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.
I don’t care what level of law the illegal scum break, they need to be deported when caught.
Yes, nearly half of them do. It's an easy way of violating our immigration laws. And they are just as guilty and should be removed just as quickly as those who slither over the border in the dead of night.
they should pay a fine, and THEN be kicked the heck out!
You have dealt with Gov Bureaucracy.
Is it possible that any of these peoples Visa weren’t renewed because they were tied up in bureaucratic hell?
I other words, a fellow enters the country LEGALLY and applies for an extension but it gets tied up in bureaucracy, and he finds himself here ILLEGALY because Patty and Selma at Gov office can’t get paperwork done in a timely fashion.
So now this fellow is in the same category as the Zeta Cartel in your eyes?
"Legality" is only offered to people who can support themselves, speak English, have no criminal records and pay for health care (in other words, "productive members of society") after they have paid a $5,000 penalty for coming here.
That would have required them to have actually paid a debt in the first place. Squatting here for 25 years isn’t “paying a debt to society”. Newt and Perry are offering “path-to-citizenship” blanket amnesty for those who broke the law. Self-deportation and applying for citizenship with no criminal record is a way to become “legal” again, and anything less is amnesty.
Why stop there? If we get a candidate who wants to deport 12M people en masse, will the touchy-feely fed govt let him do it? No.
OTOH, if our candidate wants to add another layer of bureaucracy, hire a legion of, oh, ex-postal workers or union goons or disgruntled teachers...to administer a program for sorting, tagging, documenting, handholding, iris-reading and organ-donor carding twelve to twenty million people, not to mention charging the chargeable ones $5K that they can work off over time...yeah, I think the fed govt would go for some of that action. :)
Shadup. I support Cain. Illegal immigration should remain illegal.
As that all Cain stands for? I don't think even Obama is publicly disagreeing with that.
Do you know how many of the 911 hijackers violated immigration law by overstaying their visas?
Criminal record...Is illegal residency a criminal rather than a civil offense? I have heard it is a matter of civil law, but I am no expert. Perhaps you know?
I know it was the majority of them.
So it is a problem. And the remedy should make you happy as it targets OTMs.
IMO it is the FED that is the problem.
They aren’t tracking these folks.
That brings us to a dilemma.
Do we want MORE GOV?
Remember, Everify and some of these other proposals track US TOO.
Rick Perry is the guy that wants less Federal oversight and more State control on a variety of issues.
Believe me, the borders would be safer and communities would be safer if the Feds left us the heck alone.
In my opinion, that too should be a disqualifier. If laws matter, then you do not reward one who broke the law with amnesty or pretending they didn’t. If you’re here illegally, you didn’t respect the law in the first place and surrendered any “rights” when you left your country of origin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.