Border Justice

The call by George W. Bush for major reform of our failed immigration policy was undoubtedly made with election-year eyes fixed on the growing Latino vote. But less than a week later, a coalition of Latino, civil rights and labor groups responded with a TV ad campaign in Spanish labeling the Bush proposals insufficient and skewed toward corporate employers.

The proposals would make many of the estimated 8 million to 14 million undocumented immigrants in the United States eligible for temporary legal status, with new guestworker visas renewable for three-year periods. And employers could bring in new immigrant workers on the same terms. But these programs would provide no clear path to permanent-resident status or citizenship and would risk creating a new class of second-tier residents, just as the labor-backed TV spot warns.

Still, the heaviest fire against the President's proposals comes not from the left but from his own right wing, laying bare the GOP's Wall Street/Main Street tensions. Corporate America favors the plan as one that would stabilize its coveted low-wage work force. The White House seeks an expanded Latino vote, and border-state Republicans like Arizona Senator John McCain--who has already introduced a reform proposal--seek practical solutions to problems that are overwhelming their districts. In this election year, however, scores of Republican Congress members, ensconced in safe, conservative, mostly white districts, find no allure in appealing to Latinos, and a restrictionist view on immigration prevails within the Republican caucus.

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