Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

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A TIME poll conducted last week suggests broad support for a policy makeover. Of those surveyed, 82% said they believe the government is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants out of the country, and a large majority (75%) would deny them government services such as health care and food stamps. Half (51%) said children who are here illegally shouldn't be allowed to attend public schools. But only 1 in 4 would support making it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, as the House voted to do when it approved the tough enforcement bill submitted by Wisconsin Republican F. James Sensenbrenner. Rather than expel illegal immigrants from the country, more than three-quarters of those polled (78%) favored allowing citizenship for those who are already here, if they have a job, demonstrate proficiency in English and pay their taxes.

Some House Republicans are starting to feel pressure at home over their hard-line stance. In Reading, Pa., a Hispanic lawyer named Angel Figueroa arranged a meeting last month for his Congressman Jim Gerlach--who faces a tight race this fall--and voters in his district who oppose the House bill, which Gerlach supported. The meeting included not only immigrant-advocacy groups but also the president of the local community college, the head of a federally funded labor-training-and-placement company, the personnel director of a mushroom-growing company and a local Catholic priest. After listening to their arguments, Gerlach appeared to be reconsidering his vote. "One of the saving aspects of our democracy is our ability to fix mistakes," he told his constituents. "I supported the House bill," he said to TIME. "But we need to move the ball forward, and I agree wholeheartedly that that is not the final policy coming out of Congress."

House leaders are also showing a new flexibility. "We're going to look at all alternatives," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who voted yes on the Sensenbrenner bill, said two days after the Senate committee's action. "We're not going to discount anything right now. Our first priority is to protect the border. And we also know there is a need in some sections of the economy for a guest-worker program." House majority leader John Boehner has begun talking dismissively about the feasibility of the 700-mile fence that the House voted to build along the border.

But many others in the House, seeing the direction that the Senate is taking, are only digging in deeper. More than a third of House Republicans belong to the anti-immigration caucus led by Congressman Tancredo of Colorado. (Only two Democrats are members.) After the Senate Judiciary Committee voted, more than a dozen of them held a news conference denouncing it. "It would be like a dinner bell. 'Come one, come all,'" said Colorado Representative Bob Beauprez.