There's a very interesting analysis in today's Denver Post about how immigration is becoming a major issue "like free trade, federal spending and religious conservativism - that exacerbates 'fault lines' in the Republican Party." According to Republican strategist Ed Rollins, "I know of no issue that is more divisive among Republicans today as this one," pitting business interests (who rely on cheap labor by immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere) against social conservatives ("alarmed by the cultural, economic and environmental effects of immigration"). Unfortunately for President Bush, his "guest worker" plan, under which "illegal immigrants and foreign nationals to work in the United States for up to six years," is drawing criticsm from "both sides of the political spectrum." According to an article in yesterday's Washington Post, "[c]riticism rained on the plan even though the administration sought to bridge the ideological divide by borrowing from two competing immigration reform proposals already in the Senate." The Post quotes anti-immigrant Republican Tom Tancredo (R-CO), for example, as follows:
Bringing workers out of the shadows is simply another way of saying we should legalize illegal immigrants. Yes, we should bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows, and then return them to their home country.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator John McCain decries the "element, particularly in my party, that says, 'Send them all back!'" In contrast to the Tom Tancredo Republicans, McCain -- like Bush -- favors a "guest worker" program while tightening border security, and has co-sponsored a bill with liberal Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to this effect.
Bush's "guest worker" plan even drew a "skeptical response from the leader of his home state" (Gov. Rick Perry of Texas), who said that "Until the U.S.-Mexican border is secured to the point that we have substantially stopped the illegal trafficking of people and narcotics and terror, any discussion about a guest worker program is premature."
The point is, illegal immigration is a hot issue, but Republicans like Jerry Kilgore who think they can use it as a "wedge issue" against Democrats had better be careful. It could very well turn out that the "wedge" is widest in their own party, and that the "fault lines" open up on THEM if they're not careful.