GOP immigration strategy may hurt McCain

By Matt Stearns | McClatchy Newspapers

• Posted on Sunday, March 16, 2008

Kevin G. Hall / MCT

A smuggler who goes by the nickname Tacohuayo leads a group of illegal aliens through the border fence erected by the U.S. government in Nogales, Arizona. | View larger image

WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans continue to push a hard line on illegal immigration, even though that could hinder John McCain’s efforts to win over Latino voters in November.

Since McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination earlier this month, conservative Republican senators have introduced a series of tough illegal-immigration measures. In the House of Representatives, immigration hard-liners are trying to force a vote on an enforcement bill, with the support of some conservative Democrats.

McCain has opposed most of his party’s hardest stands on illegal-immigration law. Instead, he was a key broker of a bipartisan comprehensive bill that collapsed last year because of grassroots conservative opponents who condemned it as amnesty.

So McCain “is very much respected and loved in the Latino community,” said Cecilia Munoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino interest group.

But that respect and love could be tested.

“(McCain) does stand to be hurt by everything else that’s happening in the Republican Party,” Munoz said. “The Republican brand in the community has been very heavily tarnished of late. It’s unclear whether John McCain can undo it alone.”

Congressional Republicans say they’re only doing what the American people want: trying to solve a tough problem.

“There’s nothing here that represents an attempt to embarrass him,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of McCain when introducing his tough measures.

“I don’t understand how a bipartisan border security bill in the House would have an impact on the presidential campaign,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).  [more here]