Bush embrace of immigration bill splits GOP

WASHINGTON — President Bush's embrace of compromise immigration legislation has split the Republican Party, as several GOP presidential candidates quickly came out against the deal and the conservative base reacted with fury.

Key figures on the right, including conservative talk radio hosts, analysts at the Heritage Foundation and National Review columnists, derided the agreement as a sell-out of conservative principles, while GOP presidential candidates criticized the plan as a form of amnesty — a characterization rejected by the White House.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who last year said similar efforts for a comprehensive immigration bill were "reasonable," called the deal reached this week the "wrong approach" to the problem. "Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new 'Z Visa' does, is a form of amnesty," he said.

Although the White House is also facing an uproar on the left, the conservative reaction underscores both the volatile role immigration continues to play in GOP politics and the fact that Bush has encountered only mixed success in moving his party toward a vision of an open, pro-immigrant society he has promoted since he was governor of Texas. Bush once hoped the vision might help realign American politics by bringing Hispanics into the GOP tent, but as it is, GOP opposition is a key impediment to his realizing a final big domestic victory before the end of his presidency.

White House officials said they fully anticipated the conservative reaction and acknowledge they face a big challenge in educating even their strongest supporters about a bill that would provide increased border security, create a temporary worker program and allow many of the 12 million illegal immigrants a chance to earn a green card if they pay fines and return first to their country of origin. The Senate will debate the measure next week, with the House expected to take up the issue sometime this summer.

Tensions have already run high among Senate Republicans who have been immersed in negotiations over the bill. Presidential aspirant Sen. John McCain, one of the Senate's strongest champions for the immigration bill, has been pilloried by his rivals for pushing a comprehensive approach to the issue. In a bipartisan meeting on the bill Thursday morning, the tensions apparently boiled over.