Graham, Who Helped Immigrant, Sees No Conflict with Current Stand

Miami Herald: Six years ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a rare type of bill that blocked the U.S. government from punishing an South Carolina high school girl for a crime her mother had committed long ago by smuggling her across the Mexico border. Seven months ago, Griselda Lopez Negrete graduated from the University of South Carolina with an honors degree in business administration - and as a permanent legal resident of the United States on a path toward citizenship. Graham, though, has trod a different path. Three years after promoting a landmark immigration reform bill, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is now joining hard-liners in opposing a measure that would grant the same protections to children of illegal immigrants that he provided Negrete in 2004. Graham sees no contradiction between his past support for immigration overhauls - branded as "amnesty" by his fellow South Carolina Republican, Sen. Jim DeMint - and his current stance against a measure to create a conditional route to citizenship for as many as 500,000 children of illegal immigrants. The House of Representatives passed the DREAM Act - Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors - late Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to vote on it next week. "I'm not saying the DREAM Act is bad," Graham told McClatchy Thursday. "I'm saying that the DREAM Act done by itself is a formula for disaster because you're inviting people to come here illegally."