WASHINGTON — Despite deep divisions within its ranks, the Republican Party formally endorsed a guest-worker program Friday that would permit more workers from abroad to work legally and temporarily in the United States.
The vote by the Republican National Committee averted a potentially embarrassing setback for President Bush, who has called for a guest-worker program. The vote preempted an Arizona activist's resolution that argued that permitting guest workers would fuel more illegal immigration.
Bush has said a guest-worker plan must be a central element of the immigration law overhaul now moving through Congress. The Republican National Committee, the party's steering panel, typically acts in lock step with the White House -- particularly on topics such as immigration, which is emerging as a top-tier issue in this year's congressional elections and in states with growing numbers of Latino voters.
Bush aides and senior Republican strategists say that taking a hard-line stance against illegal immigration risks alienating Latino voters, just as California's 1994 campaign for Proposition 187, which GOP then-Gov. Pete Wilson supported, helped turn California into a Democrat-dominated state.
But the Arizona activist and national committee member, Randy Pullen, reminded his colleagues and a crowd of reporters that he represents the views of many rank-and-file Republicans -- as well as those of the House leadership, which has pushed legislation to strengthen border enforcement but has not touched on a guest-worker plan.
Letting workers from abroad take jobs legally "is not acceptable to my voters in Arizona," he said. "I have not yet heard a guest-worker program articulated that would possibly work."
Pullen withdrew his resolution Friday after the full committee voted almost unanimously to side with Bush, urged on by a series of speeches by committee members who said they or their relatives were immigrants.
"We as a party ought to stand united behind our president," said Lilly Nunez, a national committee member from Colorado.
Pullen was the only committee member to oppose the guest-worker proposal, though nine other members had initially signed onto his resolution, which warned that a guest-worker plan would "result in more illegal immigration and increased crime in our country."
Pullen told his fellow Republican National Committee members that he had received thousands of e-mails in support. He read one aloud, quoting the sender thanking him for "standing up for we little guys."
