store in a heavily Latino section of Woodbridge that offers U-Haul trucks for hire, one-way rentals have jumped from between 10 and 20 a month just before July to about 40 a month today.

In the same strip mall, at a money-transfer store where the customer line to pay utility bills once snaked out the door, business has slowed so dramatically the past three months that one clerk has been let go and the remaining one spends most of her time on the computer, e-mailing gloomy updates to relatives back home in Guatemala.

A few doors down, staff workers at the IMA English language academy will soon be taking the American flag decorations off the walls and moving to a smaller space, because the number of students has plummeted from 350 to about 60 since July.

"There is a mass panic," said the academy's owner, Roberto Catacora. "Those who haven't already moved away don't dare step outside their houses."

Although one of the new measures directs county police to check the immigration status of only criminal suspects, many immigrants think that all Latinos will be subject to random sweeps, Catacora added.

The effect on his once-bustling academy was palpable on a recent weeknight, when all but one of the six classrooms were deserted.

Among the absent students was Jose Luis Pubeac, 42, a day laborer who sneaked into the country 18 months ago. He was busy preparing for his flight back to El Salvador on Saturday.

"I was already thinking of going home, because I was having such a hard time finding work," said Pubeac, speaking on his cellphone as he raced around picking up presents for his five children back home. "But this law convinced me it was time. [They] hate us so much here."

Most departing immigrants, however, appear to be moving closer afield, choosing states such as North Carolina or neighboring counties such as Prince George's or Arlington that they perceive as less hostile.

In August, Walter Ramirez settled on Alexandria.

A 29-year-old construction worker, Ramirez was not personally at risk from Prince William's crackdown because he has a temporary permit granted to many Salvadorans when an earthquake devastated their country in 2001.

But his roommates were a different story. And after the July resolution was adopted, they were overcome with stifling paranoia.

"I used to walk over to the supermarket every day to pick up food or a phone card or just to hang out," recalled one roommate, a 22-year-old from Honduras who sneaked into the United States three years ago. "But suddenly it seemed like there were so many police officers there, so I limited myself to once a week. It was so stressful, because you feel totally locked up, like you're a prisoner in your own home," he added, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Ramirez nodded his head sympathetically. The two were sitting on a large tan couch that took up almost the entire living room of their new home, a walled-off section of a ramshackle colonial house on a leafy cul-de-sac.

The cramped quarters are a step down from the well-kept apartment they rented in Woodbridge, where each man paid $275 a month for his own room and had access to the nicely landscaped complex's swimming pool. In Alexandria, they pay $400 each for shared rooms, make do with a hot plate in place of a stove and are no longer walking distance from friends and shops.

"It's a more isolated life here, and that's a sacrifice. But I had no choice," Ramirez said. "My buddies are like my family. I can't live in a place where they are going to be persecuted."

Several real estate agents who serve Latino immigrants predicted that more people will reach the same conclusion as Ramirez now that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors has given final approval to the anti-illegal immigration measure.

"This is not something that only affects the undocumented," agent Rosie Vilchez said. "Because in the same family, it's so common to have some people who are citizens, some people who are residents and some who are undocumented. And those with papers are going to do whatever is necessary to protect those without."

Within hours of the board's vote, Salvadoran-born Aracely Diaz instructed her real estate agent to put her townhouse on the market.

Diaz, a supermarket checkout clerk, was one of nearly 400 people who waited for hours to comment on the bill during the marathon pre-vote session that stretched into Wednesday's wee hours.

"Even after they passed that July resolution, I had hope that [the supervisors] would change their minds," said Diaz, 37, who has legal status but worries about relatives who do not.

Now, she noted bitterly, "I'll be selling at loss. But I don't care. I no longer have any affection for this place that treats us this way. I just want to get out."

Jose Ventura, a Salvadoran mason renting an apartment in Manassas, cites similar reasons for his decision to move not just his residence but also his business to Maryland.

Ventura, 38, who came to the United States seven years ago and then received the temporary protected status because of the earthquake in his homeland, smiled ruefully as he recalled the sense of possibility that suffused Prince William back then. "Oh, it was so great. There was so much work," he said.

He took two jobs to save enough to start a masonry company, then built it into a 35-man operation.

But a slowdown in the construction industry has forced Ventura to cut his workforce to 15 people. Meanwhile, his plan to buy a new house and pay off some of the mortgage by renting some of the rooms backfired after county residents called for a crackdown on overcrowding. A few days ago, the bank foreclosed on the property, wiping out all $80,000 of his savings and leaving him $20,000 in debt.

The supervisors' unanimous approval of the anti-illegal immigration resolution struck Ventura as the last straw.

"I feel like when this county was growing, when they needed us, they welcomed us Latinos with open arms," he said. "But now that the county is all grown up and times are hard, it's totally turned its back on us. They are so ungrateful."





http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101725_pf.html

Who is this Person in Rumpled Clothing?

How does a police officer have a reasonable idea that person could be an undocumented immigrant? Are there any specific rules that will help him judge this?

Could it be?

1. A person with black straight hair.
2. A person less than 5'7" tall.
3. Someone wearing clothing that looks like its from Goodwill?
4. Someone that prefers to speak a language other than English?

Actually this sounds like it could be an American college professor. I would encourage PWC police to be very cautious about who they pick up. One day it might be the wrong person - and a legal avalanche could fall down upon them.


