Emmer walks back comment on ‘wonderful’ Arizona immigration bill
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 11:31 am
- 6 Comments
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio’s Kerri Miller on Thursday, GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer seemed to ease off his support for Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB1070. In April, he praised the law as “a wonderful first step.” As Blue Stem Prairie reports, the candidate seems to moderating his stance on immigration.
“The only answer I gave was it’s a good start,” said Emmer. “A lot of people take that to be the final word.”
Miller asked Emmer, “So we need a law like Arizona’s [in Minnesota]?”
“I didn’t say that. We need to look at immigration — how we get people legally, as legal citizens in the state of Minnesota, and assimilate them into Minnesota, so that they can be productive citizens of this state and they can enjoy the freedoms that we are all supposed to have.”
Emmer also talked about an E-Verify system to ensure those employed by the state of Minnesota are U.S. citizens and said Minnesota needs to outlaw “sanctuary cities.” But he also mentioned a “pathway to citizenship,” an idea that breaks with conservative anti-immigration groups, including Minnesotans in Support of Immigration Reform (Minn-SIR), a group that gave Emmer an “A” rating for opposing “paths to citizenship.”
I absolutely have proposed that we use E-verify for every one of our employers so that the have the instant information when it comes to citizenship status, but I think it’s really important, Kerri, that we make it clear that when the federal government is not going to adjust the laws, is not going to make for clear paths to citizenship for people who want to enter this country, when we want to continue to attract new citizens to this country and our state in particular, that we take it upon ourselves in Minnesota to figure out what we can do as a state to ensure that people do have a pathway to citizenship so that they can be here legally.
And again, I cannot emphasize enough, thank God they still want to come to the United States because it still means we have the freedom that people in the world aspire to.
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Comment posted June 11, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
I know the proponents of this law say that the majority approves of this law, but the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.
Comment posted June 13, 2010 @ 11:40 pm
“wonderful first step”?
Has he actually read the law?
Does he understand the legal principles it undermines or contradicts?
Comment posted June 16, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
“All Men are created equal”! The founders had it right, when attempting to form a perfect union and they also knew that they were not there yet but knew we one day would get there. Lincoln moved us forward as did JFK and LBJ. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
It is my contention that this AZ law is not constitutional and will fail when challenged (unless, of course, they keep adding more amendments), pretty funny for this so called perfect law, that many internet blogs claim it was copied “Word for Word” from the Federal law, which I frankly do not believe, if it was then no amendments would have been made, right?, of course.
As for the undocumented workers, as was attributed to Ronald Reagan “It’s the Economy, Stupid”. When the economy is good we say let’s all celebrate “Cinco de Mayo, my brothers” but when the economy is down “it’s all your fault, you damn immigrant”. This too will pass. The real problem is the narcos, arms and people smugglers and that’s what the focus should be on.
Don’t you find it funny that no one ever voted for Brewer for Governor, it’s all about politics and getting elected, do not be fooled. Busy Brewer has passed S.B. 1070, no permit conceal weapons law, the famous Birthers law, banning Ethic studies law, (could she be behind the Mural in Prescott, Arizona) and if history is a lesson she should look up Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago (which failed when legally challenged) and the craziest one the boycotted Martin Luther King Day, not wanting another holiday, how crazy is that. I believe there is an undercurrent to their enactment of new laws, they real love following a distinct pattern. Poor Brewer, last week, she first she said her Dad had died in Germany fighting the Nazi in World War II (war ended 1945) and we find out her father was never in Germany and died in California in 1955 (watch the spin doctors go into overdrive) and then she went to Washington and came back empty as always, poor dear.
Comment posted June 28, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
It is odd that there has been this big spike in right wing idiocy coming out of Arizona though. Texas has a higher background level of crazy and right now Arizona is like a supernova taking the attention. I wonder how long it will last.
Actually it isn’t that strange. Arizona has been moving gradually towards the middle over the last twenty years. The population has doubled in that time and a big part of that spike wasn’t old retirees who tended to be conservative, but a lot of younger families moving from blue states, etc. In 2008 McCain only received 53.4% of the vote here in Arizona, his sixth lowest vote total among the states he won. Now think about that, his home state was one of his least supportive states. Had McCain been from Texas, Florida, etc., he likely would have lost Arizona.
This state has a long history of very conservative, often racist politics and the supporters of those policies aren’t happy that they are consistently losing ground to moderates and liberals (simply termed as liberals in their tirades). Because of how the state legislature is set up conservatives still have a major majority in both houses but, when Napolitano was governor, she vetoed a lot of their stupidity. In fact she set the record for vetoes in the history of the state. You take her away, bring in Brewer who is a wing-nut’s wing-nut, and you see incredibly stupid legislation that was shut down by a reasonable governor make it out of the state house. At the same time you see an increase in non-conservative population as well as an increase in non-white population and the far white err, right is freaking out.
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