Immigration Driving A Wedge Through Republican Party

Sarah Palin went of Fox News and made the laughable case that President Barack Obama doesn't understand how immigration is going to hurt the Democrats.

I think that President Obama is playing to his base on this one. And I think that's quite unfortunate because this isn't fair to the legal immigrants. It's not fair to illegal immigrants either, who do want to — many of them want to come here and find that pathway to citizenship. They, wanting to seek the right way to get over here.

This is allowing them, though, a dis-opportunity. They're going to have to hide while they're here. They're not going to be able to seize the opportunities that they sought coming over here.

So it's a lose-lose all around proposal all around for President Obama and his administration to ignore their responsibility and not enforce the laws that are existing. Again, Governor Brewer and her legislature, they did the right thing, 70 percent of Arizonians who support this law are doing the right thing in sending this wakeup call to the feds.

If the GOP wants to use Sarah Palin as a political strategist than more power to them. Immigration has been a wedge issue within the Republican Party. Jeb Bush has come out against the Arizona ID bill.

"I think it creates unintended consequences," he said in a telephone interview with POLITICO Tuesday. "It's difficult for me to imagine how you're going to enforce this law. It places a significant burden on local law enforcement and you have civil liberties issues that are significant as well."

Senate candidate Marco Rubio followed Bush's lead.

But, Rubio added, "I think that the law has potential unintended consequences and it's one of the reasons why I think immigration needs to be a federal issue, not a state one."

More specifically, Rubio said, "Everyone is concerned with the prospect of the 'reasonable suspicion' provisions, where individuals can be pulled over because someone suspects that they may not be legal in this country. I think over time people will grow uncomfortable with that."

On the prospect of suspects showing documentation to police to prove they are legal, Rubio said, "That's not really something that Americans are comfortable with, the notion of a police state."

Democrats won the Hispanic vote in 2006 and 2008. Palin's strategy for going far-right on immigration will alienate the growing Hispanic voting bloc.

A perfect illustration of how scared Republicans are of immigration: Congressional Republicans have lamented the lack of federal progress on immigration reform. Rachel Maddow compiled a video of Republicans saying that it is not the right time to tackle immigration reform. Maybe there would be progress if Republicans actually attempt to pass an immigration reform bill.

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