If you were to tell us a year ago that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would emerge as the strongest cheerleader for immigration reform in the Senate, we’d have called you crazy.

But look at Lindsey go in a blockbuster story on the state of immigration reform in today’s Politico:

“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO on Tuesday. “One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.”

Lindsey, how did you get the NYCLU to write your talking points for you??

The story details the Congressional prospects for immigration reform and the frustrations of the immigration advocacy and Latino community in seeing reform efforts stymied by inaction, delay, and political cowardice this year.

The piece also revealed this little nugget:

[Obama Spokesman Nick Shapiro] went on to reiterate Obama’s core principles — not prescriptions — including resolving “the status of 12 million people who are here illegally.” He punted when asked about the controversial ID system, which has the backing of some immigrant groups while sparking fierce opposition from civil libertarians.

“There are a number of options on the table, but we are clear that we need to build on and improve the existing verification system if we are going to get control of the job market for undocumented workers,” he said.

All we see when we read that is: KEEP THE PRESSURE ON. As we do, the White House knows Schumer’s mandatory biometric ID proposal will be very unpopular with citizens and non-citizens. We’ll be pushing for some of those other options on the table.