Rep. calls bill ‘unholy coalition’

Taking an unusually hard line against President Bush, U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher recently slammed the president in a 60-minute speech on Capitol Hill opposing the immigration reform bill being debated in the Senate. Observers say that on an issue splitting Bush sharply from his conservative base, the reaction was expected.

“The president insists on defining amnesty in a way that is contrary to the way everybody else defines that word,” Rohrabacher said June 6. “Every time he does, he loses credibility.”

Calling himself a strong supporter of Bush throughout his administration, Rohrabacher said that this time he was personally offended by Bush’s suggestions that the bill was good for America. He repeatedly referred to it as the “Bush-Kennedy” bill, linking Bush to Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and he blamed the bill on an “unholy coalition between the big-business element of the Republican Party and the liberal left.”

“There are so many terrible aspects of this bill, that the bill’s intent was clearly not the right intent to begin with,” he said. “It was not intended to stem illegal immigration; it obviously had some other intent.”

Because Bush actively chose to sidestep his core supporters in pursuit of a domestic legacy, Republicans like Rohrabacher may feel the need to respond more acutely, said Louis DeSipio, associate professor of political science and Chicano/Latino studies at UC Irvine, who studies the politics of immigration.

“This is sort of the only issue where [Bush] can actually ally with a majority of Democrats,” DeSipio said. “The base is breaking off from the president, but remember, the president is breaking off from his base as well.”

Rohrabacher spent the bulk of his time on the bill’s “z-visa” provision, which would give those in the country illegally a renewable form of legal residency in exchange for $1,000. He called it an amnesty that would give millions of lawbreakers access to government programs like Social Security, and he said it let illegal immigrants cut the line in front of legal immigrants. He also attacked a proposed guest worker program and a points system to decide who would be allowed to come to the country legally.

The bill has no teeth in its enforcement provisions and would only embolden people to sneak across borders to get government benefits, Rohrabacher said.

“Wake up America,” he said. “Our country is being stolen from us. Our country is being invaded. The Senate legislation will only accelerate this invasion.”

California Republican elected officials are less divided than those nationwide, DeSipio said. Economic conservatives — who in other states support guest worker programs — have tended to unite with social conservatives for border enforcement and against legalization. But voters are as divided as anywhere, he added.

The bill was pulled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week after losing a vote to limit debate, but Bush said this week he would continue efforts to get it passed.