Conservative leaders called on Pres. Barack Obama to make the first move on immigration reform and for Republicans to reclaim the issue from the fringe.

“The only way we can make this happen is with presidential leadership, and President Obama has failed to act,” said Alfonso Aguilar, former chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship, appointed by George W. Bush, Thursday during a teleconference of conservative leaders representing faith, business and political groups. “If President Obama were to step up and seriously address the issue, Republicans would step forward and work with him to develop a plan that works. It’s the president’s turn.”

Religious leaders in Arizona said the state’s new law is already having a devastating effect on their congregations. Since SB1070 was signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Friday, making it a crime to be undocumented, clergy say their parishioners have begun flocking to other states, and ministers who serve the poor are afraid that they could be prosecuted for aiding undocumented immigrants.

“We have pastors leaving Arizona. Racial profiling has already begun,” said Rev. Eve Núñez, president of the Arizona Latino Commission and vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference in Phoenix.

Núñez says she has talked to more than 120 clergy in the last week, and “across the board, they’re already losing members.” Some have lost 30 families, she said. Others have lost 50. “I just got off the phone with a pastor who said half of his church is leaving to Las Vegas," she said. "The other half is going to California.”

Clergy are also afraid that their own acts of charity could put them at risk.

“Pastors that I’ve known for 30 years that have been serving the poor, using vans to bring people to church, now could be felons for transporting undocumented immigrants,” said Núñez, adding that they could be charged a $1,000 fine for each person they transport, and if there are 10 people, it could be considered a felony.

Conservative leaders said the GOP needs to take back the issue of immigration reform, and not be drowned out by what they see as a xenophobic minority.

The new Arizona law is “anti-Latino, anti-family, anti-immigration, anti-Christian, unconstitutional and anti-conservative,” according to Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

“To Republicans, we say, ‘You are either ...