Apparently so…

“After a week at home with their constituents, the Senate architects of a delicate immigration compromise are increasingly convinced that they will hold together this week to pass an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, with momentum building behind one unifying theme: Today’s immigration system is too broken to go unaddressed.

Congress’s week-long Memorial Day recess was expected to leave the bill in tatters. But with a week of action set to begin today, the legislation’s champions say they believe that the voices of opposition, especially from conservatives, represent a small segment of public opinion. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who led negotiations on the bill for his party, said the flood of angry calls and protests that greeted the deal two weeks ago has since receded every day.

“You just have to recognize you will get 300 calls, you’ll get conflicts at town hall meetings — all of them negative,” said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who consulted with Kyl and hopes to carry a similar deal through the House in July. “The last few days have really turned things around.”

Public opinion polls seem to support Kyl’s contention that Americans are far more open to the deal than the voices of opposition would indicate. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today, 52 percent of Americans said they would support a program giving illegal immigrants the right to stay and work in the United States if they pay a fine and meet other requirements. Opposition to that proposal was 44 percent.

So far, the dozen senators who cut the deal have been able to hold their compromise together. They have beaten back amendments that the group deemed to be coalition-killers, such as one to strike the bill’s temporary-worker program and another to remove its provisions to legalize the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

This week’s amendments are more subtle, and therefore, more threatening to the coalition.”

Well perhaps, but the real debate will begin this week. The proponents of the bill seem to want to push it through before the American people actually get a peek at what’s inside the bill, which makes polling them at this point worthless.

There will however still be a battle…

“For Republicans in the coalition, opposing such amendments will only increase the pressure they are facing at home. Over the break, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) were booed at their state party conventions. And President Bush’s attempt to give Republicans political cover by praising the deal may have backfired. Republican opponents in the House now call the proposal the “Kennedy-Bush Amnesty” bill.

“I just know that we’ve got a tough week ahead of us,” Kyl said.”

Again, regardless of the polls, the fact is that there is substantial pushback from the base as we know that donations for the GOP across the board are down 40 percent and growing. Here on local talk radio you don’t infer from the callers that there is wide support for the bill, even a diverse and immigrant based population. In fact the polls they’re doing in South Florida are showing strong opposition to the bill from within the Latin community.

I will agree, as I’ve said all along, that the current system is broken and needs to be fixed, but this bill in its current form is not the fix. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Via Hot Air, the other side is a the 16 point drop in Republican support in two weeks. Again, polls are helpful, but essentially useless at this point as I doubt many of the respondents have a clue about the content of the bill. Again, let’s hope there is real debate on this and not what appears to be a rush to get it done before anyone knows what hit them.