McCain for Amnesty in both words and deeds:
Posted on 01/06/2008 10:49:59 AM PST by Wallaby
Secretary Ridge, I'd just like to mention one aspect of your responsibilities this morning. And, as you know, it's not often that I discuss issues that relate to my home state. But I did have the privilege of accompanying Deputy Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson and other outstanding public servants to the Arizona-Mexico border a few weeks ago with other members of the delegation, including Senator Kyl and House members. And I invite you to come when things calm down a bit, because I think it's important for you to be able to see long, long distances of border which are unsecured between our two countries.... And I know you'll agree with me that one of our first responsibilities is to secure our borders.
And may I just add an additional comment? If it were just securing our borders, then I think your task would be easy. But like the case with drugs, we are creating a demand. There are jobs that Americans won't do, so Mexican citizens will try to come across -- and Central Americans and others -- will try to come across our borders so they can be able to feed themselves and their families, which argues for amnesty programs, guest worker programs, et cetera. And I think that that has to be a priority of the Congress and the administration, because I don't believe, as we have proven in the war on drugs, that we are ever going to keep people from crossing our borders, as long as there is an incentive for them to come across. But I don't have to tell you, Mr. Secretary, the potential this has for the ability of people with evil intentions to come into the United States of America and do bad things.
(Excerpt) Read more at fnsg.com ...
Nice find.
McCain for Amnesty in both words and deeds:
We need to start the ‘Stop McCain Express!’
Just finished watching mccain on the Timmah! show. russert was vary congenial, displaying the sort of attitude that he reserves for Dhimmicrats.
mccain was quite the chatty cathy, especially on the issue of illegal immigration and border security. Although he pays lip service to “the border” he utterly failed to impress me that he would actually do anything to address the problems on the border, which translates into business as usual for II.
His statements on the illegals are fuzzy, contradictory, and go against the expressed will of the American public. It is as though he knows that what he is saying is unacceptable, but if he parses his words enough perhaps no one will notice.
We notice John....you may be a nice old man, but you aren’t “The Man” for America...
Cliche thread in that statement is simply amazing. “But like the case with drugs, we are creating a demand.” But like the case with money in banks, we are creating a demand.
A few years ago they were trying to pass some idiotic legislation called “fairness for Latinos act” or something like that. McCain was pouring his heart out in favor of this bill and then the deception artist voted against it with the rest of the Republicans.
I dislike McCain, however I suspect many of these new attacks on McCain (of which unless they attack him personally, like the “McCain Anger Story”) I agree with, but I suspect the Romney campaign is sending out surrogates to try to bring down McCain’s numbers (not that I can see it’s really going to work in NH).
If Romney cannot prove McCain a liar about amnesty, then Romney deserves to lose. The evidence is everywhere — even in the McCain-KENNEDY Immigration Bill.
In 2003, Sen. McCain Also Said, "I Think We Can Set Up A Program Where Amnesty Is Extended To A Certain Number Of People Who Are Eligible..." "'I believe we can pursue the security programs and at the same time set up a system where people can come here and work on a temporary basis. I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country,' he said." (C. T. Revere, "McCain Pushes Amnesty, Guest-Worker Program," Tucson Citizen, 5/29/03)
McCain is crazy as hell.
He is a RINO. He supported amnesty and still does. He has taken stands that no true conservative would. I will not vote for McCain.
There are five or six issues that have done McQueeg in for me. I put him just above Ron Paul. Maybe even with Huckabee.
As I have stated before Fred Thompson is the real conservative in the race. That is where my support is.
I found some references in the blogosphere to a Tucson Citizen story in which McCain spoke, in May 2003, of the need for amnesty as part of a "solution" to the immigration problem. That led me to searching for similar statements, around that same time, and I found an AP story that talked about this Congressional hearing and the statement that McCain made to Ridge. I then found the transcript and posted the relevant excerpt here.
Strange. I just found the same transcript through FDCH Political Transcripts on Lexis-Nexis. They ascribe the quotation to U.S. SENATOR PETER FITZGERALD (R-IL), whom they identify as the Chairman of U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION: SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND PRODUCT SAFETY. That makes no sense, since the individual making the claim refers to Arizona as his home state, and McCain, not Fitzgerald was the chairman of the Committee.
Looks like Tim Russert found it as well, bless his Democrat heart.
MR. RUSSERT: This is what John McCain said to the Tucson Citizen, home state paper, back in 2003. “I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible.”
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: “And at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of” the “country. Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here,” paid “taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it.”
SEN. McCAIN: Look, I have said time after time that no one can be reward for—rewarded for illegal behavior. The context of that conversation, don’t you call that “amnesty.” Look, I have said and, and hundreds of hours of debate on the Senate floor, we reward no one for illegal behavior. They have to pay fines. They have to take the naturalization. They have to—we have to put them into certain categories. I have said, as Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, has said that we have a lot, about two million people here in this country who have come illegally, have committed crimes here in America, and they have to be deported immediately. Then...
