POLITICO

Immigration reform a 'no-win' issue

By JONATHAN MARTIN | 4/26/10 4:54 AM EDT
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The Arizona Legislature’s passage of a new hard-line anti-immigration law may force both Democrats and Republicans into a place they don’t want to be: dealing with the contentious, no-win issue of immigration reform in the midst of an election year.

The Arizona bill — passed on a party-line vote by the state’s Republican legislators and signed into law by the Republican governor — has come under intense fire from President Barack Obama and other Democrats in Washington.

But the polarizing issue is fraught with peril for both parties — so much so that, when asked about the politics of it all, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie paraphrases the words of Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: “When immigration is an issue, nobody wins.â€