http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3261058

Colorado observers skeptical of revised immigration plan
By Michael Riley and Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writers

President Bush's trip to the Arizona desert Monday began a month-long push to gain wiggle room for the administration in the immigration debate, an effort to calm roiling anger among hard-line Republicans with tough talk on enforcement.

But if Bush hoped the new approach would resuscitate his 2- year-old guest-worker proposal and open the way for immigration-reform legislation next year, Colorado observers on both sides of the debate say he's likely to be disappointed.

"He's trying to walk a middle road, and I'm not buying it," said state Rep. Dave Schultheis, R- Colorado Springs, who plans to push bills in the next legislative session to crack down on illegal immigrants in the state.

Republicans like Schultheis were among the main targets of Bush's speech. But the president's repackaged immigration proposal didn't please pro-immigrant advocates, either.

"He's trying to walk that tightrope in between two sides," said Danielle Short of the American Friends Service Committee in Denver, a human-rights group. "He's in a tough position. Unfortunately, he's capitulating."

But it's opponents within his party who have worried Bush the most in recent months.

Since midsummer, presidential adviser Karl Rove has been meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, recasting Bush's original guest-worker proposal to lessen criticism that it amounted to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

On Monday, Bush vowed never to sign immigration reform that included amnesty, a charge that has traction with many conservative critics.

"He keeps redefining amnesty," said U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, widely regarded as Congress' top advocate for tougher immigration laws.

"If you tell people who are here illegally that they can stay three, six years, that is amnesty. We all know they won't return home, and we all know we won't make them," he said.

Tancredo said that although the speech marked a shift in tone, there were few new offerings in the president's plan.

"We have pushed him hard," Tancredo said. "To the extent that he is willing to begin to shift the position he's taken so long, that's encouraging."

But Jan Herron, a backer of a proposed ballot initiative that would cut off services to illegal immigrants in Colorado, was less encouraged.

"I totally disagree with the president," Herron said. "I'm a Republican, and I don't like what he's doing. I think the majority of the party doesn't like what he's doing, and I think the Republican Party is in big trouble."