“Long before Walker had his came to Jesus I’m running for President and don’t believe in amnesty anymore moment, Ted Cruz position was clear.”
Living in Minnesota [next to Wisconsin], I can tell you that the open border is not one of the priorities of most of the citizens here as we are not that close to it. Only those of us who are: either politically active and knowledgeable or ; those of us who have relatives living along the border - are aware of the disasters going on down there.
Gov. Scott Walker had enough on his plate to deal with all the union thugs from Chicago and other leftist places coming into his state. They trashed the Wisconsin capitol building behaving not unlike the occupy Wall street idiots.
So, if he now says that after visiting the border areas and speaking with the Republican governors down there, I can believe that he could change his beliefs on the subject.
I have a sister in Green Valley, AZ. Nearly every night illegals are running through the yards of the GV citizens. And she says there have been frequent discoveries of dead people in the dessert areas - people who died from dehydration and heat prostration.
So, I think Walker should be given the benefit of the doubt regarding his change of heart on the handling of this issue.
For the sake of our younger citizens and the strength and survival of our beloved country, the border must be secured first! Then, if a path to citizenship is drawn up, let it demand certain things: speaking English; being employed; getting educated, paying taxes, not felons, etc.. Unfortunately, because of the numbers of illegals, it will not be possible to deport/expel all of them - and some of them will surely qualify to begin the citizenship process. Any laws that allow this must be well defined and enforced so that we can gain good citizens who are contributing to building up the country and not diminishing it by turning it into a third world cesspool.
Walker had an opinion on amnesty as far back as his county executive days in 2002 when he signed a resolution in support of amnesty and comprehensive immigration reform
And he certainly sounded well informed on the issue when he wrote a letter back in 2010 in support of Arizona’s immigration bill.
Then in 2012 he said that he no longer supported an Arizona type bill and that would be a huge distraction to his agenda in WI.
He spoke about illegal immigration again in an interview in 2013. So he has been well aware of the issue. He has played this hokey pokey game with other issues as well like common core, right to work, ethanol, abortion and gay marriage.
In 2013 the dairy industry in WI stated that they would push hard for immigration reform and that pushing for legislation was a top priority. The industry relies heavily on immigrant workers.
At that time around 40% of farm workers were immigrants. 90% were immigrants from Mexico and about 50% of them were here illegally. Now WI is the second highest producer of milk in the country. Yes, illegal immigration and immigration issues have been an issue here. Maybe not the same type of problems on the border but it has been in the news. There has been a lot of political pressure for reform to benefit the dairy industry and other industries that want to employ immigrants year round.
To think that Walker just had a “come to Jesus” moment about immigration issues is disingenuous. What he is doing is adjusting his statements to appeal to different groups because he is running for president. The problem is that he has done it so much that he has damaged his credibility with conservative voters.