Amnesty foe Kyl working on new immigration bill

AZ senator tries to find compromise amid worries over how tough law will be

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — In just a year, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona has transformed from determined opponent of a bipartisan immigration overhaul plan to a key player in President Bush's efforts to enact one.

The turnabout for Kyl — the No. 3 Republican in the Senate and one of his party's steadiest conservatives — illustrates how dramatically the complex debate has shifted in the wake of the 2006 elections.

A year ago, Kyl was in the midst of a tough re-election race in a border state racked by strong feelings about immigration. He was adamantly opposed to a Senate-passed plan that allowed illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship and created a guest worker program for new arrivals. He called it "critically flawed" and said it put the interests of illegal immigrants before those of American workers.

Now, Kyl is spending hours virtually each afternoon cloistered in a Senate office with administration officials and Democrats, hard at work on just such a measure.