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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: ALIEN BILL HAS LITTLE DE-FENCE May 25, 2007 -- TO UNDERSTAND why the Senate immigration bill won't survive in its current form, look no further than what the presidential candidates in both parties have said about it. Almost every one of them is opposed to it. Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards, reflective of the left, say it's too harsh. Mitt Romney and most Republicans, aware of outrage on the right, say it's too lenient and amounts to "amnesty." Some of the most encouraging reviews come from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Keenly aware of how politically explosive immigration is for the base of both of their parties, they are running from the issue. Clinton went as far as promising to read the proposed legislation "carefully" before passing judgment on it. The only candidate on either side to wholeheartedly embrace the bill is Arizona Sen. John McCain, who helped craft the compromise. And it very well may prove to be his final undoing because the Republican base is most furious about it. For years, McCain has earned the deep enmity of conservatives by co-authoring a bill that would grant some 12 million illegal aliens now in the country citizenship rights without making them first return to their home countries. Making matters worse, his co-author has been Sen. Ted Kennedy, viewed by conservatives as the biggest bogeyman of all. So, it's no surprise that the current immigration deal has provoked the first real fireworks among candidates for the Republican nomination. One of those running, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, is running on only one issue: immigration. Most of the barbs lately have been directed - named or unnamed - at McCain. Feeling the heat, he lashed back at Romney, who takes a much stronger stance against "amnesty" today than in past years before he was running as the conservative alternative in the race for the GOP nomination. Of Romney's current criticism, McCain said: "Maybe I should wait a couple of weeks and see if it changes because it's changed in less than a year from his position before." Already, the bill has barely survived a series of votes in the Senate. Just yesterday, Kennedy managed to keep the fragile deal together by killing one amendment that would have sunk the whole thing. With so much to lose and so little to gain, the White House hopefuls - and their fellow politicians - have little reason to stick their necks out to support a bill that includes so much that so many hate.
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