Letter From Washington
Republicans Divided on How to Handle Illegal Immigrants
By ALBERT R. HUNT | BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: January 16, 2011


WASHINGTON — Republicans, riding high in Washington and in most state capitals, are sitting on a time bomb: immigration.

There’s a division coursing through the party; many Tea Party movement types and social conservatives believe the tough-on-immigration posture paid dividends in the November elections and want to ratchet up actions and pressure. Congressional leaders want to put the issue on the back burner.

Thus the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, plans to assail Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. over his opposition to Arizona’s anti-immigration measure and push to enact more punitive laws. Simultaneously, the speaker of the House, John A. Boehner of Ohio, made sure the chairmanship of the immigration subcommittee was denied to Representative Steve King, the virulently anti-immigration congressman from Iowa who, in calling for an electric fence to be erected on the border, likened illegal immigrants to “livestock.â€