Posted on 11/26/2011 1:01:37 PM PST by presidio9
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich defended his immigration stance Friday, claiming that he was "not for amnesty."
“I am not for amnesty for anyone. I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally,” Gingrich said at a town hall event in Naples, Florida according to media reports.
“But I am for a path to legality for those people whose ties run so deeply in America that it would truly be a tragedy to try and rip their family apart," said the former House Speaker.
Gingrich has been under fire from some anti-illegal immigration groups since last Tuesday's GOP debate where he spoke out against deporting many illegal immigrant families.
During Friday’s town hall, Gingrich said that if elected he would make securing the border a priority and would support efforts to make English the country's official language.
He said he would also establish a guest-worker program to allow migrants to work in the U.S. But under such a program, businesses which hired undocumented workers would be hit with fines.
"I would have very, very stiff economic penalties for anyone who hires somebody who is not legally inside the system," Gingrich vowed.
At last Tuesday’s GOP debate, Gingrich said that he supported efforts to allow tax-paying illegal immigrants without criminal records to remain in the country or gain citizenship.
“If you've come here recently, you have no ties to this country, you ought to go home, period,” Gingrich had said. “If you've been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you've been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don't think we're going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.”
"I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families which have been here a quarter-century," he added. "I'm prepared to take the heat for saying let's be humane in enforcing the law."
Gingrich has faced criticism for his comments from other Republicans. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (Minn.) said in an interview that Gingrich had the “most liberal position on illegal immigration of any of the candidates in the race.”
Influential Iowa congressman Rep. Steve King (R) described Gingrich’s proposals as a “form of amnesty”
“I wouldn’t agree with him on that policy,” King added, suggesting that Gingrich had hurt his chances of winning his endorsement prior to the Iowa caucuses.
The furor over Gingrich’s immigration stance comes as new national polls place him ahead of Romney in the GOP field.
Perry has strengthened gun owners rights over and over.
The reason those illegals are able to sue is because this becomes a Federal matter, since it was a federal agent that shot them. Hopefully the Agent wins in court.
Had those illegals been in my home, Texas law would be on my side. and I would be within the law.
You are mixing apples and oranges.
I hate to break it to you but the Fourteenth Amendment is a lot more than an excuse for not doing the right thing.
Anyone facing deportation is going to want a hearing, and going to get one.
And he will not be faced with any “class-action” civil charges against him et 12-20M alia.
And there is no law anywhere that says he MUST be deported, even if found guilty.
They must profit in some way or another, or have an illegal alien in the family.
Did you hear about this one already?
http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/11/post_108.html
“Alabama House Majority Leader Micky Hammon credits new immigration law with lowering state unemployment”
Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011, 9:00 AM
Now you've done it! I HATE that plan.
Thank You MC!
So if you get a ticket for going 3mph over the speed limit we should take your license away?
Of course not, the law has degrees of violation.
Not everyone who is here illegally is an axe murderer.
Many entered legally and overstayed Visas.
You want to treat all situations the same with harsh measures.
Some of those measures are ridiculous. They place a Tax burden on US citizens and take away US citizens land.
I have to run now, but I was thinking that we should play a game on these threads. We could come up with a saying similar to the “Godwin’s Law.”
We can invoke it when the first post appears about “cattle cars,” (or calling anyone Stalin or Hitler). That poster loses.
It’s just like you said yesterday....
Perry is also for “path to citizenship” amnesty. Regardless of what you call it, allowing them to stay after breaking the law is amnesty. Rewarding bad behavior only encourages others to follow the same “path”.
You think there'll be a law that says a 25yr old man without criminal conviction can stay but the illegal welfare mom he lives with must be deported?
No. Absolutely not.
Everyone who has not been convicted of a felony AND got picked up again will get to stay, no matter what hoops they do or do not jump through.
As for his contention that he would seal the border, that's put hogwash. Everyone know that without a impenetrable fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico the border is not "secure".
Oh, and the fact that the illegals cannot ever vote or gain citizenship? Do you think they care, or those now planning their own nefarious invasion of the US homeland? Do you not think their children will vote?
“So if you get a ticket for going 3mph over the speed limit we should take your license away?”
If I am an illegal alien you should take my fake license away and then deport my parasitic carcass back to whatever third world hell-hole spawned me!
I haven’t heard Gingrich make any distinction between amnesty and legality, but a good working model might be: amnesty is waiving punishment, whether before or after due process of law (trial), and legality can mean one’s status AFTER having faced the music, paid a penalty and then normalized one’s status by registering in a temporary worker program, if eligible.
Just a thought, since everyone seems intent on conflating the two terms.
Here is another. Pay special attention to post #11.
The article highlights how the Alabama law has sent ILLEGALs packing which has resulted in a lowered unemployment rate for Alabama citizens. And naturally, the pro-ILLEGAL alien supporter deemed that bad thing.
If an individual is siding with ILLEGAL aliens over American citizens they are certainly not conservative.
In Gingrich's plan.
2. Build the COMPLETE border fence, not just in "Urban areas" as Newt proposed which actually comprise 1/10 of 1 percent of the border.
You are obsessed with the border fence. I get it. I have to break it to you: Gingrich's plan does not actually rule one out. His plan focuses, however, on more realistic and immediate solutions. Among my favorites:
This bill will waive every obstacle to controlling the border and would shift resources to achieve virtually 100% control by January 1, 2014. If necessary, we would move one-half of the 23,000 Washington-area Department of Homeland Security bureaucrats to the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona borders.
3. Implement E-Verify for all employment and all acquisition of Social Services.
In Gingrich's plan. Next?
I am speaking to the notion of misdemeanors being the same as felony’s.
They are not the same thing.
Besides, foreigners who broke the law to get here or get shot in the process should have zero legal standing to sue in American courts.
Thanks for the helpful definition of amnesty.
For “legality,” we might think of a person having paid his debt to society. Someone sentenced to a year in prison, for example, spends his year in prison, walks out free. Legal.
Whereas if he had received amnesty, he might not have gone to prison at all, and the offense would not be on his record.
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