Former U.S. President Bill Clinton accused the Republican Party of using the immigration issue to divide Congress and the nation, local media reported on Sunday.

"It is a way of creating a divided community and distracting people from the real challenges facing the country, whether it is in Iraq and Afghanistan, or homeland security, or how to build a clean energy future, or how to solve the healthcare crisis, or how to create new jobs for America," Clinton told one of the nation's largest Latino civil rights groups in Los Angeles Saturday night.

Calling the immigration debate a divisive distraction, Clinton said hard-liners are "basically saying these undocumented broke the law, send them home - never mind that they are five percent of the workforce and a far bigger percentage in certain critical areas."

"It's crazy to think about sending 11 million people home" to their native countries, Clinton said in remarks published by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

"America is and always will be a nation of immigrants," he said."We have to create one America based on our diversity, not trying to deny it."

Clinton's speech was some of his most extensive since the issue of illegal immigration heated up in Washington this year. It came as competing congressional proposals for immigration reform are being debated this summer in committee hearings around the country.

Clinton voiced support for the Senate's approach to changing immigration laws although he disliked some elements of the bill.

The Senate legislation advocates opening a path for illegal immigrants to citizenship while enhancing border security.

"At least it says we ought to provide a path to citizenship for these hard-working, law-abiding people," Clinton said. "We ought to do it in a way that does not put them ahead of those who patiently waited in the legal process."

Bill Clinton said he appreciated President Bush for siding with moderates in his own party regarding immigration.

He suggested that Bush had a different understanding of the immigration issue because of his ties to Texas, where Latinos have been part of the history and culture for many generations.

Source: Xinhua