Rudy, Romney, and Fred on Immigration
by Ryan Sager
Thu, 17 May 2007 at 7:10 PM
updated Thu, 17 May 2007 at 7:12 PM
We know where John McCain stands on the immigration compromise. It's his initiative.
So, where are Rudy and Romney coming down? And does Fred have anything to say?
Well...
From the Giuliani campaign: "Rudy's top priority and main objective is to ensure our borders are secure and to stop potential terrorists and criminals from coming in. The recent Fort Dix plot is a stark reminder that the threat of terrorism has made immigration an important matter of national security. We need to know who is coming in and who is going out of this country if we are going to deal with those who are here illegally."
From the Romney campaign: "I strongly oppose today's bill going through the Senate. It is the wrong approach. Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new 'Z-Visa' does, is a form of amnesty. That is unfair to the millions of people who have applied to legally immigrate to the U.S. "Today's Senate agreement falls short of the actions needed to both solve our country's illegal immigration problem and also strengthen our legal immigration system. Border security and a reliable employment verification system must be our first priority."
And, from Fred Thompson's folks: "With this bill, the American people are going to think they are being sold the same bill of goods as before on border security. We should scrap this bill and the whole debate until we can convince the American people that we have secured the borders or at least have made great headway."
So, that's two opposes and one hot fudge sundae, courtesy of camp Giuliani...
It's predictable that Messrs. Romney and Thompson would try to get to Mr. McCain's right on this issue (and isn't the fact that Mr. Thompson even issued a statement a de facto declaration of his candidacy?). Mr. Giuliani could even get to Mr. McCain's right on this if he wanted to, by putting border security front-and-center — but his statement, in that odd way his campaign has, manages not to address the actual bill being discussed and instead gives general platitudes.
I maintain that posturing on immigration won't move any votes. But that's where everyone is lining up.
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