Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, July 05, 2008 12:45:24 AM
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials on Saturday that comprehensive immigration reform is his "top priority -- yesterday, today and tomorrow."
Addressing the same conference, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate, accused McCain of wavering on the issue and vowed that it would also be one of his own top priorities.
Working for "comprehensive immigration reform" was in fact at the top of McCain's legislative agenda in the last Congress, before he started his presidential campaign.
In 2006, McCain worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to ensure passage in the Senate of a "comprehensive" immigration reform bill that would have given illegal aliens a path to citizenship while allowing 200,000 new "guest workers' to enter the country each year.
In 2005, the House of Representatives passed a rival immigration reform bill that did not include a guest worker program or a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. The House bill focused solely on border security and enforcement of immigration laws.
Proposals including path-to-citizenship provisions for illegal aliens generally have been referred to as "comprehensive" immigration reform plans by their proponents and "amnesty" by their opponents.
Immigration reform efforts died in Congress in 2006, when the House and Senate could not reach agreement on their broadly different approaches. McCain and Kennedy made an effort to revive "comprehensive" immigration reform in 2007, but the effort finally stalled when repeated cloture votes failed in the Senate.
Referring to those efforts on Saturday, McCain told the audience of Latino leaders that in the past he had reached across the aisle in the hope of crafting a "bipartisan" immigration reform that would create a guest worker program, secure the border and "deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who did."
He could not win approval in Congress for this plan, McCain said, because "[m]any Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders."
McCain vowed to keep trying if he is elected president.
"We must prove to them that we can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States," McCain said in his prepared remarks, which were posted on his campaign Web site.
"But we must not make the mistake of thinking that our responsibility to meet this challenge will end with that accomplishment. We have economic and humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in meeting them."
McCain was asked about his commitment to immigration reform in the question-and-answer session following the speech.
"As the next president of the United States of America, will comprehensive immigration reform--and not just enforcement--be one of your top policy priorities in your first 100 days in office?" a questioner asked.
"It'll be my top priority, yesterday, today, and tomorrow," McCain responded."We have to secure our borders. That's the message," McCain said, according to a transcript made by the Congressional Quarterly.
"But we also must proceed with a temporary worker program that is verifiable and truly temporary. We must also understand that there are 12 million people who are here, and they are here illegally, and they are God's children. They are God's children, and they will be treated in a humane fashion, based on certain--based on the principle, obviously, that someone who has come here legally or who has come here legally cannot have be--have [sic] prioritize over someone who came here illegally."
Find me one person anywhere, other than an atheist of course, who is disputing the fact that illegal aliens are God's children? What kind of moronic deflection of the issue is that? Typical John McCain rhetoric in support of amnesty. Attempt to guilt us all into it. John McCain's backwards policies on illegal aliens and border security are why he will lose the election. The man cannot help but poke his conservative base in the eye every chance he gets. This old fool actually believes moderate Democrats are going to vote for him over their party's nominee. The notion so beyond the realm of possibility it is not even a stupid bet.
John McCain has spent his entire career as a Senator pandering and appeasing Democrats in the belief that they will support him when push comes to shove. Amnesty is not a path to the White House for the Republican base! It didn't work in 2006-2007 and it won't work this November. The disaffected conservatives won't vote for Obama or a third party, they will simply stay home out of disgust and spite. It's hard to blame them!
The National Security Horror, as I called it, which McCain concocted with Ted Kennedy was an embarrassing failure for those in favor of "comprehensive immigration reform". The message was loud and clear to any politician in the country who is not completely tone deaf on the issues important to the American People. The only "reform" needed to solve the illegal alien problem is to enforce the laws we have! Secure the border first, and do so completely. Deport illegal aliens who have cut in line in front of millions upon millions of people around the world attempting to legally and rightfully become citizens of this great country.
Why is it only Mexican and South American aliens are "God's children" to John McCain? What about the rest of the world? John McCain is a pandering weasel and he doesn't care about ethical immigration practices or the immorality involved in allowing criminals to move ahead of millions of people around the world seeking to legally make a better life for themselves. It is here where amnesty for illegals and "comprehensive immigration reform" completely falls apart when applied to God's children being created equal. John McCain believes Mexicans and South Americans are born more equal than anyone else on the planet including American Citizens. That alone will keep him from being elected President, and it will give us Barack Obama for at least four years making the situation even worse than it is today.