Immigrants hear mixed messages

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By Stephen Dinan

'08 ISSUES:

Immigration ties politicians in knots.

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama agree on the end goal - granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants - yet disagree about how to get there.

The public is even more conflicted, telling pollsters that they don't want to reward those who entered the U.S. illegally and don't want an increase in immigration, but do want a solution to the problem and are open to giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

"Both presidential candidates are going to want to do it, and both are going to be challenged to get enough Republican support. But McCain's got an added challenge - he's going to be challenged to get enough Democratic support," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, which pushes for a broad agreement that backers call comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.

An effort to solve all of the immigration problems at once collapsed in the Senate last year, defeated by a majority filibuster. Mr. Sharry and others who follow the issue say the next president will have to work to form a coalition that can do better.

Both top candidates are promising to try.

"I would make my first priority comprehensive immigration reform. We will pick up where we left off," Mr. McCain, a senator from Arizona with a long history of working on the issue, told Univision's Al Punto program this weekend.

Immigration is an emotional issue that goes to competing beliefs that the United States is a nation of immigrants, but also a nation of laws. Although it is a cliche, that view is still seen as a fundamental tenet.

Beneath the cover of that ambiguity, illegal immigration has exploded. The issue is another part of unfinished business that President Bush will leave to his successor.