In EU and US, virulent immigration debate strains solidarity

In the 28-nation EU, some countries have sought to block the unprecedented flow of migrants fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East and Africa, while Germany — the EU's powerhouse — is bracing to handle 800,000 migrants this year and wants other nations to step up as well.

Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, is calling for mass deportation of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission, and some of his rivals have joined in proposing to stop granting citizenship to children born to such immigrants and to wall off the U.S.-Mexico border.

In Germany, by contrast, the major parties have taken a unified stance in support of welcoming refugees, and the far-right National Democratic Party won only 1.5 percent of the vote in the latest parliamentary elections.

[...] Arizona, Alabama and a few other states enacted laws in 2010 and 2011 empowering local police officers to question people's immigration status and demand that they show documentation.

Federal authorities and immigrant-rights groups took court action that blocked many of the provisions, but the disputes highlighted the deep divisions over immigration enforcement.

While Trump leads the polls as he advocates mass deportation, one of his main rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, supports changes that would provide a rigorous pathway to legal status for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Overall, there have been far more deportations under Obama than under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, with an increased emphasis in recent years on deporting people with criminal records and those who've just crossed the border.

According to federal figures, there were 368,644 deportations in the 2013 fiscal year and 315,943 in 2014.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for tighter immigration controls, says both the EU and the United States face crucial choices.

Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, hopes the U.S. draws a different message from the EU's crisis and heeds Merkel's advice to honor long-standing values.