At two a.m. Thursday (Oct 17) morning, Prince William County passed strong anti-immigration law - as other communities have done around the country. A comment by PWC Supervisor Martin Nohe that he was concerned the law would encourage discrimination is surprising considering the law passed unanimously:

Nohe: "We don't want to be the kind of community that even allows the image that racial profiling is taking place."

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Va. County OKs Immigration Crackdown
Washington Post
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 17, 2007; 11:57 AM


MANASSAS, Va. -- One of the nation's toughest local crackdowns on illegal immigration was unanimously approved by Prince William County lawmakers early Wednesday after a 12-hour hearing marked by emotional testimony and scuffles.

The measures would deny certain county services to illegal immigrants, including business licenses, drug counseling, housing assistance and some services for the elderly. The county Board of Supervisors also gave police some funding to help them check the immigration status of anyone accused of breaking a law if an officer suspects the person is an illegal immigrant.

A group of 22 plaintiffs has already filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the measures. They claim the measures violate equal protection laws and that immigration enforcement is a federal matter.

Nearly 400 residents and immigrants spoke for and against the measures during the 12-hour session that extended past 2 a.m. Wednesday...

Switzerland's Pour Plus Sécurité

Immigration, Black Sheep and Swiss Rage
New York Times
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: October 8, 2007


SCHWERZENBACH, Switzerland, Oct. 4 — The posters taped on the walls at a political rally here capture the rawness of Switzerland’s national electoral campaign: three white sheep stand on the Swiss flag as one of them kicks a single black sheep away.
“To Create Security,” the poster reads.

The poster is not the creation of a fringe movement, but of the most powerful party in Switzerland’s federal Parliament and a member of the coalition government, an extreme right-wing party called the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP. It has been distributed in a mass mailing to Swiss households, reproduced in newspapers and magazines and hung as huge billboards across the country.

As voters prepare to go to the polls in a general election on Oct. 21, the poster — and the party’s underlying message — have polarized a country that prides itself on peaceful consensus in politics, neutrality in foreign policy and tolerance in human relations.

Suddenly the campaign has turned into a nationwide debate over the place of immigrants in one of the world’s oldest democracies, and over what it means to be Swiss.

“The poster is disgusting, unacceptable,” Micheline Calmy-Rey, the current president of Switzerland under a one-year rotation system, said in an interview. “It stigmatizes others and plays on the fear factor, and in that sense it’s dangerous. The campaign does not correspond to Switzerland’s multicultural openness to the world. And I am asking all Swiss who do not agree with its message to have the courage to speak out.”

Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin, of the Liberal Democratic Party, has even suggested that the SVP’s worship of Christoph Blocher, the billionaire who is the party’s driving force and the current justice minister, is reminiscent of that of Italian fascists for Mussolini.

[On Saturday, a march of several thousand SVP supporters in Bern ended in clashes between hundreds of rock-throwing counterdemonstrators and riot police officers, who used tear gas to disperse them. The opponents of the rally, organized by a new group called the Black Sheep Committee, had tried to prevent the demonstrators from marching to Parliament...

for complete article click title to this post
photo:BBC, http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44099000/jpg/_44099666_swissposter2_afp203b.jpg

Who Will Stop the Anti-Immigration Hysteria?

http://www.iupui.edu/~floc/statue%20of%20liberty.jpg



Mark Twain wrote an interesting piece titled "The United States of Lyncherdom" in which he explains that people seem to go along with awful things because they are afraid of what the others will think of them- or of what the others will do to them. The immigration crisis of this past year has been inflamed by hysterical media types (such as Lou Dobbs) that seem to continuously seek a symbolic lynching of undocumented immigrants. If more people would take a stand there could actually be some change. But if people continue to cave in to conservative pressure, as has John McCain, then the mob mentality continues.

This piece by Mark Twain is rarely quoted. It was written in 1901 but not published until 1924 in - Europe and Elsewhere by Albert Bigelow Paine. Twain told a friend that if he actually wrote a complete book on lynching "I shouldn't have even half a friend left down there [in the South], after it issued from the press." - Obviously he was also concerned about what people would think...
______

The United States of Lyncherdom
by Mark Twain

...perhaps the remedy... comes to this: station a brave man in each affected community to encourage, support, and bring to light the deep disapproval of lynching hidden in the secret places of its heart--for it is there, beyond question. Then those communities will find something better to imitate--of course, being human, they must imitate something. Where shall these brave men be found? That is indeed a difficulty; there are not three hundred of them in the earth. If merely physically brave men would do, then it were easy; they could be furnished by the cargo. When Hobson called for seven volunteers to go with him to what promised to be certain death, four thousand men responded--the whole fleet, in fact. Because all the world would approve. They knew that; but if Hobson's project had been charged with the scoffs and jeers of the friends and associates, whose good opinion and approval the sailors valued, he could not have got his seven...

For the complete essay:

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam482e/lyncherdom.html
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McCain Changes Course on Immigration

Salon.com
By JENNIFER TALHELM Associated Press Writer

August 02,2007 | WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship.

The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year....

...McCain's immigration position has been a campaign liability among Republican voters and hurt his efforts to raise money. Other GOP presidential candidates, fellow Arizona Republicans and immigration opponents throughout the country have loudly decried his position.

Observers said McCain's switch was political. "He recognizes his position on the issue is killing him," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.

...Immigrants' rights advocates jumped to condemn their decision. "It is fairly stunning they have gone from leaders on comprehensive reform legislation to lemmings running over the cliff" with the Republican opponents of the bill, said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8QP68K80.html