“I want to say what a lot of people won’t say. The immigration debate is not simply about border security, it is a problem of America dealing with race,” Al Sharpton told the audience of more than 1,000 community, political and business leaders, at the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference.

“No one is calling for English-only tests when it comes to fighting in Iraq,” he added.

Sharpton dismissed the notion that immigrants are taking jobs from black Americans.

“What jobs?” he demanded. “Blacks were doubly unemployed by whites before anyone came across the border.”

President George W. Bush’s plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border and strengthening enforcement collapsed in the Senate last month. The measure fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to reach final passage. Three-quarters of the Senate’s Republicans voted to derail the bill.

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott became unlikely allies Tuesday in their call to revive immigration legislation as they spoke before the largest U.S. Hispanic civil rights organization.

“Congress needs to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill now,” said Scott, who heads the world’s largest retailer.

Scott attributed his views in part to his Mexican-American granddaughter, who has helped him to understand immigration as more than “simply a cerebral exercise.”

But Hispanics also provide a major part of the chain’s business, roughly 14 percent and growing, Scott acknowledged. And their relatives are increasingly shopping at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in countries such as Argentina and Guatemala.

Sharpton, who has often railed against corporate America, went further in his support for a bill that would provide a path to legalization for many of the nation’s more than 12 million illegal immigrants. He denounced TV and radio shows that foster an “us against them” mentality.