John McCain accuses Barack Obama of scuttling immigration overhaul

Polls have shown Obama leading McCain among Latino voters by margins of 2 to 1 or more. But immigration, an issue important to many Latinos, largely has been relegated to the back burner in the campaign.

The issue resurfaced this week as McCain issued a Spanish-language ad in the key states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that sought to blame Obama for the failure of congressional immigration overhaul efforts in 2007. McCain repeated that argument at an appearance before a Puerto Rican group in Florida.

McCain's assertions were denounced by Democrats and immigration organizations as misleading. Immigration hard-liners, on the other hand, were perplexed by McCain's campaign tactic.

The 30-second ad, "Which Side Are They On?" opens with a narrator saying: "Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?"

The ad goes on to cite media reports that the campaign said showed Obama supported provisions that doomed passage of the immigration bill. It finishes by asking, "Is that being on our side?"

Campaigning in Florida this week, McCain again accused Obama of helping scuttle immigration reform last year.

"Sen. Obama proposed amendments that would have killed the legislation," McCain said in Orlando, speaking Monday before the Puerto Rican Assn. of Central Florida. "I fought for it."

McCain cosponsored a failed immigration overhaul bill in 2006 with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Perhaps fearful of conservative anger over his immigration stance, McCain conspicuously avoided getting involved in talks on the 2007 bill.

Democrats and immigration groups also pointed out that in January, during the GOP presidential primary, McCain dramatically scaled back his support for immigration overhaul efforts.

"Enough is enough," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement about the ad. "The man who said he would vote against his own immigration bill during the Republican presidential debates, who was unwilling to stand up to his own party when they approved an anti-immigrant platform, cannot attack Democrats on immigration in Spanish while pandering to the extreme right . . . of the Republican Party in English."