This apparently caused a bit of a kerfuffle
(Washington Times) Fighting to curry favor with Florida’s large pool of Hispanic voters, Newt Gingrich on Wednesday called for a guest-worker program for most illegal immigrants, but his campaign could not say whether those people would be on a path to citizenship – the key question in the immigration debate.
Under close questioning by Univision’s political host, Jorge Ramos, Mr. Gingrich said he would grant quick citizenship rights to illegal immigrants who join the military or to those who have been in the U.S. between 20 and 25 years. He said the rest of the estimated 11 million should be given access to a guest-worker program.
“With most of them? I would urge them to get a guest-worker permit,†he said, calling for a substantial rewrite of immigration laws that would cancel existing penalties and instead let illegal immigrants stay.
But his campaign said it was unclear whether at the end of that guest-worker period the immigrants would be allowed to stay and gain citizenship, essentially jumping the legal immigration line, or whether they would be required to return home.
On one hand, Gingrich is correct in that he previously said that it is unrealistic to deport every illegal, nor stop them fully from coming, and, yes, we could show some compassion to those who came to this country and attempted to be a part of America and do things like joining the military. It’s not like people didn’t just come to America in the past, without any sort of immigration programs and such. If someone is putting their life on the line to join the military to protect America, perhaps some accommodations could be made.
On the other hand, why pander to Hispanics who can’t vote because they are here illegally? Why pander to Hispanics who are here legally, but still can’t vote because they aren’t citizens? And a good chunk of Hispanics who are legal citizens tend to get a little ticked off when politicians want to give illegals who did it wrong a pathway to citizenship when they themselves followed the onerous and burdensome rules.
Do we want guest workers? Yes, we do. But it is a bad idea to suddenly give people who came to this country illegally guest worker visas after doing the illegal thing with no penalties. Let them leave the country and apply for a worker program that should be expanded. What Gingrich is doing is telling people who are thinking of coming to America illegally to just come on in, no problem, we’ll take care of you. He might want to rethink this line of thought.
Newt is not a conservative. He is a socialist as bad as Obama. He might talk a good game, but his actions are definitely not what those who want limited government desire.
In addition, I find a large number who say if Newt gets the nomination, they will stay home on election day.
He is more conservative than Paul.
Ah yes…. stay home and give Obama the election and then spend the next four years complaining about while denying that you (and those you speak of) did nothing to prevent it.
“Gingrich is correct in that he previously said that it is unrealistic to deport every illegal,”
Why do we conceed this point?
http://www.trafficticketsecrets.com/speeding-ticket-facts.html
If 1 in 6 drivers gets a speeding ticket and they issue 41 million a year I’m sure we aren’t catching them all, should we stop enforcing traffic laws?
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl29.xls
in 2010 there was 13,000,000 arrest for the tens of millions of crimes known about and the 100s of millions of crimes commited. If we can arrest 13 million criminals in a year why can’t we arrest and deport 11 million illegals?
If different levels of government were paid for every illegal they deported like they get paid for every traffic offence or criminal the problem would be solved in a couple years. Its not that we can’t arrest and deport them all its we choose not to.
When you start a solution allowing for X amount of failure the solution is usually doomed for failure. When we gor hard on crime, three strikes, crime fell. If we got hard on illegal immigration it would mostly fail.
Couple in an elimination of most welfare and assistance so people are forced to take low paying/low skilled jobs instead of collecting handouts and it would make it even more unattractive for illegals.
Probably when we look at the reality of the situation.
To deport everyone now would be 125 billion dollars – money that can be spent or ever (gasp!) saved better purposes.
You then have to get into the sheer logistics of it. Almost 16,000 Boeing 767 flights would be needed to take all the people to whatever destination. When you think of the logistics of that alone, you are talking a massive undertaking.
To say nothing of the home country even accepting the transports. What happens if Venezuela, for example, says “they are criminals….we don’t want them back.”
Do you push the people out of the airplane with a parachute hoping they will land safely?
Newt is right. The chances of ever getting all the illegal immigrants deported is slim and none. The best hope is to limit the jobs for them to have a “self deportation” with the people returning to their home countries.
It has to be a dual approach of deportation and the idea of “self deportation.” Neither approach will result in no illegal immigrants in the country, so both paths must be taken.