More on Arizona Republican Politics

Arizona, where more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants live and 3,800 more try to enter daily from Mexico, has become the epicenter of a national debate that has split Republicans and created another obstacle to their continued control of Congress.

Republican Representative Jim Kolbe, who’s retiring, has refused to endorse the man who won his party’s nomination to succeed him because of what he calls “profound and fundamental” differences over immigration.

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, the chief sponsor of pro- immigration legislation, argues with Representative J.D. Hayworth, author of a book called “Whatever It Takes” that attacks America’s failure to secure the border with Mexico. The state’s other Republican senator, Jon Kyl, voted against the McCain plan and is running for re-election against a Democrat who supports it.

“Because we are a border state, we probably are more aware of all the different issues wrapped up in immigration,” said Farrell Quinlan, vice president of policy development and communications at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Phoenix.

The Republican schism has widened this year as Congress deadlocked over a proposal favored by President George W. Bush to adopt a guest-worker program coupled with tougher border controls. Click here.

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