Migrant bill volatile for McCain

Carolyn Hileman* | June 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - John McCain’s immigration problem is not going anywhere.

For months, McCain and other Republicans who want to overhaul immigration laws have pushed back against grass-roots conservatives outraged over the legislation, which stalled in the Senate on Thursday night but is not dead.

As the bill evolved, the issue emerged as one of the most volatile for the Republican senator from Arizona as he seeks his party’s nomination for president. Rivals and voters alike have accused him of seeking amnesty for immigrants who broke the law to live here.
Supporters of the bill, including President Bush, Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, Democrats in Congress and immigrant advocacy groups, have promised to try to bring it back. That means the intense pressure from conservative voters isn’t likely to let up.

“If McCain really wants to poke the Republican base in the eye, trying to revive this bill would be the best way to do that,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. “If he derives perverse pleasure from dividing his party, that’s what’ll do it. He could end up having a lot of fun, but he’s not going to be president.”

Campaigning in Iowa on Friday, McCain said most of the country approved of the bill. But he also said he would push ahead regardless of the politics of the issue.

“I do what I know is right for America,” he said. “The people of Arizona sent me to Washington to do the hard things. They didn’t expect me to go there and say ‘No,’ and do nothing about our broken border in Arizona. They expect me to act to preserve our security and also address the humane side of it. Two hundred people died in the desert of Arizona last year trying to come across.”

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