"Immigants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it it was them!"

This year's hot-button political issue? IMMIGRANTS.

Washington Post: Immigration Debate Is Shaped by '08 Election-

President Bush’s effort to secure lawful employment opportunities for illegal immigrants is evolving into an early battle of the 2008 presidential campaign, as his would-be White House successors jockey for position ahead of next week’s immigration showdown in the Senate.

Bush called on Congress yesterday to tone down the increasingly sharp and divisive rhetoric over immigration, as he renewed his push for a guest-worker plan that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States. But Bush’s political sway is already weakened by public unease about the war in Iraq and by Republican divisions.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), whom Bush helped elect as party leader, is threatening to bring a new immigration bill to the Senate floor early next week. It would tighten control of the nation’s borders without creating the guest-worker program the president wants...

Sadly, this important debate will be ruled more by xenophobia and politics than common sense.

Let's see... The conservatives don't want Mexicans taking their jobs (when they come to the suburbs and mow their lawns instead), so Republicans want tougher immigration laws. On the other hand, many hispanics are strong Republican voters, so they can't be too tough. And Big Business wants cheap, abusable labor, so guest worker programs are important. How best for a politician to balance the demands of their anti-immigration base with these other factors? Ohhh, this will be an interesting to watch and I don't imagine common sense will prevail.

Marc Cooper has an interesting article on this issue at Truth Dig:
The Great Immigration Debate: Getting Beyond Denial