AUSTIN — Immigration now is a wedge issue in Texas Republican politics - dividing the traditional conservative coalition, pitting social conservatives against hard-liners.

Evangelical ministers in Texas and across the nation are splitting off from the hard right, declaring immigration reform is needed that includes a path to citizenship without first deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

That aligns evangelicals with conservative Republican businessmen who want reform because they want the labor. But it puts the evangelicals at odds with the fiscal and hard right conservatives who take the position that illegal immigrants broke the law and should be deported before being given a chance to re-enter the country.

"It may split the old conservative coalition. It's not going to split the new one," said Richard Land, a Houston native who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

"If the conservative coalition is going to be a governing coalition, it's going to have to include an awful lot of Hispanics, and you're not going to bring an awful lot of Hispanics into your coalition with anti-Hispanic immigration rhetoric," Land said.

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who is pushing for a tough Arizona-style immigration law for Texas, said evangelical ministers who promote immigration reform risk losing their congregations and the White House in the future.

Pursuit of balance

"It could cause a divide in the right. There's no question about it," Berman said. "The right in Texas, the Baptist, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the people on the right, just don't want to see that happen. So, they might be causing problems within their own churches."

A federal court halted implementation of major portions of the Arizona law on Wednesday.

The U.S. Pastor Council, an evangelical group based in Houston, organized ministers across America on July 4 to talk to their congregations about a "solid balance between justice (the rule of law) and compassion (treating all people with dignity and respect)."

Rick Scarborough, an evangelical minister who runs Vision America in Lufkin said he agrees with the position of some of his fellow ministers in principle but does not believe any reform will work until the borders are secure. Scarborough said he believes liberals are co-opting Land and others to promote amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"What the average rank and file (evangelicals), 70 percent of them will tell you they want nothing done until our border is secure," Scarborough said.

However, he added he does not believe anything will be done on immigration or border security until after this year's elections.

"It's as hot as it can be in the hearts and minds of the people, but the political class on neither side wants to deal with it right now," he said. "Both of them see it as a losing proposition."

In the Texas governor's race, Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White have been treading carefully.

White, whom critics claim presided over a "sanctuary city" while mayor of Houston, generally does not mention immigration unless it is brought up in a question from his audience. Perry, who has said he opposes an Arizona-style law for Texas, emphasizes border security.

During a recent visit to Aspen, Colo., for a meeting of Republican governors he outlined a potential path to citizenship.

Need the workers

Bill Hammond, president of the Republican-leaning Texas Association of Business, said the state's businesses need the foreign workers, especially in hospitality, agriculture and construction.

Immigration, Hammond said, is an issue that's "dividing us from our traditional friends. We would cross swords on this one."

Berman said he believes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is a path to creating Democratic voters.

"There's 25 million in the United States - you can't listen to the 8 million to 12 million numbers that come out of Washington every day - you're going to create an instant 25 million Democrats," Berman said.

"I don't think these evangelical leaders understand that."

Land said what evangelical leaders are promoting is not amnesty. He said immigration reform should first secure the border and then the path to citizenship should be a decade-long process of registration, paying fines, learning English and applying for citizenship behind those who followed the legal route.

"The idea that there is the political will to extricate 12- to 14 million people and return them to their home country of origin is delusional," Land said. "You start thinking about all the ugly pictures that would emerge if it was tried, any political will that was mustered would be dissipated pretty quickly: parents being separated from their children; children returned to countries they've never seen."

But for evangelicals, Land said there also is a practical reason to support immigration reform.

Some of the greatest growth in the Southern Baptist Church is among Hispanics who have been converted.

"We don't ask them for their green card before we witness to them," Land said. "I would ultimately argue this is a Kingdom issue, an issue of the Kingdom of God."

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com