WASHINGTON — Just last year, an increasingly powerful grass-roots movement celebrated its success in killing an effort to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants. Its influence spread as a procession of presidential candidates proclaimed their support.
But now there are just two candidates for the nation's top office, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). And both have taken immigration stands that restrictionist groups find appalling.
Although heavily supported and highly organized, those who oppose illegal immigration suddenly find themselves without a champion.
"That's the reality we're dealing with: a choice we don't consider a choice," said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which advocates stricter controls on legal and illegal immigration. "These two guys were pretty much at the bottom of all the candidates. They're the worst, the bottom of the barrel, that ended up winning."
But a loose coalition of activist groups has rejected the prospect of sitting out the presidential campaign, or waiting until next time.
Instead, groups have begun working to hem in the future president. They have pushed for new city and state laws, helping spur hundreds of bills around the country in the last three months. They've held conferences to educate members nationwide and lobby local officials. And they're promoting the election of congressional candidates who take a hard line on immigration.
The strategy is to reshape the national political landscape to fend off future liberalization proposals.
"We're doing everything we can to dig in, in the states and in Congress," said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee.
The picture looked much rosier a few months ago, as far as these groups were concerned. The field of Republican presidential candidates included two -- Reps. Duncan Hunter of Alpine and Tom Tancredo of Colorado -- who ran campaigns based largely on their opposition to illegal immigration.
But Obama and McCain are seen as generally indistinguishable on the issue. McCain, while toughening his stance recently, has backed proposals providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Obama favors a similar mix of enforcement and legalization.
"The chances of influencing one of these two guys to take a pro-worker, pro-environment position are very low," said Beck. However, "bringing public pressure to bear to not dismantle enforcement and improve border security has some chance of success."
