Immigration impasse long in the making

Calculus changed since '04 when Bush won big Latino vote share

by Tom Curry
National affairs writer
msnbc.com
updated 7/29/2010 2:27:12 PM ET

The current turmoil in Arizona is no sudden eruption. Tensions over the issue of illegal immigration have been building for years, aided by the inability of presidents and Congress to enact a comprehensive approach to reform.

Highly emotional to many Americans, illegal immigration is also extremely complicated, revolving around issues of security, labor, and the eventual fate of an estimated 11 million people unlawfully living in the United States.

The failure to reconcile those issues has led to the current face-off between the federal government and the state of Arizona over the enforcement of immigration law.

As things stand now, the situation in Arizona politically amounts to a standoff between a Democratic president whose opposes the law; the Republican governor who signed it; and the state's senior Republican senator (and 2008 presidential nominee) who's flipped on the issue in recent years.

And pressures within both parties have combined to stall and further complicate matters.

Bush's Latino effort
The politics of immigration looked different back in 2000 when Republican George W. Bush campaigned for president using the slogan, “family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande.â€