MR. RUSSERT: How would you do that?
SEN. McCAIN: You, you round them up and you find them. And you also...
MR. RUSSERT: Two million people, though?
SEN. McCAIN: It—look, with...
MR. RUSSERT: Logistically, how do you do that?
SEN. McCAIN: We cannot—it’s very hard, but what’s the choice? Having people who are breaking our laws in our country illegally? But the other aspect of it is that people come forward, and we—and those that don’t come forward, then obviously it’s easier to identify them, and then we address their, their situation according to how long they’ve been here, what their record is, but they cannot be rewarded for illegal behavior. In other words, they can’t be put in front of anybody else.
But the fundamental point here is we have to secure the borders first. That’s what we know, that the American people, because of their lack of trust and confidence which you and I just talked about, they want the borders secured. As president, I will secure the borders. I will have the border states’ governors certify that those borders are secure. Then we will have a temporary worker program that has to do with tamper-proof biometric documents, electronic verification systems and others. But I will not and cannot support something that rewards illegal behavior. So there is no amnesty involved in it.
MR. RUSSERT: Fourteen million illegal immigrants here, let’s say two million have committed crimes.
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah. Yeah, sure.
MR. RUSSERT: You’ll take steps to make move them out. The remaining 12 million...
SEN. McCAIN: Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: ...they have children born here, they pay Social Security taxes.
SEN. McCAIN: Sure they do. Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: They will stay?
SEN. McCAIN: I have said in debate after debate, it’s not that they will stay, it depends on their category. If someone is 80 years old and been here 70 years and they have a son or grandson fighting in Iraq, I’m not interested in calling him up and telling him I’m deporting his grandmother, OK? As I’ve said time after time, we have to address this in a humane and compassionate fashion. But our first priority is our nation’s security. That’s why we have to secure our borders first, so that there’s not another inflow of people illegally after we address this group of people who are here illegally.
MR. RUSSERT: That’s a given, secure the borders.
SEN. McCAIN: Sure, sure.
MR. RUSSERT: That’s a given.
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: But those 12 million who did not...
SEN. McCAIN: Some may have to, some may have to be deported immediately. Some may...
MR. RUSSERT: If they have children here that are American citizens?
SEN. McCAIN: Some—not—look, each one has to be treated in a humane and compassionate fashion, and I can’t tell you each individual case. But there’s some that may have to go back to the country that they came from for a while and be checked out before they come back here. That’s all got to do with a resolution of this huge issue once we have secured the borders.
MR. RUSSERT: Mike Huckabee said, “If we deported 12 million illegal immigrants...”
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah. Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: ...”it would destroy our economy.”
SEN. McCAIN: I think it would have significant economic impacts. I think it’s obvious that our economy, to a large degree, has grown dependent upon illegal workers. And that’s why I’m for a temporary worker program that’s truly temporary that has a tamper-proof biometric document so we can fill those jobs that, that Americans won’t fill.
MR. RUSSERT: And if an employer in the future...
SEN. McCAIN: But first we got to secure the borders.
MR. RUSSERT: In the future, if an employer hired an illegal immigrant, you would hold that employer accountable?
SEN. McCAIN: Absolutely. Because they would have a way to hire someone who, under a tamper-proof biometric document, coupled with an electronic employment verification system, and then the employer would not have any excuse for not using that system rather than today, where someone shows up with a beautifully counterfeited Social Security card or birth certificate. So—but look, we can do this sitting down, Republican and Democrat together, recognizing we have a national security issue here. We’ve got to secure the borders and then address the other aspects of the issue. And there’s no reason why we can’t do that. Because the status quo of 11 or 12 million people here illegally, two million of them having committed crimes, not a valid temporary worker program, is an unacceptable situation.
MR. RUSSERT: That was a Mitt Romney ad I was referring to.
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah.
McCain last night and today (paraphrase): I have not defended amnesty.
Romney (paraphrase): I never said you defended amnesty.
Looks like both of them were wrong.
Romney should explain that the hoops that have to be jumped through to obtain citizenship are unnecessary to get the Z visa, and it is the Z visa that makes legal any illegal resident.
Gee, you dont suppose someone got in there and changed the names around do you?
Romney mentioned Z-visas. McCain still argued it wasn’t amnesty.
Yeah, he mentioned Z visas, but he also mistakenly said that his ads had not said McCain defended amnesty. They did. So, he shouldn’t back away from the charge but should explain why he made it. He can also point to this 2003 Congressional hearing to show that McCain used the term to describe his own policy before he learned the word was toxic.
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