PROVO, Utah — Four years ago, U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon told the audience at a Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund dinner: "We love immigrants in Utah. We don't make distinctions between legal and illegal."
Two weeks ago, the Utah Republican sent a video to party activists saying that he was tough on illegal immigration and that the nation had to secure its borders.
What a difference a few years make in the contentious world of immigration politics.
A prominent champion of immigrant rights in Washington, Cannon says he hasn't changed his position. Instead, he has repackaged it in reaction to a nationwide backlash against illegal immigration.
The raging debate on immigration reform has drowned out nuanced positions even in Utah, a conservative but paradoxically immigrant-friendly state.
Cannon faces a reelection challenge from two Republicans who circulated a tape of the speech he gave to the Legal Defense Fund.
"Right now," he said, "we're emphasizing enforcement."
Other Republican politicians have adopted strategies similar to Cannon's. In December, the House passed a bill that calls for a fence to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border and that would make every illegal immigrant in the U.S. a felon. Utah's delegation -- two Republicans and one Democrat -- supported the bill. Cannon says he voted for the law only after he was promised it would be watered down in conference committee.
The Senate this month came close to passing a more welcoming bill that would create a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally. Orrin Hatch, Utah's senior senator who once backed a measure that would have legalized undocumented immigrants who excel in college, opposed the legislation. Hatch now says border security is the top priority.
Republicans -- who control Congress -- are struggling to reconcile the sharp divisions. But analysts say mounting frustration among conservative voters may make that impossible.
"The Republicans who are running for Congress around the country are all sounding the security mantra more than the comprehensive guest-worker one," said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan analyst in Washington. "The issue is so explosive that any member who's trying to take a measured and balanced position is likely to rile up part of his base."
The moderates' shift in rhetoric "puts a finger, a pinkie on the scale" and tilts the debate in Congress away from guest-worker programs and closer to stalemate, Rothenberg said.
