Barbour Backs Work Permits for Illegal Immigrants
Barbour Backs Work Permits for Illegal Immigrants
Quote:
Top Republican Haley Barbour didn’t know it the time, but he unwittingly gave a robust endorsement Friday morning to the Obama administration’s surprise decision to give work permits to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants working in the U.S.
wsj.com
June 15, 2012
By Neil King Jr.
Top Republican Haley Barbour didn’t know it the time, but he unwittingly gave a robust endorsement Friday morning to the Obama administration’s surprise decision to give work permits to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants working in the U.S.
Speaking at a breakfast with political reporters before the news broke, the former Mississippi governor and onetime Republican Party chairman launched into a robust argument on how to fix the nation’s immigration system, a position he portrayed as sharply different from that his party’s presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, and that of most other Republicans.
“America is in a global battle for capital and labor,” he said, praising the work ethic of the millions of Hispanics who have come to the U.S. without proper documentation, including the many who work in Mississippi’s poultry factories. “We need more people in America who want to work.”
Mr. Romney struck a strict immigration posture during the primary campaign, praising undocumented workers who “self deported” and opposing the Dream Act that proposed granting certain rights to the children of some illegal immigrants.
Mr. Barbour, at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, said it was necessary to create a path to security for “people who have been here for some time” by issuing them work permits and creating a guest worker program. “To say that someone can stay on a work permit is not citizenship,” he said.
source: Barbour Backs Work Permits for Illegal Immigrants - Washington Wire - WSJ
